Dr. Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the four original professors of the nation’s first medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a visionary proponent of comparative medicine and was also one of the first to promote the study of veterinary medicine in North America. Rush was a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, abolitionist, humanitarian, and educator.
In 1807, in a plan for promoting veterinary knowledge, he introduced a series of lectures to his medical students at the University of Pennsylvania, on studying diseases of domestic animals. Dr. Rush was the most well-known physician in America at the time of his death. The founding of the School of Veterinary Medicine came about on October 2, 1884 through recognition of the need for a well-trained body of veterinarians to cope with the devastating toll of animal disease in a young country.
Dr. Benjamin Rush was the first to believe that mental illness is a disease of the mind and not a “possession of demons”; he was considered the “father of American psychiatry.” Learn more about his life and extensive career at the Libraries' Benjamin Rush LibGuide
The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture (PSPA), the oldest agricultural society in the United States, was founded in 1785 to promote awareness and interest in agriculture in the Philadelphia area. Members were advocates of agricultural experimentation concerned about soil fertility, crop rotation, and animal husbandry. Many deans and faculty members of the School of Veterinary Medicine have been members of this society.
In 1807, Dr. Benjamin Rush – a faculty member at the School of Medicine and a charter member of PSPA – delivered a lecture on behalf of PSPA that ultimately inspired the creation of Penn Vet— the first veterinary school born from a medical school. In his prescient lecture, Rush pointed to the critical links between the health of people, animals, and the environment, a concept now know as One Health. It would be many years before the Vet School would be established, but the principles outlined in Rush’s call to “take care of the health of domestic animals” laid the groundwork for the Vet school’s priorities.
Dr. Rush's full remarks were printed in the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, Vol. 1. The full speech is available to read below:
Link: Internet archive| other formats
Learn more about the history of Penn Vet by visiting the Penn Vet History Resources Guide
PSPA presented this certificate to the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1984 to commemorate its first 100 years of veterinary education.
PSPA continues to meet regularly and maintains close relationships with Penn Vet’s deans and faculty. The Society meets at the Union League of Philadelphia or during field trips to agricultural enterprises. Students and faculty are encouraged to attend meetings and to learn more on the PSPA website: http://pspaonline.com/
