Law and Medicine in Revolutionary America

This study focuses on two critical figures in late eighteenth-century America—the physician Benjamin Rush and the journalist William Cobbett— as they clashed in one of the most important trials of post-revolutionary America, a libel trial that pitted medicine against the press, republicanism against federalism, and privacy against the public welfare.

Linda Myrsiades is professor emerita at West Chester University.

Acknowledgments Illustrations Prolegomena The Trial Transcript Constructing the Plaintiff The Republican Narrative Yellow Fever and the Jeremiad Narrative The Image of Fever Chapter 1: Benjamin Rush and the Culture of Medicine Quacks and Factions The Culture of Medicine Rush's Treatments Doctors' Wars Chapter 2: Malpractice Law and Benjamin Rush Malpractice Law The Patient's Duty Medical Authority Physicians and the Law Whitworth and Young Samuel Thomson Rush and Malpractice Rush's Decision to Prosecute Chapter 3: William Cobbett and the Scurrilous Press Cobbett and the Press Porcupine and Style Trial by Press Satire Porcupine's Prints Press Feuds Cobbett's Attacks on Rush Sangrado the Bleeder The Vintner's Tales Chapter 4: Libel Law and William Cobbett Libel Cases Eleazer Oswald Sedition Cases Cobbett and the Law Changes in Legal Practice The Venue: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Fleeing the Trial Chapter 5: Sangrado v. the Cloven Foot, the Trial The Political Story The Story of Character The Secular Jeremiad The Contribution of Sermons Cobbett's Self-Defense Chapter 6: The Trial Concluded The Judge and the Jury Cobbett's Counsel Trial Strategy Afterword Cobbett's Flight to England The Death of George Washington Peter Porcupine v. Paul Polecat Bibliography