Case of George Dedlow in The Atlantic Monthly (July 1866).
Item #78487
[MITCHELL, S. Weir]. The Case of George Dedlow in The Atlantic Monthly (July 1866). Original printed wrappers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866. First edition. S. Weir Mitchell's literary work for adults. Printed anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly, this is the fictional account of a Civil War assistant surgeon who had lost all of his limbs in battle. The realistic descriptions of the narrator's injuries and amputations led many readers to believe the story to be true. The story was later collected in The Autobiography of a Quack and the Case of George Dedlow (New York: The Century Co., 1900). In the introduction Mitchell says the story wasn't written for publication. He had lent the manuscript to a friend who sent it to another friend who then sent it to the Atlantic Monthly. Mitchell was a physician who specialized in disorders of the nervous system and is considered the father of modern neurology. During the Civil War he was placed in charge of Turner's Lane Military Hospital in Philadelphia, which became a specialty hospital for soldiers with neurological diseases. This allowed Mitchell to study and treat soldiers with a condition he called "sensory hallucinations" of stumps, commonly known as "phantom limb syndrome." Although first described as early as the 16th century by French surgeon Ambroise Pare, Mitchell was the first to study and describe the phenomena in detail, describing it in his 1872 textbook, Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences. The term "phantom limb syndrome" became popular from an earlier article Mitchell wrote, "Phantom Limbs" in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (Dec. 1871), in which he described the condition at length for a more general audience. Small closed tear to front wrapper, early owner's name ("BC. Vaughan") in pencil at head of front wrapper, else very good.
Price: $400.00