Dr. Manners: S. Weir Mitchell's Novelistic Prescription for an Upset Society

S. weir mitchell, the neurologist who accepted Eakins's painting of The Agnew Clinic for the University of Pennsylvania, was a colleague and admirer of the genteel surgeon who had not wanted to be painted with too much blood on his hands. To Mitchell, Agnew was an example of how a good physician asserted his professionalism; in a number of novels he wrote, Mitchell made sure that the reading public realized how many greedy irresponsible quacks took advantage of unwitting patients. When Mitchell wanted a symbol of a doctor both scientific and humane he chose Agnew, transparently named Askew in the Civil War novel Westways . With tact and skill–and ether–Askew performs a brain operation on the hero of this novel, bringing about an “amazing resurrection of mind.” And because his patient is still a soldier, the gentlemanly surgeon refuses to accept a fee.