Silas Weir Mitchell

Life & Legacy

Silas Weir Mitchell (February 15, 1829 – January 4, 1914) was an American physician, scientist, novelist, and poet. He is considered the father of medical neurology, and he discovered causalgia (complex regional pain syndrome) and erythromelalgia, and pioneered the rest cure.
Many of Mitchell's theories were rooted in the Victorian belief that women's brains were fragile and ill-suited to modern education and intellectual strain. He believed that women who attempted to overstep their "natural limits" suffered from nervous exhaustion. While Mitchell made groundbreaking contributions to mainstream neurology, his approach to women's mental health is widely criticized today as medical misogyny.