RUSH, BENJAMIN. 1745-1813.


Five volumes, comprising: 1. Medical Inquiries and Observations. Philadelphia: Richard and Hall, 1789. BOUND WITH: Appendix: Containing the New Method of Inoculating for the Small-Pox ... also, Observations on the Duties of a Physician. Philadelphia: Prichard & Hall, 1789. 8vo (200 x 114 mm). Contemporary sheep. Covers worn, browning. In addition to Rush's account of the bilious remitting fever, this work also contains the first publication of several of Rush's essays, including chapters on cancer, tuberculosis, and military medicine. 2. Medical Inquiries and Observations. Volume II. Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1793. 8vo (206 x 120 mm). Early calf. Browning. SECOND EDITION, with sections on the effects of alcohol, dropsy of the brain, influenza, and the diseases of old age. The section on dropsy (pp 161-197) includes a discussion of the value of digitalis, explaining that he has used it. Austin 1659. 3. An Account of the Bilious Remitting Yellow Fever, as it Appeared in Philadelphia in the Year 1793. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1794.8vo (208 x 123 mm). Modern quarter calf and marbled boards. Ownership inscription on title, browning throughout.Provenance: Paul F. Eve, M.D. (1806-1877), Civil War surgeon with the Confederate Army (signature on title).FIRST EDITION of Rush's classic record of the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic.4. Medical Inquiries and Observations: Containing an Account of the Bilious Remitting and Intermitting Yellow Fever, as it Appeared in Philadelphia in the Year 1794. Together with an Inquiry into the Proximate Cause of Fever; and a Defense of Blood-letting as a Remedy for Certain Diseases. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1796. 8vo (214 x 126 mm). Contemporary sheep. Hinges cracking at head of spine, tear to fore-edge of page.Provenance: Thomas Kennedy (ink inscription); John N.C. Grier (ink inscription, dated 1815). FIRST EDITION of Rush's fourth volume on the nearly annual yellow fever epidemics that struck Philadelphia at the end of the eighteenth century. This volume also includes Rush's important essay on blood-letting. "Whereas Cullen had made the nervous system the center of his theory, Rush narrowed his focus to the responsiveness of the arterial system. Using fever as a paradigm, he said that a state of motion in the arteries was the sole cause of disease. Since the majority of illnesses appeared to him to arise from increased tension, he logically but over-enthusiastically applied bleeding and other depleting remedies to his patients. History has roundly but often excessively condemned him for the vigor of this treatment" (DSB 11, p 616). Austin 1660.5. Medical Inquiries and Observations: Containing an Account of Yellow Fever, as it Appeared in Philadelphia in 1797, and Observations upon the Nature and Cure of the Gout, and Hydrophobia. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1798. 8vo (219 x 133 mm). Contemporary sheep. Library stamps, light spotting to edges of leaves.Provenance: John M. Semple (ink inscription); William Lowell (ink inscription, dated 1800 on title); Spokane Medical and Dental Library (stamp).FIRST EDITION of the fifth and final volume of Rush's Medical Inquiries and Observations. Although published as a series, each volume is complete in itself. Rush revisits the topic of yellow fever, with his account of the 1797 epidemic, and writes extensively in the second half of the volume on gout and hydrophobia. See Garrison-Morton 5453.Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a prominent Philadelphia physician who served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and later a professor of chemistry and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.