Ruschenberger, William Samuel Waithman (1807–1895).
Ruschenberger was born on a farm near Bridgeton, New Jersey, September 4, 1807, educated in New York and Philadelphia and at the age of nineteen he entered the United States Navy as surgeon's mate and was ordered to the Pacific Coast. But after a short stay he returned east and entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, whence he graduated in 1830. In the following year he was commissioned surgeon in the navy. As surgeon he made a number of cruises to various parts of the world. Ruschenberger was an able writer. In 1834 he published "Three Years in the Pacific" and in 1838, "A Voyage Around the World." These, books were widely read and were republished in England. In 1854 appeared "Notes and Commentaries During Voyages to Brazil and China." One of his best known works is "An Account of the Institution and Progress of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia During 100 Years," which appeared in 1887. His "First Books on Natural History," a series of eight small volumes, were very popular in their time and contributed more than any other work to popularize the natural sciences in this country.
Ruschenberger was a member of the American Philosophical Society, of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and of a number of other societies. He died in Philadelphia, March 24. 1895. His portrait is preserved in the hall of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
Rush, Benjamin (1745–1813).
The "American Sydenham," as he was termed by Lettsom, was born in Byberry Township, Philadelphia County, on December 24 1745. His family were English Quakers, but, curiously enough, both his father and grandfather were gunsmiths. After going as a boy to the academy kept by the Reverend Samuel Finley, later president of Princeton College, at Nottingham, he entered Princeton, where he received the degree B. A. in 1760. He spent the subsequent six years as an apprentice to Dr. John Redman (q. v.), one of the most prominent physicians of Philadelphia, and during this time translated the "Aphorisms of Hippocrates" into English and kept a medical notebook from which was subsequently derived the only account written by an eyewitness, of the yellow-fever epidemic which occurred in 1762 in Philadelphia. He also was one of the ten pupils who attended the first course of lectures on anatomy given by Dr. William Shippen, Jr. (q. v.).
In 1766 he entered the medical school of Edinburgh University and took his M. D. there in 1768, his graduation thesis being called "De Coctione Ciborum in Ventriculo." Thacher says it was written in classic Latin, and adds quaintly "and I have reason to believe without the help of a grinder of theses." While he was at Edinburgh, President Finley, of Princeton College, died, and the trustees elected the celebrated Dr. Witherspoon, of Paisley in Scotland, as his successor. The latter at first declined the appointment, but the trustees appointed young Rush as their deputy, and his solicitations at length prevailed on the eminent Scotchman to accept the position. From Edinburgh, Rush went to London and from thence to France to study, returning to Philadelphia in 1769. In the same year he was elected professor of chemistry in the college of Philadelphia, thereby rendering complete the medical faculty of the first medical school established in what is now the United States. The other teachers were John Morgan, William Shippen, Jr., and Adam Kuhn (q. v. to all). Clinical lectures in association with their teaching were also given at the Pennsylvania Hospital by Dr. Thomas Bond (q. v.).
Upon the death of Dr. John Morgan in 1789, Rush succeeded him as professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the College of Philadelphia. When, in 1791, that institution was merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to form the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Rush was appointed professor of the institutes of medicine and clinical medicine. In addition to his public teaching Dr. Rush had a large number of private students, and it has been estimated that in the course of the forty-four years in which he was actively engaged in teaching he instructed 2,250 pupils. His lectures, judging from the notebooks of his pupils and from the statements of those who heard the lectures, were models of lucidity and comprehensiveness. He had the gift of imparting to his students some share of his own wonderful enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge. The prevalent medical teaching of his day was that of Cullen. Diseases were classified and every disease was supposed to possess an appropriate specific treatment. Underlying principles were entire-
