Name/Title
Benjamin Rush ALS to Elisha WallDescription
Interesting letter from Benjamin Rush to his first cousin, Dr. Elisha Hall regarding free admission to medical lectures. This letter portends the idea of medical ethics as Rush states he will allow free entry to his lectures but cannot offer it for his colleagues:
" Dear Kinsman,
I shall have no objection to any person whom you recommend attending my lectures without paying for a ticket, but it will be impossible for me to solicit gratuitous tickets for him from any of my brother professors. The great increase of physicians in our country has ceased to render it an act of charity to add to this number.
I hope you and your whole family enjoy good health with all the other blessings of Heaven. Mine join in love to you and your with your affectionately, Benjn Rush
Philadelphia October 27, 1809.
PS: you have not dated your letter. I address mine to you at Friedburgh(?) at a venture."
Elish Hall, (1754-1814) was first cousin to Benjamin Rush. He is most famous for having attended Mary Ball Washington during her battle with breast cancer, was at least an acquaintance of George Washington, and was known to have dined at Mount Vernon several times.General Notes
Note Type
Historical NoteNote
Originally from Philadelphia, Dr. Elisha Hall lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where his patients included George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington. Hall and noted Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush were first cousins. In 1789, Hall sought Rush’s advice on treatment for Mrs. Washington’s breast cancer. Rush wrote that “there does not exist in the vegetable kingdom an antidote to cancers.” Mrs. Washington died a month later.