The New Student's Reference Work/Mitchell, Silas Weir

Mitchell, Silas Weir, an American physician and writer, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 15, 1829. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and took his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College. His earliest researches were in the study of poisons, and he became an authority on the venom of snakes. His subsequent work was in the study of diseases of the nerves, and he stood at the head of the profession in that department of medical science. He also published, in connection with others, Gunshot Wounds and Other Injuries to the Nerves, Injuries to the Nerves and their Consequences and Clinical Lectures on Nervous Diseases, and he made many contributions to medical journals. In another line of literary work he was author of five volumes of poems, grouped in 1896 in Collected Poems, and several novels, the more notable of the latter being Hugh Wynne, an admirable story of the Revolutionary War, The Adventures of François; and When All the Woods are Green. Among other stories are Dr. North and his Friends and In War Time. Among his more popular professional works are Doctor and Patient and Wear and Tear or Hints for the Overworked. He died Jan. 4, 1914.