Citation

Cervetti N. J. Med. Humanit. 2007; 28(3): 119-133.

Affiliation

Department of English, Avila University, 11901 Wornall Road, Kansas City, MO 64145, USA. nancy.cervetti@avila.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Springer)

DOI

10.1007/s10912-007-9034-0

PMID

17629777

Abstract

Although best known as a nineteenth-century neurologist and creator of the rest cure, S. Weir Mitchell was one of the first Americans to engage in large-scale animal experimentation. In 1860 he published Researches Upon the Venom of the Rattlesnake, and in 1886, in collaboration with Dr. Edward T. Reichert, he published Researches Upon the Venoms of Poisonous Serpents. Yet, Mitchell's pioneering work in scientific medicine remains a little known aspect of his career. This essay, based mainly on primary source material, tells the story of Mitchell's medical education and research on venomous snakes in order to reveal the ways myth and metaphor influenced medicine as it was becoming a science.

Language: en