Benjamin Rush Biography Essay

Throughout his youth, Rush was constantly attending an institution of education. He writes in his autobiography entitled, A Memorial Containing Travels through Life or Sundry Incidents in the life of Dr. Benjamin Rush, that the first school he attended was a boarding school in Maryland where he received his general education. At the age of fifteen, Rush left the boarding school and began his college career at the College of New Jersey. While in New Jersey, he attended classes of philosophy and poetry. However, most of his curriculum was centered on the art of public speaking. In addition, Rush was taught the art of note taking. He learned how to record facts and his opinions in journals; a skill in which he would use for the rest of his life. Only one year after being admitted to the college, Rush earned his bachelor’s degree.
Initially, Rush intended to be a lawyer. He wrote that one of his professors named Davies believed, “… I should make a better figure at the bar than in the walks of a hospital.” In addition, one of his former classmates told Rush he should become a lawyer. He wrote to Rush stating that he was eloquent in the art of public …show more content…
Redman introduced Rush to the work of English physician Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham theorized that depletions through bleeding and purging were the ways to rid the body of diseases. Sydenham based his ideas of medicine on a Greco-Roman named Galen. He was an expert in anatomy and studied the body by its humors. His theory suggested that the body contained four humors; blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen explained that when the humors were in balance, they body was in full health. When there was an excessive amount of the bodily humors, the body was unhealthy due to the imbalance. In order to bring the body back to perfect balance, it had to be purged. Galen’s theory of the four humors was used by doctors for over one-thousand