QUINCY, JOSIAH, an eminent statesman and patriot, was born in Boston, June 8, 1743. At the age of sixteen, he entered Harvard college, where he was distinguished for the vivacity of his genius, and his application to study.

In 1763, he received the honours of that university. He afterwards became an eminent counsellor at law in Boston.

At the bar he discovered much legal information. He was energetic and fluent, and seldom failed of impressing his sentiments upon the jury in the most pointed and perspicuous manner. His political character, however, gave him the greatest. claim to public favour. As a friend to liberty, the people regarded him with admiration bordering on enthusiasm. He had a tongue to speak, and a pen to write, which have not been exceeded in this country.

He opposed with firmness and zeal the arbitrary proceedings and claims of the British parlia

ment.

His publication, in 1774, entitled "Thoughts on the Boston Port Bill," &c. was a seasonable work, fraught with much information, and written with great energy. It was the means of stimulating the body of the people to manly and decent exertions in defence of their natural and constitutional rights.

The health of Mr. Quincy had been some time declining. Amidst his vigorous exertions for the public good, he thought too little of himself.

In 1774, he sailed for England at the request of several of his fellow patriots to promote the interests of America. He set sail on his return in

the following year, but he died on board the vessel on the very day of its arrival at Cape Ann, April 24, 1775.

He fell a victim to his zeal for his country's good.

Rush, Benjamin, M. D. a celebrated Physician, and one of the signers of the declaration of independence, was born near Philadelphia, on the 24th December, 1745. At the age of fourteen he enteréd Princeton college, and was graduated in 1760. Shortly after, he commenced the study of physic, under Dr. John Redman, an eminent practitioner in Philadelphia.

Having acquired such elementary knowledge in medicine as the resources of his native country at that time afforded, for the completion of his education, he repaired, in the year 1766, to the school of Edinburgh, then in the zenith of its utility and

renown.

After an assiduous attendance on the lectures and hospitals of that place, he, in the year 1768, obtained the degree of doctor of medicine.

Having spent the succeeding winter in an attendance on the hospitals, and other sources of medical instruction in London, and made a visit to Paris the following summer, to derive information from the schools of that metropolis, he returned to Philadelphia in the course of the autumn of 1769. He now

de commenced the practice of physic with the

brightest prospect of success, and in a very few years ranked with the ablest of the physicians of Philadelphia.

As a practitioner, his highest excellence lay in his knowledge and treatment of fever. It was in his combats with that form of disease that he manifested, at once, the strength of a giant and the skill of an adept. For many years, pulmonary consumption and the diseases of the mind constituted especially the objects of his attention. As a teacher, his qualifications were pre-eminently great. Ardently attached to his profession, ample in his resources, eloquent and animated in his delivery,

and unusually perspicuous in his style and arrangement, his mode of communicating knowledge was pleasing and impressive.

By enlightened foreigners, as well as by those of his own countrymen, who had visited the medical schools of Europe, he was acknowledged to be one of the most popular lecturers of the age.

In short, he was to the medical school of Philadelphia, what Boerhaave was to the school of Leyden, and Cullen to that of Edinburgh.

Various are the academical honours conferred on him in the course of his lifetime by the university of Pennsylvania. In 1769, he was chosen professor of chymistry. In 1789, professor of the theory and practice of medicine. In 1791, professor of the institutes of medicine and of clinical practice and on the resignation of Dr. Kuhn, he was promoted to the chair of the practice of physic. As a man of business, he moved in a sphere that was extensive and important.

He took a zealous and active part in the revolutionary conflict which severed the British empire, and gave existence, as a nation, to the United States.

Both his tongue and his pen were effectively employed in the sacred cause, and he was closely associated with many of the most distinguished American patriots of the time. In July, 1776, he became a member of the celebrated congress of that year, and, pursuant to a rule of that house, subscribed his name to the declaration of independence, which had been previously ratified on the fourth day of the same month.

In 1777, he was appointed physician-general of the United States. In 1788, he was elected a member of the convention of the state of Pennsylvania, for the adoption of the federal constitution.

Besides these delegated and official trusts, he took, as a member of the community, a very prominent concern in all the leading national transactions

that occurred from the commencement of the revolutionary war tilf the organization of our present form of government. Cotemporary with the termination of this latter event was the termination of his political life. The only appointment he ever held under the federal government, as an acknowledgment of all that he had contributed towards its establishment, was that of cashier of the mint of the United States.

He was president of the Philadelphia medical society; vice-president of the American philosophical society, and a member of many other learned and benevolent institutions both in America and Europe.

In the midst of his honours and usefulness, advanced in years, but in the meridian of his fame, he died, after a short illness, on the 19th April, 1813. From one extreme of the United States to the other, the event was deplored. Even Europe shed a tear of sensibility on his ashes, and the voice of eulogy was raised to his memory. For the man of genius and learning, science and active philanthropy, becomes deservedly the favourite of the civilized world.

His person was above the middle size, and his figure slender, but well proportioned. His forehead was prominent, his nose aquiline, his eyes blue, and highly animated. His look was fixed, and his whole demeanour thoughtful and grave.

He was temperate in his diet, neat in his dress, and sociable in his habits. In colloquial powers he had few equals. His conversation was an attic repast.

Considered in relation to the entire compass of his character; as a practitioner, a teacher, a philosopher, and a writer, Dr. Rush must be acknowledged to have been the most distinguished physician that America has produced.

His professional works are comprised in five volumes octavo.