Historical Figure
Benjamin Rush
Dr. Benjamin Rush was a prominent Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence who provided Meriwether Lewis with medical training and a medicine chest for the expedition. Rush prepared a list of health rules and medical questions about Native American practices for Lewis to investigate during the journey. He also supplied the expedition's famously potent laxative pills, known as "Rush's Thunderbolts" or "thunderclappers," which contained mercury and were used as a cure-all throughout the expedition. Archaeological evidence of these mercury pills has helped historians trace the expedition's campsites.
Portrait: Charles Willson Peale, 1783, Public Domain
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