Philadelphia was the home of Silas Weir Mitchell, a 19th-century physician and author who specialized in nervous disorders and hysteria.
Mitchell, the son of noted physician John Kearsley Mitchell, was born Feb. 15, 1829, and he attended the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College. His career took off after the Civil War, as he delved further into the field of neurology. He was the first to describe erythromelalgia, which was then called "Mitchell's Disease," a disorder that attacks a patient's extremities (hands, arms, and feet) and causes burning and swelling. He also became one of the first doctors to study the nervous condition called "hysteria" in women.
