Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/202

 MITCHELL

17S

MITCHELL

son of Samuel M. and Ann Sandy Mitchell. Dr Mitchell attended the public schools of his native place, and graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, in 1873. In that year he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and began to study medicine under Dr. Thaddeus A. Reamy, attending lectures at the Medical College of Ohio. In 1875 he graduated from that school, and began practice with Dr. Reamy. From 187G to 1878 Mitchell traveled abroad, visiting many countries in the interest of his medical education, and for his health, and returned in the autumn of 1878. From 1879 to 1884 he was adjunct pro- fessor of obstetrics in the Medical College of Ohio, but resigned this position to accept the professorship of obstetrics in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, which he held many years. He was for several years professor of gyne- cology in the Woman's Medical College, and the same in St. Mary's Hospital from April, 1896, until his death. He was a member of the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati from 1875 (its president in 1891); of the Cincinnati Obstetrical Society; of the Ohio State Medical Soci- ety, and the National Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. His M. A. was conferred by the Indiana University. Rare skill as an operator placed him in the front rank as a gyne- cologist, and his genial manner won for him a very large clientele. During the latter years of life he devoted himself to gynecology.

May 11, 1875, he married Mary A. Reamy, daughter of his partner. She died on April 18, 1876, leaving a son who lived only three months, and on October 22, 1883, the doctor married Esther De Camp, of Cincinnati, who survived him. They had no children by this marriage. Dr. Mitchell died of angina pectoris. May 5, 1904. Though for two years a sufferer from the disease, he died in harness, visiting his patients on the very day of his death.

A. G. D.

Cincin. Lancet-Clinic, 1904, n.s., vol. liii.

Mitchell, John (1680?-1768).

This botanist, the date of whose birth is uncertain, was born, educated and took his M. D. in England, but as there were several scholarly John Mitchells of that time it is difficult to identify his birth. He came over to America about 1700, and lived in Virginia, at Urbanna, on the Rappahannock. The climate and people must have pleased him, for he stayed some forty-seven years, interested in everything scientific, especially botany, and making long excursions to gather plants, but writing also on electricity, yellow fever, politics and pubHshing a map of the British and French dominions in America which is said to mark an era in the geography of North America. Like most doctors and scientists of that time he kept his interests wide by corre- sponding with European confreres, espe- cially with Linnaeus who named the partridge vine or chequer berry after him Mitchella repens. Every fresh plant seems to have been sent by the American botanists to their acknowledged head in Sweden and the great man always most courteously thanked these friends and ofttimes pupils for remembering him.

Mitchell returned to London about 1747 and became a fellow of the Royal Society, the fruits of his literary solitude in America, being given to the learned Society in several addresses, among them one on " The Preparation and Use of Various Ivinds of Potash," and one on "The Force of Electrical Cohesion."

His biographers simply state that "he died in March, 1768." Where buried, no one knows and very few that he is com- memorated in the Mitchella repens.

His writings included:

" Dissertatio brevis de principiis bo- tanicorum," 1738.

"Nova Plantarum Genera," 1769.

"Essay on the Causes of the Different Colours of People in Different Climates," read before the Royal Society, by Peter ColHnson, 1744.

"The Contest in America between