MITCHELL, (Stuks) WEIR (1829—). A di, tingui-hed American neurologist and man of let ters. He was horn in Virginia, the son of John Eearsley Mitchell. a noted Philadelphia physi cian. After receiving his baecalaureate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. he was grad uated in medicine in 1850 at Jefferson Medical College. Philadelphia. After a few years spent in general practice. Mitchell turned his attention almost entirely to diseases of the nervous a laid in which he early achieved eminence. 11 is special title to LIMO is derived from his ?dabo ration of the system of "Rest Treatment" which has borne his name for mummy and has been adopted. with modificathmss the world over. llis earliest work of importance consisted of re searches upon the chemical composition and physiologieal nelion of the Ve1111111 of snakes. in 1866, and later. Ile was assistant surgeon lo the U. S. Hospital for Nervous DiseaSI, during the Civil War, and from that time he lots been a prolific contributor to medical litera ture. ills scientific literary productions com prise more than 125 essays and monographs upon toxicology, (411111mrative physiology, and clinieal medicine. Besides these productions. which were contributed to medical journals, he has published the following hooks or pamphlets: "Researches upon the Venom of the Mill Iv.nake," in Smith sonian Contrihations to knowledge (18601 : In juries of V, ryes and Their Consequences (1872) : Wear and Tear, or Hints for the Overteorked(4th cd. 1874) ; Pat and Blood, and How to Make
Them (4th ed. 1885) ; Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous ,tiystera, Especially in Wonun (2(1 ed. 1885) ; t Doctor's Century (1887) ; Doctor and Patient (1587); Clinical Lectures on Ner vous Diseases (1897).
Dr. Mitchell first turned his attention to fic tion and general literature during the Civil War, when he wrote The Children's flour, to be sold during the great fair of the Sanitary Commission in Philadelphia. Among other pieces of juvenile fiction wits The Wonderful Stories of Fuz-boa, the Fly, and -!!other Grabein, the (1567). 1)1 his short stories• the most notable was The Case of George Dedloic (1863). is first nov els were Ileph.z.ibah Guinness (1880), Thee and Thou. and „t Draft on the Bank of Spain (pub lished in the same year). Others followed, including: In War Time (1885) : notarid /flake (1886); Par in the forest (1889) ; Character istics (1892) ; When ill the Woods Are Green (1594) ; Hugh Wynne. Free Quaker (1897); The Adre»lares of Pralq.ois (18:19); North and His Friends (1900) ; and Cirerrin St a/ICOR (1901). These stories deal with differvnt historical and emitemporary types of character, and are to he distinguished from the popular novels of their class by rather more insistence than is common on psychologieal and pathological analysis. //ugh is generally conceded to rank among the best stories of the Anierican llevolu tion yet written.