eloquence of manner; while the latter, unadorned by these loftier qualities, and exhibiting a more sober and scientific aspect, is copious in interesting anecdote and biographical detail.

For the gratification of that portion of the readers of the Port Folio, into whose hands these able performances have not yet fallen, we shall publish from both of them such extracts as, while they shed no inconsiderable light on the character of the deceased, cannot, we think, fail to produce a determination in the admirers of literary merit, to procure and peruse the entire works. We venture to promise, too, without the least apprehension of being charged hereafter with holding out exaggerated and fallacious prospects, that the result of such determination will amply repay the time that may be spent and the difficulties that may be incurred in carrying it into effect.

The following succinct and interesting account of the birth and earlier years of Dr. Rush, is contained in the eulogy of his friend Dr. Ramsay:

"Benjamin Rush was born December 24, 1745 (old style) on his father's plantation, about fourteen miles to the northeast of Philadelphia. His ancestors migrated from England to Pennsylvania soon after its first settlement in the seventeenth century. In the eighth or ninth year of his age he was sent for education to Nottingham, about sixty miles southwest from Philadelphia, where an academy had been long conducted with great reputation by the Rev. Samuel Finley, D. D. afterwards president of the college in Princeton, Newjersey. The inhabitants of this retired spot were plain country farmers, who cultivated so indifferent a soil that they could not derive a living from it without strict economy and the daily labour of their own hands. Their whole time was occupied in providing the necessary supplies for their support in passing through this world, and in preparing them for a better. To assist them in the latter, they enjoyed the blessings of public preaching and the faithful evangelical labours of one of the wisest and best of men. In their comparatively depressed situation, as to worldly matters, their morals were a virtual reproach to the inhabitants of many districts who

enjoyed a much greater proportion of the good things of this life. Almost every dwelling house was so far a church, that the reading of the word of God, and the offering up of family prayers, generally recurred every day; there were few, or rather no examples of, or temptations to immorality of any kind. Among these people, remarkable for their simplicity, industry, morality, and religion, young Rush spent five years of his early youth in acquiring a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. He there also learned much of human nature, and began to class mankind according to their state of society; a distinction of which he profited very much in his future speculations in political philosophy. The transition from the variegated scenes of Philadelphia to this sequestered seat of learning, industry, and religious habits, could not fail of making a strong impression on his observing mind. He there acquired a reverence for religion -its consistent professors and teachers: a prepossession in fa vour of regular orderly conduct, of diligence, industry, punctu al attention to business, and in general of such steady habits as stamped a value on his character through life. In laying a solid foundation for correct principles and conduct, he was essentially aided by the faultless example, judicious advice, and fatherly care of the learned and pious Dr. Finley. This accomplished instructor of youth was not only diligent and successful in communicating useful knowledge, but extended his views får beyond the ordinary routine of a common education. He trained his pupils for both worlds, and in his intercourse with them, had respect to their future as well as present state of existence. To young Rush he was devoted by peculiar ties: for he was fatherless, and the son of the sister of his beloved wife. A reciprocation of affection took place between the parties, much to the credit and advantage of both. Benjamin Rush found a father in his uncle Finley, and when adult, repaid the obligation in kind, by acting the part of a father to his son, James E. B. Finley, left an orphan when very young, by the death of his father in 1766. This new obligation was gratefully acknowledged by the subject of it, particularly by giving the name of Benjamin Rush to his first born son. This youth, in the ninth year of his age, was

honoured with an affectionate letter from his illustrious kinsman, after whom he was named, shortly before his death. The good advice contained therein, if followed, cannot fail of producing happy effects. Thus, kind offices of respect and affection have been reciprocated in these families through three generations, and seed is sown that promises to bear good fruit in the fourth. The whole, considered in a connected view, holds out encouragement to abound in works of kindness, for they often bring their own reward.

"Benjamin Rush, after finishing his preparatory course of classical studies at Nottingham, was, in 1759, entered a student in the college of Princeton, then under the superintendance of president Davies. This eloquent preacher was pronounced by his pupil, Rush, not only in early youth, but in his adult age, to have been the greatest pulpit orator this country had produced. Under the tuition of this distinguished preacher, and able instructor, he, whose life we are reviewing, obtained the degree of A. B. in 1760, and before he had completed his fifteenth year. The next six years of his life were devoted to the study of medicine, under the direction of Dr. Redman, who, in his day, ranked among the most eminent of the faculty in Philadelphia. The writings of Hippocrates were among the first books Benjamin Rush read in medicine, and while he was an apprentice he translated his aphorisms from Greek into English. He also began to keep a notebook of remarkable occurrences, the plan of which he afterwards improved, and continued through life. From a part of this record, written in the seventeeth year of the age of its author, we derive the only account of the yellow fever of 1762 in Philadelphia, which has descended to posterity. In the same year he was one of Dr. Shippen's ten pupils, who at tended the first course of anatomical lectures given in this country. Two years after, and while he was a daily attendant in the shop of Dr. Redman, he commenced his brilliant career as an author. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, Benjamin Rush went, in 1766, to Edinburgh, to prosecute his studies at the university in that city, then in the zenith of its reputation, and there was graduated M. D. in 1768. His Thesis " De coc

tione ciborum in Ventriculo," was written in classical Latin, and ́I have reason to believe, without the help of a grinder of Theses, for it bears the characteristic marks of the peculiar style of its author. Its elegant latinity was the least part of its merits. The eagerness of its author to acquire professional knowledge, induced him to test a medical opinion in a way against which a less ardent student would have revolted. To ascertain whether fermentation had any agency in digestion, he made three unpleasant experiments on his own stomach. By taking five grains of an alkaline salt, he first destroyed any acid that might be accidentally in it, and immediately afterwards dined on beef, peas, bread, and beer. Three hours after dinner he took an emetic of two grains of emetic tartar. The contents of his stomach, when thrown up, were proved to be acid by the usual tests.

"The experiment was repeated with veal instead of beef, and water instead of beer; but in all other particulars, the same as before, and with a similar result.

"The experiment was repeated a third time, but with fowl instead of beef or veal, and cabbage instead of peas, and unleavened bread instead of that which is in common use; but in all other particulars the same as before. The result was similar to what it had been in both the preceding experiments. From these facts, thrice repeated, an inference was drawn, that the aliment in the human stomach, in the course of three hours after deglutition, underwent the aceteous fermentation.

"While Dr. Rush was a student at Edinburgh, he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself, and at the same time of rendering an acceptable service to his alma mater, Nassau Hall. On the death of president Finley, in 1766, the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, of Paisley, in Scotland, was chosen his successor. He at first declined an acceptance of the office, and it remained vacant more than a year. The trustees of that institution, entertaining a high opinion of their alumnus Rush, appointed him their commissioner to solicit Dr. Witherspoon to accept the presidency of Princeton college, and the presbytery, of which he was a member, to consent to his dismission. These commissions were

ably and successfully executed. The address and talents of the young commissioner inspired the parties with a belief that a college which had already produced such fruit was worthy of their attention. I leave it to others to appreciate the consequences of this successful negociation, to the interests of religion and learning in America, and only refer you to the observations of Dr. Miller, the learned historian of the eighteenth century, on this event. Dr. Rush spent in London the next winter after his graduation in Edinburgh. In the following spring he went over to France, and in the fall of the same year returned to Philadelphia, and commenced the practice of physic. In 1769 he was elected professor of chemistry in the college of Philadelphia. This addition to Drs. Shippen, Morgan, Kuhn, and Bond, who had begun to lecture a few years before, made a complete set of instructors, and fully organized this first medical school in America. By a subsequent arrangement in 1791, the college was merged in an university, and Dr. Rush was appointed professor of the institutes and practice of medicine, and of clinical practice in the university of Pennsylvania."

Our eulogist proceeds to give a view, lucid, circumstantial, and we think sufficiently correct, of the leading theories and principles in medicine which were maintained and taught by Dr. Rush. From this part of the publication we forbear to make any extracts, inasmuch as they would be wholly uninteresting to the general reader. Nor is this our only reason. Differing in opinion from the learned writer on many points of no small importance to medical science, we would deem it an act of injustice both to the public and ourselves to introduce them here, without disclosing the grounds on which our dissent is founded. But as our object is rather to review the events of his life than to inquire into the correctness of his opinions, controversy of every description is without the scope of the present article. The following well-drawn picture, however, of the city of Philadelphia during the prevalence of the yellow fever in the year 1793, and of the part which Dr. Rush acted throughout the whole of that calamitous period, will not, by the reader of feeling and humanity, be viewed without a deep and lively interest: