Description:

Rush Benjamin 1745 - 1813 Declaration Signer and Founding father Benjamin Rush signed letter regarding mercury treatments

Bi-fold letter scripted on the first page, with the balance of pages blank and the final page containing the address, 8" x 10.25". Signed by Benjamin Rush as "Benj Rush". Approximately 1" of the right edge was professionally repaired by an expert paper conservator, which affected a few letters of text. Light overall toning and slightly grubby. Remnants of seal still present.

A fantastic letter written in the early 1800's to a fellow physician, Dr. Richard Cochran. As a Founding Father of the United States, Rush was a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator. Rush attended the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. This ALS penned entirely in the hand of Rush has him wearing his hat as Benjamin Rush, the Physician, who only a decade earlier had helped battle the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. As a leading physician, Rush had a major impact on the emerging medical profession. As an Enlightenment intellectual, he was committed to organizing all medical knowledge around explanatory theories, rather than rely on empirical methods. Rush argued that illness was the result of imbalances in the body's physical system and was caused by malfunctions in the brain. His approach prepared the way for later medical research, but Rush himself undertook none of it. He promoted public health by advocating clean environment and stressing the importance of personal and military hygiene. His study of mental disorder made him one of the founders of American psychiatry.

His letter is shown in part below:

"Dear Sir Philadelphia Aug 9th 181...

You have judged so correctly of the cause and nature of your patients disease, have priscribed [sic] with so much skill for all its changes, that you have left .. .. to suggest in his case, excepting of the warm bath, and a repetition of mercury. You know it will often act at one time, and not at another. A ... promises more in his case than any other remedy.

Health, respect and friendship!

From D Sir yours

Truly

Benj Rush"

His philosophical methods of handling medicine were not universally agreed upon by other practicing physicians. As an example, Rush's extreme treatment methods to cure Yellow Fever centered on purging the body via bloodletting and vomiting, eventually earned criticism from some of his peers, who doubted the methods' effectiveness. Much scholarly debate has focused on how culpable modern historians should hold Rush for not noticing the ill effects of his treatments, versus how much historians should laud him for his unwavering commitment to Philadelphia during one of the city's darkest hours - however other medical practitioners, including many of Rush's peers in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, openly questioned his treatments.

This revealing ALS shows an example of Rush suggesting yet another blend of health and medical treatments from the normalcy of a bath to the extreme of repeat "mercury" treatments. An excellent highly collectible example from this Founding Father.

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June 14, 2017 10:30 AM EDT
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