Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/825

NAME MITCHELL 803 MITCHELL cine of Rome, and honorary member of many other scientific societies in Europe and America. He took a continuous and enthusiastic in- terest in the College of Physicians of Phila- delphia. To him more than to any other fel- low of the college was due the influence which this institution exerted in medical circles and also its material advancement as a library and hall for medical assemblages. In November, 1909. the college moved from its old quarters at 13th and Locust Streets, to its present stately hall on 22nd Street, above Chestnut; the contributions which made this movement possible were largely obtained by his personal influence, and the new College today stands as a notable monument to his memory. Another monument is the Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases at 17th and Summer Streets, Philadelphia. Mitchell held honorary degrees from many learned institutions, both at home and abroad; he had a degree of Doctor of Medi- cine, honoris causa, University of Bologna in 1888: LL.D. Harvard, 1886; Edinburgh, 1895; Princeton, 1896; Toronto, 1906; and Jef- ferson Medical College, 1910. The first decades of his life were periods of arduous work as a general practitioner, although even at this period he turned his attention to research. He remained, however, to the last a practising physician, the char- acter of his professional work changing with the years. Before he reached middle life he was everywhere recognized as a great neurolo- gist, while at the same time retaining his hold on the profession as an internist and a general consultant. The Civil War made a profound impression both on his life and work. At the outbreak he was a little over thirty, vigorous and eager to serve. He lived in the midst of the re- cruiting camps, and saw the multiplied thou- sands march through Philadelphia to the front. He held a place in the work of the Sanitary Commission and of the army hos- pitals; early in the war he was appointed acting assistant surgeon. In two of the large military hospitals of Philadelphia, wards were set apart for him, for the study and treatment of injuries of the peripheral nerves and of the central nervous system. In 1863 a large hospital was established at Turners Lane, a Philadelphia suburb, where several hundred patients offered opportunities for study, em- braced by him and his colleagues, Moorehouse and Keen. Mitchell's publications, medical and scien- tific, from 1852 to 1910 include six books and many monographs and special articles; more than one hundred of these might be classed under the head, clinical neurology. A score is concerned with toxicology and chemistry, the study of snake venoms holding a pre- dominant place; and another score deals with problems in neural physiology and neural anatomy. The above classification is not quite exact, for some of his papers largely clinical have anatomic and physiologic bearings of equal or greater importance than the observations on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. I would cite as an instance, the discussion of the surface distribution of nerves in papers on neurotomy and allied subjects. He pointed out the remarkable variations in the median and other nerve supplies to the skin, challeng- ing the correctness of the descriptions in anatomic treatises. Not a little of the more recent work of Head and his collaborators on nerve distribution was anticipated by Mitchell. His study of the psychic and other phenomena of those who had undergone amputations illustrates the blending of clinical, physiologic and psychologic observations. The list of the publications referred to does not include his numerous historical, biograph- ical and introductory addresses, and many poems on medical occasions. His addresses on Harvey, on Instruments of Precision, and his poem on the "Death of Pain" are especially worthy of recall. That the field of neurology early attracted his attention is evident from his bibliography; In a "Smithsonian Contribution" published in 1863 he recorded studies with Morehouse on the respiration of turtles. In this was recorded the discovery of a laryngeal chiasm, the first neural decussation observed after that of the optic nerves. This notable observation ranks among the earliest American contributions to neuro-physiology. Several citations are included in the portion of this sketch which follows from an article by me on the place of Mitchell in neurology, published shortly after his death, in the Jour- nal of Nervous and Mental Disease. I have referred to his researches on injuries and diseases of the nerves; new symptoms like causalgia or burning pain, observations of reflex paralysis, new data in diagnosis, and new therapeutic measures, medical and surgical, were the results of this war-time work. On the foundation of the material col-