S. Weir Mitchell is termed the Father of American Neurology. He was placed in charge of Nervous injury during his service in the civil career starting a fascinating career. He discovered CRPS, phantom limb and created the rest cure since rejected as not based on found science. Of note, his practice was based in Philadelphia where he predominantly treated women rich enough to afford his care. Looking back at his complicated history as AAN meets in Philadelphia will give us insight into him and our practice.

We reviewed relevant source information including  several biographies of his life, a review of his scientific papers and a review of Google, Bing, and other search engine material.

Contemporary Journals were compared to current understanding to compare  his beliefs at the time to  current standard understanding.