elegance. Like Gibbon, "He investigated with his pen always in his hand;" believing, with an ancient classic, "that to study without a pen is to dream :— "Studium sine calamo, somnium." Having with great fidelity completed his course of medical studies under Dr. Redman, he embarked for Europe, and passed two years at the University of Edinburgh, attending the lectures of those celebrated professors, Dr. Monro, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Cullen, and Dr. Black. In the spring of 1768, after defending an inaugural dissertation "De Coctione Ciborum in Ventriculo," he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In that exercise which was written with classical purity and elegance, it was the object of Dr. Rush to illustrate by experiment an opinion that had been expressed by Dr. Cullen, that the aliment, in a few hours after being received into the stomach, undergoes the acetous fermentation. This fact he established by three different experiments made upon himself; experiments which a mind less ardent in the pursuit of truth would readily have declined. From Edinburgh Dr. Rush proceeded to London, where, in attendance upon hospitals of that city, the lectures of its celebrated teachers, and the society of the learned, he made many accessions to the stock of knowledge he had already acquired. In the spring of 1769, after visiting Paris, he returned to his native country, and immediately commenced the practice of physic in the city of Philadelphia, in which he soon became eminently distinguished. Few men have entered the profession in any age or country with more numerous qualifications as a physician than those possessed by Dr. Rush. His gentleness of manner, his sympathy with the distressed, his kindness to the poor, his varied and extensive erudition, his professional acquirements, and his faithful attention to the sick, all united in procuring for him the esteem, the respect, and the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and thereby introducing him to an extensive and lucrative practice. It is abserved, as an evidence of the diligence and fidelity with which Dr. Rush devoted himself to his medical studies, during the six years he had been the pupil of Dr. Redman, that he absented himself from his business but two days in the whole of that period of time. I believe it may also be said, that from the time he commenced the practice of medicine to the termination of his long and valuable life, except when confined by sickness, or occupied by business of a public nature, he never absented himself from the city of Philadelphia, nor omitted the performance of his professional duties a single day. It is also stated that during the thirty years of his attendance as a physician to the Pennsylvania hospital, such was his punctuality, his love of order, and his sense of duty, that he not only made his daily visit to that institution, but was never absent ten minutes after the appointed hour of prescribing. In a few months after his establishment in Philadelphia, Dr. Rush Rush was elected a Professor in the Medical School, which had then been recently established by the laudable exertions of Dr. Shippen, Dr. Kuhn, Dr. Morgan, and Dr. Bond. For this station his talents and education peculiarly qualified him. As in the case of Boerhaave, such too had been the attention bestowed by Dr. Rush upon every branch of medicine, that he was equally prepared to fill any department in which his services might be required. The Professorships of Anatomy, the Theory and Practice of Physic, Clinical Medicine, and the Materia Medica, being already occupied, he was placed in the chair of Chemistry, which he filled in such manner as immediately to attract the attention of all who heard him, not only to the branch he taught, but to the learning, the abilities, and eloquence of the teacher. In the year 1789 Dr. Rush was elected the successor of Dr. Morgan, to the chair of the Theory and Practice of Physic. In 1791, upon an union being effected between the College of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, he was appointed to the Professorship of the Institutes of Medicine and Clinical Practice; and in 1805, upon the resignation of the learned and venerable Dr. Kuhn, he was chosen to the united Professorships of the Theory and Practice of Physic and of Clinical Medicine, which he held the remainder of his life. To the success with which these several branches of medicine were taught by Dr. Rush, the popularity of his lectures, the yearly increase of the number of his pupils, the un exampled growth of the Medical School of Philadelphia, and the consequent diffusion of medical learning, bear ample testimony; for, with all due respect to the distinguished talents with which the other Professorships of that University have hitherto been, and still continue to be filled, it will be admitted that to the learning, the abilities, and the eloquence of Dr. Rush, it owes much of that celebrity and elevation to which it has attained. What Boerhaave was to the Medical School of Leyden, or Dr. Cullen to that of Edinburgh, Dr. Rush was to the University of Pennsylvania. But Dr. Rush did not confine his attention and pursuits either to the practice of medicine, or to the duties of his Professorship: his ardent mind did not permit him to be an inactive spectator of those important public events which occurred in the early period of his life. The American revolution; the independence of his country; the establishment of a new constitution of government for the United States, and the amelioration of the constitution of his own particular state, all successively interested his feelings, and induced him to take an active concern in the scenes that were passing. He held a seat in the celebrated Congress of 1776, as a representative of the state of Pennsylvania, and subscribed the ever-memorable instrument of American independence. In 1777 he was appointed Physician General of the Military Hospital for the Middle Department; and in the year 1787 he received the addi tional gratification and evidence of his country's confidence in his talents, his integrity, and his patriotism, by being chosen a member of the State Convention for the adoption of the Federal Constitution. These great events being accomplished, Dr. Rush gradually retired from political life, resolved to dedicate the remainder of his days to the practice of his profession, the performance of his collegiate duties, and the publication of those doctrines and principles in medicine which he considered calculated to advance the interests of his favourite science, or to diminish the evils of human life. In a letter which I received from him as early as the year 1794, he expresses this determination, adding, "I have lately become a mere spectator of all public events." And in a conversation on this subject, during the last two years of his life, he expressed to me the high gratification which he enjoyed in his medical studies and pursuits, and his regret that he had not at a much earlier period withdrawn his attention from all other subjects, and bestowed it exclusively upon his profession. Such was the attachment of Dr. Rush to his profession, that, speaking of his approaching dissolution, he remarks, "when that time shall come, I shall relinquish many attractions to life, and among them a pleasure which to me has no equal in human pursuits; I mean that which I derive from studying, teaching, and practising medicine." But he loved it as a science; principles in medicine were the great objects of all his inquiries. He has well observed, that medicine without principles is a humble art and a degrading occupation: but, directed by principles,-the only sure guide to a safe and successful practice, it imparts the highest elevation to the intellectual and moral character of man. But the high professional character and attainments of Dr. Rush did not alone display themselves in his skill as a physician, or his abilities as a teacher; he was equally distinguished as a writer and an author. The present occasion does not allow me to recite even the numerous subjects of his medical publications; much less does it afford an opportunity to review the opinions they contain. I must however, observe generally, that the numerous facts and principles which the writings of Dr. Rush contain, the doctrines they inculcate relative to the nature and causes of disease, and the improvements they have introduced into the practice of medicine, recommend them to an attentive perusal and study, while the perspicuity and elegance of the style in which they are written give them an additional claim to attention as among the finest models of composition. The same remarks are equally applicable to the epistolary style of Dr. Rush, and that of his conversation; in both of which he eminently excelled. Mr. Fox declared in the British House of Commons that he had learned more from Mr. Burke's conversation than from all the books he had ever read. It may also be observed of the conversation of Dr. Rush, that such were the the riches of his mind; such was the active employment of all his faculties; so constant was his habit of giving expression to his thoughts in an extensive correspondence, in the preparation of his public discourses, and in his daily intercourse with the world, that few persons ever left his society without receiving instruction, and expressing their astonishment at the perpetual stream of eloquence in which his thoughts were communicated. It has frequently been the subject of surprise that amidst the numerous avocations of Dr. Rush, as a practitioner and a teacher of medicine, that he found leisure for the composition and the publication of the numerous medical and literary works which have been the production of his pen. Although Dr. Rush possessed by nature an active and discriminating mind, in which were blended great quickness of perception, and a retentive memory; although he enjoyed the benefits of an excellent preliminary and professional education, it was only by habits of uncommon industry, punctuality in the performance of all his engagements, the strictest temperance and regularity in his mode of life, that enabled him to accomplish so much in his profession, and to contribute so largely to the medical literature of his country. Dr. Rush, like most men who have extended the boundaries of any department of human knowledge; who have contributed to the improvement of any art or science, was in habits of early rising, by which he always secured what Gibbon has well denominated " the sacred portion of the day." The great moralist* justly observes, that "to temperance every day is bright, and every hour is propitious to diligence." The extreme temperance of Dr. Rush in like manner enabled him to keep his mind in continual employment, thereby "setting at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp-the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the south.”† He knew not that "lethargy of indolence" that follows the inordinate gratifications of the table. His ciesto did not consist in indulgence upon the bed or in the armed chair, to recover those powers which had been paralysed or suspended by an excessive meal, or the intemperate use of vinous or spirituous drinks. Dr. Johnson, during his tour to the Hebrides, when fatigued by his journey, retired to his chamher, and wrote his celebrated Latin ode addressed to Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Rush, in like manner, after the fatigues of professional duty, refreshed his mind by the perusal of some favourite poet, some work of taste, some volume of travels, biography, or history. These were the pillows on which he sought repose. But the virtues of the heart, like the faculties of his mind, were also in continued exercise for the benefit of his fellow men; while the numerous humane, charitable, and religious associations, which do honour to the city of Philadelphia, bear testimony to the philanthropy and piety which animated the bosom of their departed benefactor, let it also be remembered that, as with the good Sa Dr. Johnson. + Boswell. Boswell. maritan, maritan, the poor were the objects of his peculiar care; and that in the latter and more prosperous years of his life, oneseventh of his income was expended upon the children of affliction and want. Dr. Boerhaave said of the poor, that they were his best patients, because God was their paymaster. Let it also be recorded, that the last act of Dr. Rush was an act of charity, and that the last expression which fell from his lips was an injunction to his son, "Be indulgent to the poor." "Vale egregium academiæ decus! tuum nomen mecum semper durabit; et laudes et honores tui in æternum manebunt." These words were addressed by Dr. Rush, upon his taking leave of the University of Edinburgh, to his particular friend and preceptor, Dr. Cullen. The King of the Sandwich Islands; from Campbell's Voyage round the World. The sudden revolution produced in the customs of the natives of the Sandwich islands, from their intercourse with the Europeans, gives a peculiar interest to any recent accounts of them, from which we may be enabled to trace the progress of society in one of its earliest stages. These islands, from their situation, midway be. tween the continents of Asia and America, the fertility of their soil, and the natural talents and industry of the natives, are rendered by far the most interesting of the recent discoveries in the Pacific ocean, and so were considered by Captain Cook. When Captain Cook, in 1778, discovered the Sandwich islands, Tereoboo was king of Owhyhee ; Teteree, of Moratai; and Pedeoranne of Waoho, and the islands to the leeward. Tamaahmaah, the present king, is known in Cook's voyage under the name of Maiha-maiha, and was present at the death of that illustrious navigator: he was only brother to Tereoboo. In From the departure of the Resolution till the year 1787, no ship visited these islands. 1788, Captain Douglas, in the Iphiginia, touched at Owhyhee. Tamaahmaah at this time having obtained the assistance of Boyd, a ship carpenter, built a small tender, and it was at this period that Young and Davis, the persons subsequently noticed, became resident at Owhyhee. After the arrival of Captain Vancouver, the king, with the assistance of the ships carpenters, constructed this first decked vessel; and in order to ensure the good-will of the English, a formal surrender of the sovereignty of these islands was made by the king, reserving, however, freedom in all matters of religion, internal government, and domestic economy. Tamaahmaah, after various successes, had in 1810 reduced all the islands in this group under his dominions, except Atooi and Onehooi. Scarcely 30 years have elapsed since the period of the discovery of these islands; and we already find a chief who has made rapid progress towards civilization, and who on all occasions has availed himself of every opportunity of intercourse |