Benjamin Rush (1746–1813), physician, was born near Philadelphia, graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1760, attended medical lectures at the College of Philadelphia, and received an M.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1768. He established a successful practice in Philadelphia and taught medicine both privately, and in succession at the College of Philadelphia, the University of the State of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania. Rush was active in the Revolutionary movement, signing the Declaration of Independence and serving from 1777–78 as surgeon-general of the armies of the Middle Department. He participated in a wide range of reform activities including temperance, the abolition of slavery, health care for the poor and the mentally ill, prison reform, and education for women. Medically Rush was perhaps best known for his personal bravery and controversial advocacy and application of strong purgatives and bleeding during Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic. He was appointed treasurer of the United States Mint in 1797, a post he held until his death. Rush’s friendship and broadly ranging correspondence with TJ continued without interruption from Revolutionary times until Rush’s death. In 1811, after several abortive attempts, Rush brought about the reconciliation of TJ and John Adams (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; Princetonians description begins James McLachlan and others, eds., Princetonians: A Biographical Dictionary, 1976–90, 5 vols. description ends , 1748–68, pp. 318–25; Whitfield J. Bell Jr., ed., Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society [1997– ], 1:452–64; George W. Corner, ed., Autobiography of Benjamin Rush [1948]; Lyman H. Butterfield, ed., The Letters of Benjamin Rush, 2 vols. [1951]).