Characteristics / by S. Weir Mitchell.

  • Silas Weir Mitchell
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Characteristics / by S. Weir Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    spinal lesions without pain are apt to be more calm and unirritable than those who have certain visceral disorders. Consumptives are said to be hopeful, but the sick liver predicts damnation. A learned divine said a thing of extraordinary wisdom when he an- nounced that no man, however secure he may be in mind as to his future life, ever dies a triumphant death with disease below the diaphragm. On the 8th of May, 1866, I observed that I could wiggle the second toe of my left foot. I have ever since had a peculiar affection for this little sub-mem- ber of my locomotive organs. Head and toe were now both alive, and seemed to salute each other across a length of motionless body. I indicated this immense fact to my affable doctor. He put on his glasses and looked. Then he said, “You will get well.” To which I replied, “ I always was sure of that.” I saw that it was disagreeable to him to be thus anticipated by hope, and so said no more. In the evening he brought the consulting surgeon, and triumphantly pointed out the prophetic conduct of this hitherto uninteresting part of me. I am not concerned to dwell upon the medical de- tails of my case except as they bear upon life or char- acter. Sensation came back first, and in about a month I could move both legs and arms; but I had become the victim of a new experience. As my loco- motive powers increased I suffered agonizing pain in the back and neck and arms. It was almost my first enduring personal sensation of acute pain, and it lasted long enough to enable me to make acquaintance with every variety of torment. Civilized mankind has
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