Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/480

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476
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

statue was designed by Mr. Perry and the pedestal by Mr. Metcalf. The American Medical Association has thus completed an undertaking begun more than twenty years ago, and has erected a worthy memorial to perhaps the most distinguished American physician.

It is probably known to most readers of this magazine that Rush was an eminent Philadelphia physician and a signer of the declaration of independence, but a few words may be said in regard to his career. Rush was born in 1745 and educated at Princeton and Philadelphia, and later studied at Edinburgh, London and Paris. On returning to Philadelphia, then the chief intellectual center of America, he identified himself at an early age with its medical and political activities. It may be largely due to Rush that Philadelphia retained until quite recently the leadership in medical education and practise. He was appointed professor of chemistry at the College of Philadelphia, and when the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania was established in 1781 was elected to the chair of medicine. He was one of the founders of the College of Physicians and was an officer of the American Philosophical Society from 1770 to 1801. In the meanwhile he had taken an active part in the political movements leading up to the revolution. He was a member of a committee of two who reported to the Provisional Conference at Philadelphia on the expedi-

A Gutta-percha Tree, District of Zamboanga, Mindanao.