| Benjamin Rush was born in a farm near Philadelphia. He graduated from Jersey college later to become Princeton University. Early he studied law but moved on into medicine. Abroad, he studied in Edinburgh, later in London and Paris but returned to Philadelphia to become a practitioner-teacher. He became professor of chemistry in the College of Philadelphia. His views on cleaning the environment were rejected during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793. In Rush’s view, improving the physical health of the world would improve mental health as well. He is to be remembered for improving the status of psychiatric patients urging reforms in all asylums. He was a citizen, a patient, and was even a member in the first Congress. He saw much actions in the Revolutionary War. He will be remembered as a Revolutionary physician, a patient, a reformer, and the "American Hippocrates." He has also been cited as the "Father of American Psychiatry." |  |