Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/822

NAME MITCHELL 800 MITCHELL In 1889 he was president of the Association of American Physicians. He was treasurer of the Massachusetts Medical Society from 1863 to 1875 and was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Medical Benevolent Society. For many years he was a member of the Obstetrical Society of Boston. Dr. Minot contributed papers on "The Treatment of Acute Pneumonia," "Cases of Pulmonary Consumption Followed by Recov- ery or Arrest of the Disease," and other topics, to the medical press. He was an excel- lent teacher and a man of most courteous bearing both in the classroom and at the bed- side. His portrait is in the Boston Medical Library where he is also commemorated by a book fund. Bos. Med. and Sur. Jour., vol. cxI, 488. Eminent Amer. Phys. Si Surgs., R. F. Stone, 1894. Mitchell, Ammi Ruhamah (1762-1824) Ammi Mitchell was the son of Judge David Mitchell, who was judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Cumberland County, Maine, and member of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was born May 8. 1762, and named after Dr. Ammi Ruhamah Cutter (q. v.). When young Mitchell was nineteen years old he went to Portsmouth and studied medi- cine with his namesake. While there, our government gave to France a new man-of- war called the America in place of a French ship which had been lost off our coasts. The French government had sent Dr. Meaubec to Portsmouth, to be surgeon of the new ship on her return to France. This gentleman took a great fancy to young Mitchell, and per- suaded him to go with him to France as surgeon's mate on the America. This he did and visited all the places of interest under Dr. Meaubec's patronage, to say nothing of obtaining the best possible opportunities of studying medicine in Paris for a long time. When Dr. Mitchell returned to North Yar- mouth, he could hardly decide to spend his life in so small a place. It happened, how- ever, that while considering whether to settle, one patient came, and before her case was finished, another wanted his services, so that ultimately Dr. Mitchell passed his life in that town, gaining an extensive practice. In his practice. Dr. Mitchell had remark- able success, most of which, in those religious days, was regarded as due to the fact that he always asked God's blessing on his medicine chest and its contents as well as upon him- self, looking heavenward for assistance to the efficacy of the drugs grown on God's earth and sacred soil. He was successful, also, owing to his intense humor. He had an enormous fund of anecdote, which made every- body laugh, and his wit went far to help his cures. He was most energetic in stamping out an epidemic of malignant fever brought in 1807 by a vessel from the West Indies. At his funeral service, the Rev. Asa Cum- mings publicly regretted that at times Dr. Mitchell's mirth would run through an audi- ence like contagion, when sobriety of mind would have been much more appropriate. He was much in request to deliver addresses, and we find that he delivered an eulogy of Wash- ington in 1800, one on Rev. Tristram Gilman, and another on "Sacred Music" in Portland in 1812. Dr. Mitchell was distinctly a literary man, and not a few papers were written by him, and read before the public, or printed in the newspapers of the day. Dr. Mitchell died, as it were, in harness. May 14, 1824. He and his horse and carriage were seen going down a hill and an hour later the horse and empty wagon appeared in Dr. Mitchell's yard. Search was made, and the good physician was found dead on the roadside, having probably been thrown by a bad place in the road. People from miles around attended the funeral, and there was much lamentation for the sudden death of their genial, respected, and beloved medical man, who at sixty-four seemed well prepared for many years more of active practice. He married when twenty-four, and was the father of twelve children. James A. Sp.'^lding. .^mer. Med. Biog., James Thacher, 1828. Mitchell, Giles Sandy (18S2-1904) Giles Sandy Mitchell was born in Martins- ville, Indiana, May 31, 1852, the 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 1876 to 1878 Mitchell traveled abroad, visiting many countries in the interest of his medical education, and for his health, and returned