Doctor and Patient.

MITCHELL, S. Weir.

$6,500.00

Item Number: 106806

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1888.

Rare first edition, presentation copy of the father of American neurology’s most popular work. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Mrs. Johnson with the author’s regards.” Weir has also noted “25 copies large paper No. 19.” In near fine condition.

One of Mitchell's most popular works, Doctor an Patient provides a prime example of the eminent physician's direct appeal to the common sense and intelligence of the layman at large. Addressed chiefly to women, the essays include: The Physician, Convalescence, Pain and Consequences, The Moral Management of Sick or Invalid Children, Nervousness and it Influence on Character, and Out-Door Camp-Life for Women. The work quickly gained popularity upon publication and went through four revisions. Mitchell's more prominent patients included Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Virginia Woolf who wrote a savage satire of his treatments in her 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway.