Medical Writing | Richard Harrison Shryock (essay date 1946)
Richard Harrison Shryock (essay date 1946)
SOURCE: “Benjamin Rush from the Perspective of the Twentieth Century,” in Medicine in America: Historical Essays, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1966, pp. 233-51.
[In the following essay, which was originally published in 1946, Shryock points out the lack of empirical data in Benjamin Rush's work, but praises him for his philosophical interests.]
It has recently been observed that “One often hears and sees Rush's name mentioned, but in a few tiresomely repeated connections; as a man and as a writer he is little known.”1 This is doubtless true so far as the general public is concerned: in contrast to his friends John Adams and Jefferson, Rush has been largely forgotten even by the well-informed. This may be explained, in some measure, by the political emphasis which characterized American historical writing until recent decades. Despite some interesting adventures in public...
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