Fat and Blood

by S. Weir Mitchell

Silas Weir was a 19th century American physician and writer. He became a specialist in neurology after serving in the Civil War in charge of nervous injuries and maladies at Turners Lane Hospital, Philadelphia. Weir writes of curing neural conditions by a rest cure consisting of isolation, confinement to bed, dieting and massage. Fat and An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria was written in 1877. Weir states "The cases thus treated have been chiefly women of a class well known to every physician, --nervous women, who, as a rule, are thin and lack blood. Most of them have been such as had passed through many hands and been treated in turn for gastric, spinal, or uterine troubles, but who remained at the end as at the beginning, invalids, unable to attend to the duties of life, and sources alike of discomfort to themselves and anxiety to others."

Genres: Medicine

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Silas Weir Mitchell was an American physician and writer.

During the Civil War he had charge of nervous injuries and maladies at Turners Lane Hospital, Philadelphia, and at the close of the war became a specialist in neurology. In this field Weir Mitchell's name became prominently associated with his introduction of the rest cure, subsequently taken up by the medical world, for nervous diseases, particularly hysteria; the treatment consisting primarily in isolation, confinement to bed, dieting and massage. His medical texts include Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences (1872) and Fat and Blood (1877). Mitchell's disease (erythromelalgia) is named after him.

Reviews

[Hannah Stokes]

What an illuminating read on how horrifically sexist the work of the early psychiatrists were. I read this for my professional life, so there's more in my professional work on it. Let me just say, the utter infantilizing of women he is supposedly treating is disturbing. When you compare his work with Margaret Cleaves it's clear she was the better physician in every respect.

[Eke]

likely the first place candidate of the most fatphobic work of literature i've ever read, holy fuck

[Avis Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather dated, mildly interesting. His emphasis on rest is still valuable advice, though.