James Rush

American physician (1786–1869)

James Rush (1786–1869) was an American physician and writer.

Life

Dr. James Rush, son of doctor Benjamin Rush, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 1, 1786. He graduated from Princeton in 1805, and at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1809. He subsequently studied in Edinburgh, and, returning to Philadelphia, practised for several years, but afterward relinquished the active duties of his profession to devote himself to scientific and literary pursuits. He married his wife, Phoebe Ann Rush, in 1819. Phoebe Ann was one of the daughters of Jacob Ridgeway, and the two of them lived together in their large Philadelphia mansion which he built.^[1] This large mansion played host to numerous large balls and parties, as Phoebe Ann was very outgoing and social. He died in Philadelphia on May 26, 1869. He left $1,000,000 for the Philadelphia Library Company for the erection of the Ridgeway Branch of the Philadelphia Library, banning every-day novels, mind-tainting reviews, controversial politics and newspapers in the hope to keep the library from becoming too urban.^[1]

Works

His publications include:

Philosophy of the Human Voice (Philadelphia, 1827);
Hamlet, a Dramatic Prelude in Five Acts (1834);
Analysis of the Human Intellect (2 vols., 1865);
Rhymes of Contrast on Wisdom and Folly (1869).^[1]

Philosophy of the Human Voice

Credited as Rush's most important work, "Philosophy of the Human Voice" was published in 1827 and considered one of the most important work behind the science of speech at its time. In his book, he discusses his thoughts on human speech, discussing his idea on how speech of one could be controlled and improved instead of pre-determined. Rush determined the most efficient way to observe speech and research one's articulation was solely through observation. He argued that the thought of speech should be expanded into 5 separate sectors: vocal quality, time, pitch, intensity, and abruptness. This system of sectors of speech would later come to be known as the concept of personal magnetism. His writings on the improvement of speech, looking into how tone, pronunciation, emphasis, and using emotion on one's voice predated the common school of suprasegmental phonetic by around fifty years, and Rush is commonly considered the most important figure towards studying the nineteenth century elocution movement.

Time as a Physician

At an early age, James Rush was pressured by his father, Benjamin Rush, to become a physician and eventually take over the family practice. After graduating from Princeton in 1805, Rush studied under his father at the University of Pennsylvania, learning and adopting many of his medical practices, the most notable of which was the practice of bloodletting. After studying under his father, James Rush travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland to begin his post-doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh, where Rush's practices of bloodletting were challenged. After a year of studies in Edinburgh, Rush moved to London to continue his studies. While in London, James Rush spent much of his time experiencing various fine arts such as music and art. He enjoyed aristocratic life in England, but otherwise wished to return to the United States. Upon returning, James Rush took over his father's practice without losing any significant amount of patients. After the death of his father, Rush began to lose interest in his practice as a physician and began exploring other avenues of life. Rush found that democratic life was incapable of studying basic science and decided to spend his time researching science rather than running his families practice.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Wilson; Fiske, eds. 1900, p. 350.

Sources

Kurtz, Stephen G. (1954). "James Rush, Pioneer in American Psychology, 1786–1869". Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 28(1): pp. 50–59.
Young, Jeremy C. (2017). "James Rush and the Invention of Personal Magnetism.". The Junto.
Visit PA Great Outdoors, Pennsylvania Great Outdoors Visitors Bureau, "Narrative of Phoebe Ann Ridgway Rush, Daughter of Jacob Ridgway."

Attribution:

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Rush, James". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. 5. Rev. ed. New York: D. Appleton & Co. p. 350.
Curtis, Elizabeth G. "Library Company of Philadelphia." The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University, 2016,