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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1130 



Reichert and Noguchi, made most valuable 

 contributions. 



During these experiments one incident 

 was an excellent illustration of the mental 

 alertness which was so striking an element 

 in Mitchell's character. One hot July just 

 after we had collected one or perhaps two 

 teaspoonfuls of the liquid snake-poison in 

 a small cup Mitchell was called out of town 

 for three or four days. Usually we im- 

 mediately spread out this liquid in a thin 

 layer so that it would dry quickly before 

 decomposition set in, but by an oversight 

 on this occasion it was left in the cup in 

 bulk and naturally in such weather under- 

 went quick decomposition. On his return 

 we went to the laboratory and on opening 

 the door were almost knocked down by the 

 horrible stench. Who of us here would not 

 have sought the source of the smell and in 

 all haste have thrown it away. Not so 

 Mitchell. Instantly he turned to me and 

 said, "I wonder if decomposition has de- 

 stroyed its poisonous character. Let's try 

 it." That was always his desire — to put 

 everything to the test of experiment. A 

 single experiment showed that for a pigeon 

 it was as virulent as ever. How subtle and 

 potent was the poison that even decomposi- 

 tion left intact ! But not to every form of 

 life was it even then a poison, for disport- 

 ing themselves in the cup were a host of 

 nimble little animalculse having apparently 

 the time of their lives. 



Within a half year of our first meeting 

 came on the sterner studies of the Civil 

 War — studies which he again illuminated 

 by his brilliant investigations and in which 

 I again had the great good fortune to be his 

 assistant, especially in the Turner's Lane 

 Army Hospital for Diseases and Injuries 

 of the Nervous System in this city. This 

 was only one of several special army hos- 

 pitals for which science and the American 

 soldiers were indebted to Mitchell, for it 

 was he who suggested the idea to Surgeon- 

 General Hammond. 



In fact I have always felt that my inti 

 mate acquaintance with Weir Mitchell was 

 the first of three epochal events in my life. 

 The stimulus and direction of my profes- 

 sional life began in those days with him as 

 the dominant factor. I have always gladly 

 acknowledged this great debt. I have met 

 and known many of the best in medicine 

 and surgery in America and in Europe and 

 I say unhesitatingly that Weir Mitchell was 

 the most original, fertile, stimulating med- 

 ical man I have ever met either here or 

 abroad. 



Early in his professional life a vacancy 

 occurred in the chair of physiology at his 

 alma mater, the Jefferson Medical College, 

 a position for which his studies in anatomy, 

 physiology and toxicology had preemi- 

 nently fitted him. But the trustees had not 

 the vision, the imagination to discern the 

 genius they might have obtained. A very 

 few years later the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania trustees also were equally blind and 

 so he never became a "professor." 



But years afterward he had the privilege 

 as a trustee of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania to elect professors. The fight over 

 his election to the board was one between 

 the conservatives and the progressives and 

 under the leadership of William Pepper, 

 H. C. Wood, Tyson, Harrison Allen, and 

 their valiant friends, Mitchell was elected, 

 and a new University of Pennsylvania 

 Medical School arose. 



Calling on him after the election, Allen, 

 by a happy quotation, well described 

 Mitchell's status 

 Thou shall not be King but thou shalt beget Kings. 



What discoveries he would have made, 

 what a school of young experimental physi- 

 ologists he would have created, had either 

 of those two great schools but appreciated 

 the genius they might have had we can only 

 guess. 



But these two, for him, fortunate de- 

 feats, and his experiences in the Civil War 



