Books and Manuscripts

Mitchell, S. Weir
Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1872. First edition. 8vo. 377 pp. Publisher's purple cloth, beveled edges, stamped in blind and in gilt, spine faded, wear to joints and extremities, boards rubbed, spine ends worn, library ink stamp on bottom edge of text block; front and rear hinges worn; book-plate of the Library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings, Brooklyn, on front paste-down, their large ink stamp on front free endpaper, title-page, and rear paste-down; library slip mounted to rear free endpaper; scattered minor soiling to text. BAL 14075; Garrison-Morton 4544; Heirs of Hippocrates 1956

Includes an undated autograph letter, signed by Mitchell to an unknown recipient: “Dear Dr- What a fellow you are to grow books--It is amazing--even to a man of my industry this nice book is strangely interesting--Thanks Yrs. truly Weir Mitchell”. One sheet, on Mitchell's personal stationery; 6 7/8 x 4 1/2 in. (175 x 114 mm).

First edition of S. Weir Mitchell's definitive work on nerve trauma. “Based on his extensive experience during the Civil War at Philadelphia's Turner's Lane Hospital, where he treated hundreds of soldiers with peripheral nerve wounds, Mitchell produced this basic and time-honored work on the symptoms, signs, and treatment of nerve injuries. Together with his other major work, Gunshot Wounds (1864), it established fundamental lines of treatment which remained essentially unchanged until World War I. Mitchell is probably as well known for his literary efforts--poems, novels, and essays--as for his famous clinical skill.” (Heirs of Hippocrates)