WEBVTT - Benjamin Rush: Founding Father of American Medicine

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<v Speaker 1>And we continue with our American stories and up next well,

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<v Speaker 1>one of our favorite regular subjects American history. Doctor Benjamin

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<v Speaker 1>Rush is America's forgotten founding father. His signature on the

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<v Speaker 1>Declaration of Independence comes immediately before that other famous Benjamin,

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<v Speaker 1>and that of course would be Benjamin Franklin. The fruits

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<v Speaker 1>of Rush's underlying faith is the story though, that we're

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<v Speaker 1>about to hear from a prolific founding father's biographer, Harlow

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<v Speaker 1>Giles Hunger. Harlowe is a New York Times bestselling author

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<v Speaker 1>of twenty eight books, including Doctor Benjamin Rush, The Founding

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<v Speaker 1>Father Who Healed a Wounded Nation. He's also a former

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<v Speaker 1>Distinguished Visiting Fellow in American History at George Washington's Mount Vernon.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's take a listen.

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<v Speaker 2>Doctor Benjamin Rush was one of the most important of

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<v Speaker 2>our founding fathers in many ways the most important. George

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<v Speaker 2>Washington was unquestionably the father of our political and military structure,

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<v Speaker 2>and Alexander Hamilton fathered our economic structure. But it was

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<v Speaker 2>doctor Benjamin Rush who fathered our social structure. He was

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<v Speaker 2>the only doctor with a medical school degree who signed

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<v Speaker 2>the Declaration of Independence, and with his signature, he began

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<v Speaker 2>a lifelong struggle for abolition of slavery, for women's rights,

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<v Speaker 2>for a ban on child labor. He fought for establishment

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<v Speaker 2>of universal, free public education. He was first to advocate

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<v Speaker 2>temperate use of alcohol and opposed tobacco use. He demanded

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<v Speaker 2>that other doctors treat the poor as well as the

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<v Speaker 2>rich African Americans as well as whites. Doctors wouldn't treat

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<v Speaker 2>African Americans. Then he founded two great schools of higher

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<v Speaker 2>education in Pennsylvania, Dickinson University in Carlisle and Franklin College

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<v Speaker 2>now known as Franklin and Marshall College. And he saved

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<v Speaker 2>his alma Mada, Princeton College from oblivion after British troops

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<v Speaker 2>burned it down. Just after the young doctor rush One

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<v Speaker 2>appointment to Philadelphia Hospital as it was called, then he

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<v Speaker 2>discovered a basement filled with starving human beings chained to walls,

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<v Speaker 2>lying in their own filths, moaning, groaning, some with infected sores.

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<v Speaker 2>Rush stormed into the hospital doctor's office and demanded their

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<v Speaker 2>release and transfer into clean hospital rooms. He agreed to

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<v Speaker 2>take personal custody of them and to care for them,

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<v Speaker 2>and then forced the hospital board eventually to add a

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<v Speaker 2>wing to the hospital to house them. Little by little,

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<v Speaker 2>he saw most of them improved dramatically as he talked

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<v Speaker 2>to them, listened to what they had to say, learned

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<v Speaker 2>their interests, and introduced a range of recreational activities, arts

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<v Speaker 2>and grafts, and what we now call physical therapy and

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<v Speaker 2>occupational therapy. In listening to them, he developed a treatment

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<v Speaker 2>he called talk therapy what we now call psychotherapy, and

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<v Speaker 2>that led to the release of the majority of them

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<v Speaker 2>into civilian life. It was a miracle, a revolution in

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<v Speaker 2>the treatment of the mentally ill, which has not changed

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<v Speaker 2>since the beginnings of civilization. And this was fifty years

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<v Speaker 2>before Sigmund Freud was even born. Doctor Benjamin rush Not

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<v Speaker 2>Sigmund Freud discovered psychotherapy and other therapies for the mentally

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<v Speaker 2>ill a century before Freud started writing about psychoanalysis. The

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<v Speaker 2>American Psychiatric Association recognized Russia's great achievements by putting his

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<v Speaker 2>image on their official seal and designating him Father of

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<v Speaker 2>American Psychiatry. Now, Russia's deep concern for the human condition

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<v Speaker 2>included an equally deep love of individual liberty, which is

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<v Speaker 2>why he served in the Second Continental Congress and signed

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<v Speaker 2>the Declaration of independence, but he was not interested in

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<v Speaker 2>a career in politics. He loved being a doctor, treating

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<v Speaker 2>and curing the ill, and he wanted to heal the

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<v Speaker 2>injured and cure the sixth. So after signing the Declaration

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<v Speaker 2>of Independence, he galloped out of Philadelphia and John George

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<v Speaker 2>Washington on the banks of the Delaware opposite Trenton, New Jersey.

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<v Speaker 2>On Christmas night seventeen seventy six, Washington's army staged one

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<v Speaker 2>of the most daring attacks in the Revolutionary War. They

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<v Speaker 2>rode a across the Delaware River through a driving snowstorm

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<v Speaker 2>and overwhelmed a garrison of a thousand Hessian soldiers had dawned.

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<v Speaker 2>As Hessian defenders fired back, some of their bullets inevitably

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<v Speaker 2>hit their marks. One man, unarmed, rushed into battle not

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<v Speaker 2>to fire a shot, but to stem the bleeding. Kneeling

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<v Speaker 2>over the fawn, doctor Benjamin Rush tried something no doctor

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<v Speaker 2>had ever done before, prevent death on the battlefield. Until then,

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<v Speaker 2>armies groutinely left their wounded to die. Everywhere in the world,

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<v Speaker 2>if a soldier could not run, walk, limp, or crawl

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<v Speaker 2>off the battlefield, he was left to die. There were

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<v Speaker 2>no doctors around to help, and there really was no choice.

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<v Speaker 2>There was no such thing as an antiseptic. This majority

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<v Speaker 2>of the badly injured in peace as well as war,

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<v Speaker 2>died from blood poisoning. Except to semia, there was nothing

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<v Speaker 2>anyone could do. Troops couldn't help, Doctors or priests could

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<v Speaker 2>do nothing except prey, and that seldom saved any lives,

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<v Speaker 2>at least here on earth. For doctor Benjamin Rush, however,

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<v Speaker 2>it seemed obscene to let men die fighting and bleeding

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<v Speaker 2>for his country. After fighting ended at Trenton, he demanded

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<v Speaker 2>that Washington set up field hospitals of a sort. Washington

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<v Speaker 2>commandeered nearby houses, and Rush used them as field hospitals

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<v Speaker 2>to form what would later become the Army Medical Corps,

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<v Speaker 2>the first such cores in the world. Rush didn't save

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<v Speaker 2>many of the wounded, of course, there was no way

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<v Speaker 2>he could. Medicine and medical care were still too primitive. Anthesia, aniseptics, antibiotics,

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<v Speaker 2>none of those existed when he went to work trying

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<v Speaker 2>to save a soldier's life. When he had to amputate

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<v Speaker 2>a soldier's limb, he fed the patient whiskey or rum

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<v Speaker 2>and told him to fight on a piece of wood

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<v Speaker 2>as hard as he could while Rush went to work

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<v Speaker 2>with his scalpel. Within a minute or two, most soldiers

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<v Speaker 2>passed out, and infections would later kill at least two

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<v Speaker 2>thirds of them within a few days. But in listening

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<v Speaker 2>to this, remember that anthesia didn't exist. The hollow point needle,

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<v Speaker 2>they weren't invented until eighteen fifty. The stethoscope, blood transfusion,

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<v Speaker 2>even simple aspirin. All of these things were fifty to

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<v Speaker 2>one hundred years in the future when Rush walked onto

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<v Speaker 2>that battlefield at in Trenton. Hospitals, like battlefields, hospitals were

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<v Speaker 2>places where the badly injured or sick went to die.

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<v Speaker 2>He didn't go to a hospital to have them save

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<v Speaker 2>your life. If you were sick, you stayed at home

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<v Speaker 2>and used worthless home remedies. Doctor Benjamin Rush only started

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<v Speaker 2>the scientific revolution in medicine and did not live long

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<v Speaker 2>enough to see any substantial progress in healthcare. But he

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<v Speaker 2>could and did begin the job, and because of his

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<v Speaker 2>status in Philadelphia society, he did live to see some

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<v Speaker 2>of the results of his pioneering efforts. Philadelphia at the

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<v Speaker 2>time was America's political, cultural, and economic center, and the

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<v Speaker 2>signers of the Declaration of Independence were America's richest, most

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<v Speaker 2>powerful men. La Rush was not born to wealth. He

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<v Speaker 2>was a farmer's son. He was superbly well educated. He

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<v Speaker 2>went to Princeton and then to the University of Edinburgh

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<v Speaker 2>Medical School, which was the best medical school in the

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<v Speaker 2>world at the time. He finished his studies in London,

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<v Speaker 2>where Benjamin Franklin introduced him to England's most distinguished thinkers

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<v Speaker 2>and scientists. Although he treated Philadelphia's rich and famous, he

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<v Speaker 2>spent most of his time treating the poor, even African Americans,

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<v Speaker 2>the first Caucasian doctor in America to do so.

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<v Speaker 1>And you're listening to Harlow Giles Unger tell the story

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<v Speaker 1>of doctor Benjamin Rush. And I thought I knew quite

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<v Speaker 1>a bit about Rush, but that medical unit and his

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<v Speaker 1>invention of the idea of a medical corps. I had

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<v Speaker 1>no idea that this was his way of volunteering in

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<v Speaker 1>our fight against the British. What a revolutionary on so

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<v Speaker 1>many fronts, from the abolition movement to women's suffrage and more.

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<v Speaker 1>This remarkable story one they're not teaching for certain in

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<v Speaker 1>schools across this country. The story of doctor Benjamin Rush

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<v Speaker 1>continues here on our American stories, and we continue with

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<v Speaker 1>our American stories and with author Harlowe Giles Hunger and

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<v Speaker 1>he has written a terrific book about the life of

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<v Speaker 1>Benjamin Rush, called Doctor Benjamin Rush, the Founding Father who

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<v Speaker 1>healed a wounded Nation. Let's pick up when we last

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<v Speaker 1>left off.

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<v Speaker 2>Doctors North, Southeast, and West refused even to consider treating

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<v Speaker 2>African Americans at the time, nor did many of them

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<v Speaker 2>consider treating the poor. The poor were in cities at least,

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<v Speaker 2>were dirty, They smelled, They couldn't read or write. The

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<v Speaker 2>slums they lived in had no water, no sewers. Conditions

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<v Speaker 2>were horrible in the slums of America's cities. No one

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<v Speaker 2>who called himself a doctor, even quacks willingly set foot

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<v Speaker 2>in the slums, wanted anything to do with those who

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<v Speaker 2>lived there, except doctor Benjamin Rush. Listen to Rush as

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<v Speaker 2>he describes his daily rounds. I led a life of

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<v Speaker 2>constant labor. I led a life in which my shop

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<v Speaker 2>was crowded with the poor in the morning and at

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<v Speaker 2>meal times. And I visited nearly every street and alley

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<v Speaker 2>in the city every day. Often have I ascended the

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<v Speaker 2>upper story of huts by a ladder. I had to

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<v Speaker 2>sit on beds. There were no chairs, I risked not

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<v Speaker 2>only taking their disease, but being infected by vermin. I

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<v Speaker 2>seldom went to bed before twelve o'clock. Again, those are

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<v Speaker 2>the words of doctor Benjamin Rush when he was not

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<v Speaker 2>treating patients, though he haunted the Pennsylvania State Assembly demanding

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<v Speaker 2>social res aimed directly or indirectly at improving the health

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<v Speaker 2>of the city's population. Every social advance that he demanded

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<v Speaker 2>was tied to health. He was the first to call

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<v Speaker 2>for public sanitation. He wanted to sweep away the garbage,

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<v Speaker 2>the sewage, and stagnant water, all of which he believed

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<v Speaker 2>promoted disease. But science being what it was, he had

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<v Speaker 2>no way of proving it and had to struggle with recalciprant,

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<v Speaker 2>city and state officials to get them to higher street cleaners.

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<v Speaker 2>And the way he convinced them was not by telling

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<v Speaker 2>them how dirty the city was. He showed them how

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<v Speaker 2>they and the city and the state would profit economically

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<v Speaker 2>by cleaning the streets. He championed abolition of slavery, and

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<v Speaker 2>as president of the Abolish Society, he naturally decried the

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<v Speaker 2>cruelties of slavery. But the only way he could convince

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<v Speaker 2>Pennsylvania legislators to abolish slavery was to show them how

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<v Speaker 2>the state would benefit economically by freeing African Americans to

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<v Speaker 2>make greater contributions to society. In seventeen eighty he succeeded,

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<v Speaker 2>and the Pennsylvania Assembly passed the first state law in

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<v Speaker 2>America banning slavery. But Rush didn't stop there. He was

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<v Speaker 2>distressed by the condition of free blocks in Philadelphia. He

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<v Speaker 2>walked directly into their midst to treat them and their

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<v Speaker 2>children medically. He was the first white doctor in America

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<v Speaker 2>to do so, and after winning their trust, he urged

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<v Speaker 2>them to build their own African American church, the first

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<v Speaker 2>such church in America. Raised funds to build that church.

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<v Speaker 2>He joined its parishioners at its dedication. When people don't

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<v Speaker 2>realize that founding fathers did not invent slavery when they

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<v Speaker 2>were born, the slaves were already on the land almost

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<v Speaker 2>a century actually, Virginia tobacco growers, the great plantation owners

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<v Speaker 2>at the turn of the eighteenth century early seventeen hundreds,

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<v Speaker 2>petitioned Queen Anne to stop sending slaves there. The slave

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<v Speaker 2>population in the so called Sugar Islands at the time

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<v Speaker 2>in the Caribbean had grown so large that they just

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<v Speaker 2>couldn't absorb anymore slaves. But slavery slave trading had become

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<v Speaker 2>a huge proportion of the British government's income, so they

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<v Speaker 2>just arbitrarily started dumping slaves off the ships in Virginia

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<v Speaker 2>for the plantation owners. And they didn't want them. They

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<v Speaker 2>petitioned Queen Anne to not send any more slaves. Number one,

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<v Speaker 2>they were illiterate. Number two, they couldn't speak English. And

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<v Speaker 2>number three, tobacco planting, picking and harvesting and curing is

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<v Speaker 2>a skilled trade. It takes a lot of knowledge to

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<v Speaker 2>do that carefully and do it properly. Queen Ann wouldn't listen.

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<v Speaker 2>She needed those revenues, so she just kept sending slave

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<v Speaker 2>ships over here. Well, that generation plantation owner died, Another

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<v Speaker 2>generation grew up and died, And now we get to

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<v Speaker 2>the generation of our founding fathers, Jefferson, Washington and the others.

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<v Speaker 2>And they're born on lands in which by law, by

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<v Speaker 2>British law and subsequently early American laws, slaves were not

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<v Speaker 2>human beings. They were property, and they were as much

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<v Speaker 2>a part of each property as they were as trees were.

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<v Speaker 2>And you did not have the right you could go

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<v Speaker 2>to jail if you freed your slaves. Period. So it

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<v Speaker 2>wasn't until they were in their adult years that men

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<v Speaker 2>like Washington and quite a few others saw the cruelty

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<v Speaker 2>of slavery, the immorality of it, all the evils of slavery,

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<v Speaker 2>and try to figure out a way around the law. Well,

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<v Speaker 2>they didn't have control of they didn't have majorities in

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<v Speaker 2>the state assemblies, but they couldn't do anything under British law.

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<v Speaker 2>After the Revolution, they had a former government. First of all,

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<v Speaker 2>during the Confederation, each state was independent from the others.

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<v Speaker 2>That lasted until seventeen eighty nine. Now you have a

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<v Speaker 2>federal government. They had other things to do right away.

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<v Speaker 2>They had to set up an executive branch, they had

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<v Speaker 2>to set up a judiciary, and that took years. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 2>people like Washington were looking into the law and they

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<v Speaker 2>found a way around the law. But the only way

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<v Speaker 2>around it was in your last will and testament that

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<v Speaker 2>superseded the law, the written law of every state. And

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<v Speaker 2>that's why Washington and his spouse Martha Free there emancipated

0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:34.600
<v Speaker 2>their slaves under Washington's will, and Richard Henry Lee did

0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.920
<v Speaker 2>many many Southern leaders did the same thing, and that's

0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.160
<v Speaker 2>all they could do under the law at that time.

0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.119
<v Speaker 2>At the time, there was an army of quacks calling

0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.920
<v Speaker 2>themselves doctors, who rode into every town and village across

0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:58.640
<v Speaker 2>America selling patent medicines. All of them were nothing more

0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:03.480
<v Speaker 2>than fruit flavored with or rum that cured patients by

0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:09.160
<v Speaker 2>rendering them senselessly drunk and oblivious to their illnesses their injuries.

0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.720
<v Speaker 2>He charged them with killing their patients rather than curing them.

0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.760
<v Speaker 2>He called for a law restricting the use of the

0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:22.679
<v Speaker 2>title doctor to graduates of recognized medical schools or to

0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.359
<v Speaker 2>those who had served apprenticeships, which was common in those days,

0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.840
<v Speaker 2>apprenticeships with other doctors.

0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.679
<v Speaker 1>And you're listening to Harlowe Giles Unger, who's the author

0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.119
<v Speaker 1>of Doctor Benjamin Rush, The Founding Father who Healed a

0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.399
<v Speaker 1>Wounded Nation. He is also a former Distinguished Visiting Fellow

0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.920
<v Speaker 1>in American History at George Washington's Mount Vernon. If you're

0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.760
<v Speaker 1>ever in Washington, d c. Give yourself an extra day

0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:48.959
<v Speaker 1>and a half and go to Mount Vernon and then

0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:53.639
<v Speaker 1>go to Montpellier and to Course Jefferson's home Monticello in Charlottesville.

0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.639
<v Speaker 1>It's about an hour and a half due south, and

0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.480
<v Speaker 1>you'll see the residences of these great founders. It's a

0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.159
<v Speaker 1>beautiful field trip for a family, going through the beautiful

0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.000
<v Speaker 1>mountain country of Virginia and through Albermole County itself, which

0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:07.600
<v Speaker 1>is one of the most beautiful counties.

0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:07.840
<v Speaker 2>In the country.

0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.199
<v Speaker 1>The story of doctor Benjamin Rush, and my goodness, what

0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:38.639
<v Speaker 1>a beauty continues here on our American stories, and we

0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:42.479
<v Speaker 1>continue with our American stories and with Harlow Giles Hunger

0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.800
<v Speaker 1>as he continues to unpack the story of founding father,

0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.520
<v Speaker 1>doctor Benjamin Rush and his reforms and accomplishments in the

0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.200
<v Speaker 1>medical industry. Let's continue with Harlow Hunger.

0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.520
<v Speaker 2>He wrote the first Code of Ethics for doctors, which

0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.440
<v Speaker 2>was still in effect in a manner until the Second

0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.680
<v Speaker 2>World War. And he wrote an even more important work

0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:11.480
<v Speaker 2>called Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind.

0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:17.920
<v Speaker 2>It was the first English language work written on psychiatry.

0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.720
<v Speaker 2>It became the basic textbook for studies in psychiatry in

0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:27.320
<v Speaker 2>America for the next century until the beginning of the

0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.119
<v Speaker 2>twentieth century. That work was so remarkable that, as I

0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:35.359
<v Speaker 2>said before, the American Psychiatric Association put his image on

0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.639
<v Speaker 2>its official seal, and placed a bronze plot on his grave,

0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:45.520
<v Speaker 2>declaring him father of American psychiatry to this day. I

0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.000
<v Speaker 2>don't know why the world celebrates Freud instead of doctor

0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:53.520
<v Speaker 2>Benjamin Rush. I didn't mention that he was a great teacher,

0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.679
<v Speaker 2>a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School,

0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.400
<v Speaker 2>and a professor of chemistry. He wrote the first American

0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:07.320
<v Speaker 2>chemistry book. He trained more than three thousand doctors, real

0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:12.680
<v Speaker 2>doctors with MD degrees, and there's still more. I told

0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.440
<v Speaker 2>you he was father of American psychiatry, but I didn't

0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:21.600
<v Speaker 2>tell you that he was also father of and you'll

0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:27.560
<v Speaker 2>never guess this, the father of American veterinary medicine. In

0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:31.119
<v Speaker 2>eighteen oh seven, he delivered a lecture then published a

0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.919
<v Speaker 2>pamphlet on the medical care of domestic animals. It was

0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:41.000
<v Speaker 2>the first such work ever published in America. The idea

0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.000
<v Speaker 2>came to him years earlier, after he had finished his

0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:48.119
<v Speaker 2>medical studies in England. He went to Paris, and it

0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.000
<v Speaker 2>was in Paris that he visited what was then the

0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.640
<v Speaker 2>world's first school of veterinary medicine. It had been founded

0:21:55.680 --> 0:22:01.320
<v Speaker 2>to combat a cattle plague, but its efforts eventually improved

0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:05.639
<v Speaker 2>the quality of animal life so much that farmer revenues

0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:12.200
<v Speaker 2>began shooting up. In seventeen ninety five, Rush went to Washington,

0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:16.520
<v Speaker 2>who was a great farmer, Franklin, who wasn't a farmer,

0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:20.000
<v Speaker 2>but he was a brilliant scientist, and formed a group

0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.360
<v Speaker 2>of others to form a society to promote the development

0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.960
<v Speaker 2>of veterinary medicine in America, with Rush writing a pamphlet

0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.440
<v Speaker 2>citing the benefits of veterinary medicine to farmers and to

0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.399
<v Speaker 2>the nation's agriculture. At the time, ninety five percent of

0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:43.840
<v Speaker 2>Americans lived or worked or owned farms. Why doesn't America

0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:49.240
<v Speaker 2>celebrate this great founding father. Well, America doesn't really celebrate

0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:53.639
<v Speaker 2>any founding fathers anymore. The memories of both Washington and

0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:58.480
<v Speaker 2>Lincoln have been subsumed by shopping on what's now called

0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:03.520
<v Speaker 2>President's Day, that he noise both of them. But to

0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.919
<v Speaker 2>answer my own question about Rush statehood, Apart from the

0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:12.160
<v Speaker 2>fact that few Americans study or learn any American history anymore,

0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:18.080
<v Speaker 2>the fact is that doctor Benjamin Rush, America's greatest physician

0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:22.399
<v Speaker 2>at the time of the Revolution, the father of modern

0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:28.879
<v Speaker 2>American medical practice, knew next to nothing about treating the sick.

0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:34.840
<v Speaker 2>No one did. No one did anyway in the world.

0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.560
<v Speaker 2>Nobody knew how to treat the sick. For centuries from

0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:43.480
<v Speaker 2>the time of ancient Greece, doctors and almost everyone else

0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:49.440
<v Speaker 2>on earth believed that all human illnesses resulted from poisons

0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:55.040
<v Speaker 2>that traveled in the air and collected in body fluids,

0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.719
<v Speaker 2>in the blood and in the gastro intestinal tract. And

0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:02.960
<v Speaker 2>the remedy seemed drain the body of its poisons by

0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:05.760
<v Speaker 2>draining as much as possible of its fluids, and you'll

0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.439
<v Speaker 2>get rid of the illness. Emptying the gut was simple

0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:14.040
<v Speaker 2>with laxatives. Rush can talk to a laxative that became

0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:18.760
<v Speaker 2>known as thunderbolts. You can use your imagination as to

0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:23.520
<v Speaker 2>why after emptying the gut, that left the vascular system. Well,

0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:28.720
<v Speaker 2>you couldn't empty the people's blood without killing them. Indeed,

0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:32.320
<v Speaker 2>that's exactly what happened to George Washington. At his insistence,

0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:39.960
<v Speaker 2>he made the doctors keep bleeding him to cure he

0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:45.320
<v Speaker 2>had a throat infection, to cure his infection, and then

0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:49.040
<v Speaker 2>he finally died because they just bled him to death.

0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:54.360
<v Speaker 2>Rush and most doctors were sensible enough to limit bleeding

0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:57.840
<v Speaker 2>to between one and two pints a day, about ten

0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:01.280
<v Speaker 2>to twenty percent of the patient and th reservoir of blood.

0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:04.879
<v Speaker 2>That's usually not enough to send a patient into shock,

0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:07.919
<v Speaker 2>but it is enough to make the patient feel a

0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:13.840
<v Speaker 2>lightheaded and less aware of their pain and discomfort. And

0:25:15.040 --> 0:25:18.639
<v Speaker 2>they felt that way, especially so when a founding father,

0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:26.040
<v Speaker 2>a doctor like Benjamin Rush, who inspired all in his

0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:31.800
<v Speaker 2>patients when he promised them they'd feel better tomorrow. But

0:25:31.920 --> 0:25:36.640
<v Speaker 2>bleeding had no effect at all on the underlying interest.

0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:40.439
<v Speaker 2>In twenty four hours, the body itself replaced the blood

0:25:40.440 --> 0:25:43.320
<v Speaker 2>it lost, and many patients went on to die of

0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:48.160
<v Speaker 2>the real disease. In August and September of seventeen ninety three,

0:25:48.920 --> 0:25:54.520
<v Speaker 2>the worst yellow fever epidemic in American history crushed Philadelphia.

0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:59.040
<v Speaker 2>It claimed more than five thousand people lives, more than

0:25:59.080 --> 0:26:03.480
<v Speaker 2>ten percent of the population of the city. Only Rush

0:26:03.760 --> 0:26:08.800
<v Speaker 2>and four other brave physician remained. Most people fled. Only

0:26:09.080 --> 0:26:12.760
<v Speaker 2>Rush and four other physicians remained to treat the stricken

0:26:13.440 --> 0:26:18.159
<v Speaker 2>with purge and bleed, treatments that accomplished nothing well. The

0:26:18.240 --> 0:26:22.600
<v Speaker 2>Russian The other doctors believed they saved many lives. Those

0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:26.600
<v Speaker 2>who survived purge and bleed treatments. Either would have survived

0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:30.320
<v Speaker 2>the disease without bleeding or purging, or they didn't have

0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:34.359
<v Speaker 2>yellow fever to begin with and they simply got better.

0:26:35.840 --> 0:26:39.800
<v Speaker 2>So many people died, however, that critics, a few of

0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:44.520
<v Speaker 2>them other doctors from other cities, assailed Rush. One critic

0:26:45.119 --> 0:26:49.280
<v Speaker 2>a vicious British journalist who hated all things American and

0:26:49.760 --> 0:26:53.719
<v Speaker 2>had no knowledge of science or medicine. He called Russia

0:26:53.800 --> 0:26:58.080
<v Speaker 2>butcher and killer in the newspaper he published, for the

0:26:58.119 --> 0:27:02.800
<v Speaker 2>first time in his life, the radiant ring of light

0:27:03.320 --> 0:27:08.960
<v Speaker 2>that seemed to hover above Russians sainted head dimmed for

0:27:09.000 --> 0:27:15.320
<v Speaker 2>the first time in his life, he seemed mortal. So

0:27:15.600 --> 0:27:18.840
<v Speaker 2>stung by the attacks by this journalist, he went into

0:27:18.840 --> 0:27:22.560
<v Speaker 2>court and sued the journalist for libel. Although he won

0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:25.439
<v Speaker 2>the case, his appearance in a courtroom and the public

0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:30.720
<v Speaker 2>airing of such vile epithets butcher, leech and others, even

0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:35.440
<v Speaker 2>by an ignorant journalist, tarnished the Rush name and left

0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:41.160
<v Speaker 2>him somewhat broken. Celebrated throughout his life as one whom

0:27:41.280 --> 0:27:45.600
<v Speaker 2>God had placed on earth to heal a sick Rush

0:27:45.680 --> 0:27:51.080
<v Speaker 2>now left the courtroom five thousand dollars richer, but deeply wounded.

0:27:52.160 --> 0:27:55.520
<v Speaker 2>He gave his award to charity, and in eighteen hundred

0:27:55.560 --> 0:27:59.280
<v Speaker 2>closed his medical practice and retreated to his country home

0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:05.880
<v Speaker 2>to update earlier editions of his various books and published works.

0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:10.400
<v Speaker 2>He never practiced medicine again. He died in eighteen thirteen

0:28:10.520 --> 0:28:16.119
<v Speaker 2>and lies in Philadelphia's Christ Church burial ground, near his

0:28:16.359 --> 0:28:20.840
<v Speaker 2>dear friend Benjamin Franklin. But without that flame of fame

0:28:21.720 --> 0:28:30.359
<v Speaker 2>that illuminates Franklin's grave, Rush deserves more. Thomas Jefferson said

0:28:30.520 --> 0:28:36.199
<v Speaker 2>he knew no one among the founding fathers more benevolent,

0:28:36.400 --> 0:28:41.760
<v Speaker 2>and these are Jefferson's words, no one more benevolent, more learned,

0:28:42.360 --> 0:28:47.040
<v Speaker 2>of finer genius, or more honest than doctor Benjamin Rush.

0:28:47.600 --> 0:28:51.920
<v Speaker 2>John Adams agreed. He said that as a man of science,

0:28:53.080 --> 0:29:00.240
<v Speaker 2>letters tastes sense, patriotism, morality taken altogether, Rush has not

0:29:00.400 --> 0:29:06.440
<v Speaker 2>left his equal in America or the world. I agree

0:29:06.480 --> 0:29:10.000
<v Speaker 2>and hope my book will give this great American patriot,

0:29:10.560 --> 0:29:14.160
<v Speaker 2>doctor Benjamin Rush, the recognition he so deserves.

0:29:14.800 --> 0:29:18.280
<v Speaker 1>And great job is always by Greg Hangler getting us

0:29:18.320 --> 0:29:20.920
<v Speaker 1>this story and producing it in a special thanks to

0:29:20.960 --> 0:29:24.880
<v Speaker 1>Harlow Giles Hunger. Again, his book is Doctor Benjamin Rush,

0:29:25.280 --> 0:29:29.160
<v Speaker 1>the founding father who healed a wounded nation, and what

0:29:29.320 --> 0:29:32.720
<v Speaker 1>a story, the father of modern day psychiatry, the only

0:29:32.960 --> 0:29:37.760
<v Speaker 1>MD who signed the Declaration, He started essentially the Army

0:29:37.800 --> 0:29:41.760
<v Speaker 1>Medical Corps, and also in the end brought veterinary medicine

0:29:42.040 --> 0:29:45.280
<v Speaker 1>to America and the improvement in the end of our

0:29:45.480 --> 0:29:48.480
<v Speaker 1>agricultural economy. And by the way, it was very wise

0:29:48.520 --> 0:29:50.600
<v Speaker 1>of him to sell it as that as a benefit,

0:29:50.640 --> 0:29:53.760
<v Speaker 1>a public benefit of public good, and very wise to

0:29:53.800 --> 0:29:56.040
<v Speaker 1>do that as well. On how to treat the poor

0:29:56.400 --> 0:29:59.320
<v Speaker 1>and sanitary concerns. One of the first people in this

0:29:59.400 --> 0:30:02.680
<v Speaker 1>country to think about public sanitation, and all of his

0:30:02.840 --> 0:30:07.280
<v Speaker 1>kind of storytelling always is available here on our American Stories.

0:30:07.520 --> 0:30:10.520
<v Speaker 1>It's what we do. Folks bring stories like doctor Benjamin

0:30:10.600 --> 0:30:15.600
<v Speaker 1>Rush to you with unapologetic pride here on our American Stories.