Silas Weir Mitchell

Background

Mitchell was born in 1858 in Philadelphia, United States. He was the son of a Philadelphia doctor, John Kearsley Mitchell, was born in Philadelphia on the 15th of February 1830.

Education

He studied at the university of Pennsylvania in that city, and received the degree of M. D. at Jefferson Medical College in 1850. He then spent a year in Europe attending the lectures of Claude Bernard and the microscopist Charles Philippe Robin.

Career

In 1863 he wrote a clever short story, combining physiological and psychological problems, entitled " The Case of George Dedlow, " in the Atlantic Monthly. His historical novels, Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker (1897), The Adventures of Franqois (1898) and The Red City (1909), take high rank in this branch of fiction.

Mitchell later extended this treatise into a delinithe monograph, Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences (1872).

His preeminence as a neurologist brought him many patients with functional and neurotic complaints.

He was especially interested in hysteria, and a large portion of the two general treatises is devoted to the description and treatment of hysteria and related disorders.

His home on Walnut Street was a longtime center of Philadelphia’s intellectual life.

Mitchell’s intimates included William Osler, William Henry Welch, and John Shaw Billings.

Achievements

• Between 1852 and 1863 Mitchell published more than thirty papers on a variety of topics ranging from the toxic effects of rattlesnake venom to the crystalline forms of uric acid.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Wear and Tear; Or, Hints for the Overworked

    (HardPress Classic Books Series)

  • The Autobiography of a Quack and the Case of George Dedlow

Connections

Father:

John Kearsley Mitchell

Doctor