MITCHELL 805 MITCHELL derness. "C6nstance Trescott," which, with others, I regard as his best novel, deals with the reconstruction period, throwing light on conditions in the South after the war; "West- ways" brings vividly to mind the antagonisms of the North and the South in the period pre- ceding the war, and in this novel is the de- scription of the Battle of Gettysburg. The militant spirit and the clash of arms are re- called in some of his poems, as in the lyrics of "The Sinking of the Cumberland," "Kear- sarge," and "The Eve of Battle," and in his drama "Francis Drake." Some of his best literary efforts were char- acter studies like "Doctor North and His Friends," and "Characteristics;" his longer novels are stronger in this than in plot. "Hugh Wynne" pictures Washington and the epfsodes of the Revolution. At twenty years of age he sent a slender volume of poems to a Boston publisher, which were seen, it is said, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who recommended the author to make his medical calling sure before launching into general literature. Mitchell followed this ad- vice, and refrained from any literary publica- tion under his own name until he was about fifty-one, although from time to time publish- ing anonymous poems and tales, especially in the Atlantic Monthly. From 1880 until his death in January, 1914, we note an interesting alteration of medical and literary contributions. Poetry furnishes seven volumes. "The Masque and other Poems" (1888), "The Cup of Youth and other Poems" (1889), "Psalm of Death" (1891), "Francis Drake," a drama in verse (1892), "The Mother and other Poems" (1892), "Col- lected Poems" (1896), and "The Wager and other Poems" (1902), whose value it is diffi- cult as yet to measure. His best lyrical and narrative verses surely remain a permanent ad- dition to our literature. He published no less than fifteen volumes of novels, three of the most popular, "Hugh Wynne," "Constance Trescott," and "West- ways," appeared respectively in his sixty- eighth, seventy-sixth, and eighty-fourth years. In 1914 a volume of minutes and memorial addresses appeared entitled "S. Weir Mitchell, M. D., LL. D., F. R. S., 1829-1914, Memorial Addresses and Resolutions." Among other biographical sketches are those by Dr. Edward Jackson in Colorado Medicine, November, 1914; by Dr. Guy Hinsdale in International Clinics, vol. i, 12th series, and by Dr. Charles K. Mills, in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, February, 1914. Charles K. Mills. Mitchell, Thomas Duche (1791-1865) Thomas Duche Mitchell, author and editor, received his early education in the Quaker schools and after a year in the drug store and chemical laboratory of Dr. Edward (?) Parrish, attended three courses of medical lec- tures at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1812. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred on him by the trustees of Princeton College in 1830. In 1812 he was appointed professor of vegetable and animal physiology in St. John's Lutheran College, and in 1819 published a volume on medical chemistry. From 1822 to 1831 he was engaged in the practice of medi- cine at Frankford, near Philadelphia, while 1826 saw the Total Abstinence Society firmly established by him, he going so far as to deprecate the use of alcohol in the preparation of tinctures. When Drake organized the Medical Depart- ment of Miami University in 1831, Dr. Mitchell was appointed professor of chemistry and pharmacy, at a salary of $2,000. Before the opening the scheme was abandoned, and Dr. Mitchell was made professor of chemistry in the Medical College of Ohio. In 183S he accepted the chair of materia medica in Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., where he remained until 1847, filling the chairs of chemistry as well as that of materia medica. In the year 1847 he returned to Philadelphia and took the chair of practice of medicine in the Philadelphia College of Medicine, and this he held until 1857 when he became professor of materia medica in Jefiferson Medical Col- lege. In 1832 he published an octavo volume of 553 pages on "Chemical Philosophy" on the basis of "The Elements of Chemistry," by Dr. Reid, of Edinburgh, and about the same time his "Hints to Students" appeared, and he became also co-editor of the Western Med- ical Gazette, with Profs. Eberle (q. v.) and Staughton, and editor of the Journal of Medi- cal and Associate Sciences. Another book came out in 1850, an octavo volume of 750 pages on "Materia Medica," also an edition of "Eberle on the Diseases of Children," to which he added notes and about 2(X) additional pages. His volume of 600 pages on the "Fevers of the United States" was
