What the Doctor Said

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN RUSH (399 pp.)--Edifed by George W. Corner--Princeton ($6).

In the summer of 1800, when Dr. Benjamin Rush began his autobiography, he was 54, America's foremost physician, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and an intimate of many of the great and near great of his day. He called his autobiography Travels Through Life, and began it this way:

My dear children,

My life has been a variegated one. Under a conviction that I shall not live to give its details to the younger branches of my family, I have concluded to put upon paper a few incidents that may perhaps afford entertainment and instruction to them when I am no more. It is my wish that it may not be read out of the circle of my family, and that it may never be published.

Less than a year after his death (in 1813), his sons were already planning to ignore his wish and publish the autobiography. They quarreled about it, and not until 1905 did a small, expurgated edition appear. The present edition, which is complete, also includes two "commonplace books" in which the good doctor recorded hundreds of experiences, conversations and thoughts.

Courts & Prisons. Rush may have had engaging qualities; his humorless autobiography fails to disclose them. Yet, visiting Europe, he called on great men who not only made him welcome but asked him to come again. Benjamin Franklin, then in London, took him to the court of George III, introduced him to his literary friends, and lent him money. Rush dined with Artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, Novelist Oliver Goldsmith ("He spoke with the Irish accent"), and crotchety Literary Czar Samuel Johnson, who reports Dr. Rush was rude to Goldsmith. Rush even got himself invited as a dinner guest of famed Political Prisoner John Wilkes in the King's Bench prison. Wilkes had 15 guests in his cell that day, and Rush noted that he had an extra room for his ilbrary, "from which I formed an indifferent opinion of his taste and judgment." In France, Rush saw Louis XV, who "had a good eye, and an intelligent countenance, and hence he was said to be "the most sensible looking fool in Europe.' " The great Encyclopedist, Diderot, entertained Rush in his library, and the Marquis of Mirabeau invited him to a "coterie" at his home.

Perhaps he was a flattering listener. His curiosity was insatiable, and the commonplace books are filled with all sorts of trivia picked up from travelers. Sometimes he merely recorded little but the subjects of his chats: 1786, Sept. 23: conversation with Dr. Benjamin Franklin about the plague in Turkey; 1791, Oct. 8: Mr. Stewart about the horrors of the Hindu religion and the manners of Laplanders.

Curiosities & Criticisms. A phenomenally successful doctor and teacher of medicine, Rush was almost always at odds with his medical colleagues. He wrote several books on medicine and pamphleteered vigorously on subjects ranging from capital punishment to slavery, both of which he abhorred. Tom Paine, Rush claimed, wrote Common Sense at his suggestion and Rush furnished the title.

As head of the medical staff of Washington's army, he insisted on hospital reforms, quit the service when he failed to get them and became openly critical of the commander-in-chief. When Lewis & Clark started on their famous expedition, President Jefferson asked Rush to tell Lewis what information he ought to bring back. Sample queries: "What are the acute diseases of the Indians? Is suicide common among them? Ever from love? . . ."

Cantankerous as his opinions were, he hated physical violence. He was deeply grieved when one of his sons killed a man in a duel, yet he advised his boys to become soldiers rather than politicians because: "In battle men kill without hating each other; in political contests men hate without killing, but in that hatred they commit murder every hour of their lives."

The commonplace books are peppered with lugubrious notices on the passing of old friends, for death disturbed him. Yet, in 1792, he wrote down a wry "Eulogium on Death": "1. It relieves unhappy and discontented husbands and wives; 2. It relieves children from parents who keep them too long out of their estates; 3. It relieves Physicians of incurable patients ... 5. It relieves the world of old men who keep the minds of men in chains to old prejudices. These men do not die half fast enough. Few Clergymen, Physicians, or Lawyers beyond 60 do any good to the world." When death came for Dr. Rush, he was 67.

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