physicians, and who yet were
credited by us with a fondness for absurd ideas, which, in fact,
influenced their writings far more than their practice. Rush was to some
extent one of this class. His book on insanity is far in advance of his
time, and his descriptions of disease one of our best tests, most
admirable. Let us see how this physician who bled and dosed heavily
could think and act when face to face with a hopeless case. The letter
to which I have referred was given to the College of Physicians of
Philadelphia at my request by one of its associate fellows, Dr. Hunter
Maguire, of Richmond, Virginia. It is written to Rush's cousin, Dr.
Thornton, in 1789, and has an added interest from the fact that it is a
letter of advice in the case of the aged mother of Washington, who had a
cancer of the breast.

"PHILADELPHIA, July 6, 1789.

MY DEAR KINSMAN:

The respectable age and character of your venerable patient leads me to
regret that it is not in my power to suggest a remedy for the cure of
the disorder you have described in her breast. I know nothing of the
root that you mention as found in Carolina and Georgia, but, from a
variety of inquiries and experiments, I am disposed to believe that
there does not exist in the vegetable kingdom an antidote to cancers.
All the vegetable remedies I have heard of are composed of some mineral
caustics. The arsenic is the most powerful of any of them. It is the
basis of Dr. Martin's powder. I have used it in many cases with some
success, but have failed in some. From your account of Mrs. Washington's
breast, I am afraid no great good can be expected from the use of it.
Perhaps it may cleanse it, and thereby retard its spreading. You may try
it diluted in water. Continue the application of opium and camphor, and
wash it frequently with a decoction of red clover. Give anodynes when
necessary, and support the system with bark and wine. Under this
treatment she may live comfortably many years, and finally die of old
age."

He had here to deal with cancer, a disease which he knew to be
incurable. His experience taught him, however, that in the very old this
malady is slow and measured in its march, and that he could only aid and
not cure. What he says might with slight change have been penned to-day.
We have gone no further in helpfulness as regards this sad disease.

If what I write now is to have for the laity any value, it will be i