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Pennsylvania Hospital took care of both Continental and British
soldiers, endured the exile of four of its prominent Quaker Board
members, and suffered financially for years to come. A member
of the hospital's medical staff who went on to be the best known
physician in America -- Dr. Benjamin Rush -- wrote a definitive
treatise on military medicine which served the nation until the
Civil War. With characteristic zeal, Dr. Rush made his case against
the human waste resulting from preventable disease. He spoke
of:
The gallant youth ... torn ... from the arms of his parents
or the partner of his joys, who has plighted his life to his
country ... forced from the scene of action and glory, by the
attack of fever and obliged to languish for days or weeks in
a hospital, and at last closes his eyes, deprived of the sweet
consolation of a dying soldier, the thoughts of ending his
life in the arms of victory ....
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