SILAS WEIR MITCHELL - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED CIRCA 1906 - HFSID 274479

SILAS WEIR MITCHELL
Autograph Letter signed circa 1906
Autograph Letter signed: "Weir/Mitchell", 2 pages, 4½x3½, front and verso. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1906. On card imprinted with his return address to "Dear Mr Abbott". In full: "I must have left my meaning obscure - when Miss [illegible] in the court office typed Pearl - I think she gave me back with it typed - my M.S. - But somehow I have lost it & [illegible] she did not type [illegible] XII - So I am trying to trace it - Good luck go with you through 1906". American physician and author Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) was a specialist in the study and treatment of neurological disorders. During the American Civil War, Mitchell was in charge of nervous injuries at Turners Lane Hospital in Philadelphia. The author of a number of medical texts, including Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences (1872) and Fat and Blood (1877), Mitchell also wrote short stories and such historical novels as Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker (1897), The Adventures of François (1898) and The Red City (1909). Mitchell prescribed "rest cures" for a variety of nervous disorders, including what was called at the time "female hysteria." One of his patients was Charlotte Perkins Gilman, whose 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" - now considered a feminist classic - is narrated by a woman driven insane by her "rest cure." Slightly creased and soiled. Overall, fine condition.