Letters from Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (Ward) to S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., 1884–1897
Author(s): JENNIFER S. TUTTLE
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Legacy, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2000), pp. 83-94
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
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FROM
THE
ARCHIVES
LettersfromElizabethStuartPhelps (Ward)
to S.Weir Mitchell, M.D.,
JENNIFER
1884-1897
S. TUTTLE
San Diego State University
Elizabeth StuartPhelps
FrontispiecetoSongsoftheSilent
World and Other Poems
Wthin
thestately
of
College of Physicians
Philadelphia, at the top of the grand staircase
leading to the library, the name of S. Weir
Mitchell is carved in a largemarble frieze. That
(1829-1914) would warrant such an
exalted place at the college is not surprising:
Mitchell
thismember of the Philadelphia elite not only
served two termsas itspresident, but also earned
great renown as a doctor, nerve specialist, and
writer. In contrast, tucked into box 9, series
4.3, folder 10 of Mitchell's papers, catalogued
S. Weir Mitchell,
m.d.
Courtesy of the Libraryof the
College ofPhysiciansof Philadelphia
without ceremony under his "correspondence
with literaryfigures," lie nine litde-known let
ters fromElizabeth Stuart Phelps (Ward). As a
minor correspondent, a life-long invalid, and
a woman, Phelps likelywould not expect to
obtain any further distinction in this august
institution.Yet Phelps (1844-1911) was an em
inent figure in her own right, a prolific, best
selling author of fiction, nonfiction, poetry,
and drama?some
of which advanced com
pelling critiques of themedical profession and
its treatmentofwomen. Throughout her career
she tirelesslyadvocated forwomen's rights,sup
porting women's entitlement to higher educa
tion, economic independence, and professional
careers.1The lettersprinted here shed significant
new lightnot only on Phelps's uses and views
ofmedical discourse, but also on women's re
sponses toMitchell and his work.
Phelps begins her first letter by praising
Mitchell's novel InWar Time (1884), no small
compliment given that, by 1884, Phelps had
earned great popularity and authority as a
writer?certainly more so thanMitchell in his
literary pursuits. Yet her ability to work was
increasingly jeopardized by failinghealth,made
worse afterher brother's untimely death in 1883
to women's supreme
authority to define their
own embodied experience. She continues to
undermine conventional definitions of profes
sional authority and gender identity in her
letters toMitchell, this time in both medical
and literary realms.4 Alternately assertive and
deferential, Phelps's demeanor towardMitchell
partakes of a familiar pattern in her interac
tionswith authoritative male figures, as Susan
Coultrap-McQuin has shown inher assessment
of Phelps's relationships with hermale editors.
Though Phelps often masks her critiques of
Mitchell's views and his work (particularly his
opinions on women physicians and his por
trayalofwomen patients) by positioning herself
as a patient appealing to the goodwill of her
and the strain of added responsibilities that doctor (a gendered stance consistent with her
followed it.2In her letters,Phelps negotiates her New England upbringing), she simultaneously
roles as professional writer and what she calls
claims superior knowledge of suchmedical and
"professional invalid" (25 January 1884), along
with late-nineteenth-century conventions of
gender, in order to confrontMitchell on is
literarymatters. In her letters, she echoes the
rhetorical strategyused against Dr. Clarke; her
authority as a professional writer is comple
sues of great importance to her, particularly
the "GreatMedical Novel" and itsportrayal of
mented by the expertise derived from her "un
learned" perspective as a woman, an invalid,
of homeopathic medicine, as well as her own
physical ailments.3Mitchell was not the first
medical man to hear fromPhelps about serious
cal terminology,and the authority of lived expe
rience, then, Phelps givesMitchell "theory for
theory": as she explains to him, being secure
doctors and invalids (Thanksgiving Day 1884),
thevirtues ofwomen physicians, the superiority
medical issues.A decade before, she had written
an essay criticizing Dr. E. H. Clarke's treatise
against women's higher education, Sex inEd
ucation: oryA Fair Chance for theGirls (1873).
"Thousands of women will not believe what
the author. . . tells them," she wrote, "simply
because theyknow better.Their own unlearned
experience stands to them in refutation of his
learned statements. They will give him theory
for theory" (129). In addition to being an as
sertion of women's entitlement to intellectual
and creative fulfillment, this statementmakes
an equally radical claim to the superiority of
"unlearned" women's knowledge of their own
nature
84
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17 no.
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and
and a close acquaintance ofwomen physicians.5
Confidently wielding literaryerudition, medi
in the accuracy of her knowledge, she speaks
"fearlessly" (18November 1884).
Mitchell would soon, of course, have an en
counterwith another fearlesswoman: Charlotte
Perkins Gilman, who took the "rest cure" for
which Mitchell is best known today.Widely
criticized bymodern-day feminists as a punitive
attempt todomesticate women who had strayed
from their traditional role, this treatment for
hysteria and neurasthenia had a more mixed
reception inMitchell's day. Though itbrought
him world renown and earned him the admi
ration ofmany satisfiedwomen patients, itwas
also disparaged by women who found that it
only exacerbated the problems associated with
their restrictivesocial roles.6Gilman made such
States, and offer new glimpses into the per
sonal challenges and feminist consciousness of
a critique in "The Yellow Wall-Paper"
(1892).7
Like Dr. Clarke, Mitchell discouraged women's
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.
higher education and "excessive" intellectual
pursuits, warning that such activitywould in
jure women's ability to fulfillwhat he saw as
LETTER
l11
their natural duties tomarriage and mother
hood.8 Such views informed as well his interac
Andover,
Mass
25th January, 1884.
tionswith women
in his professional capacity:
to
known
criticize women invalids My dear Sir :
formalingering, dubbing them "troublesome,"
May I tellyou how much I likeyour story in
"emotional," and "selfish," and he claimed that the "Adantic"?121had never before seen just this
women could not be effectivedoctors because
kind of work from your pen, and felt, at first,
as if I had discovered a new author. I
were
too
to
weak and submissive
they
by nature
greatly
he was
master thepatient's will, a healing skillMitchell
himself claimed to have perfected, particularly
with women patients (Fat and Blood 49,55-56).9
Not surprisingly, several ofMitchell's literary
plots surround relationships between doctors
and patients and are consistentwith hismedical
writings in theirportrayals ofwomen.10 Phelps,
as a living example of a very differentkind of
invalidwho knew first-hand the excellence of
women doctors, demands more positive rep
resentations of both women
physicians and
women patients fromMitchell's pen.
Chronological gaps in Phelps's letters to
Mitchell suggest that shemay have writtenmore
letters than are known
to be extant. Unfor
letters to Phelps likely are
tunately,Mitchell's
not extant, since Phelps attempted to destroy
all of her correspondence shortly before her
death. To my knowledge, the only scholarly
treatment of the letters thus far has been that
of Lisa A. Long inher essay comparing Phelps's
and Mitchell's writings on the Civil War. This
importantwork offersa reappraisal of The Gates
Ajar (1868) that is supported inpart through an
examination of this brief epistolary exchange.
Scholars with different foci, however, might
expand our understanding of the significance
of these letters, since they touch upon many
important issues in literary,medical, and gen
der studies of the nineteenth-century United
enjoy the vividness of your characterizations
and balance of construction, and the result
of the special training brought to bear upon
yourmaterial. This last I can perhaps peculiarly
appreciate, from a long,varied, andmore or less
intimate acquaintance with your profession.
Having been a "professional invalid" in "good
and regular standing" for almost halfmy life, I
have a realizing sense of the "points" in a well
drawn Doctor, and am rather alive both to the
weaknesses and the nobilities of the race.
But especially I want to thank you for the
patriotism of your story. It is time that we
reminded each other ofwhat all but soldiers and
mourners forget. I have meant to do, in another
way, the thing you are doing; but, beyond a
little story in the "Continent" written to help
a Soldiers' Home,
attempt
I have been too ill even to
it.13
I am glad you are doing it?so wisely, and so
well.
A friend ofmine (Supt. of theMc'Lean
[sic]
Asylum) who was himself an army surgeon,
spoke tome of the remarkable drawing of the
Philadelphia hospitals inyour story;aswell as of
the finepsychological work in your delineation
of the Doctor.14
Iwish success to your loyal and skilfulwork.
I have never forgotten a kindness of yours
once offeredme throughMrs.
Hawley. Does
a
S. Tuttle 85
Jennifer
sick person ever forgetany effortto relieve her
sufferingon thepart of another? I should think
itwould be hard to do so.
In turningmy page, to subscribe myself, I
find the little spatter of the stylograph below.
As I am really not strong enough to rewrite, I
to shreds by insomnia. Work, I cannot?nor
travel?nor see people. It is a case of "cell-life"!
And apparently, it can only be conquered by
being endured. I thank you for your sympathy,
and am
Sincerely yours,
E.S. Phelps.
must ask you to excuse it?as a "symptom"!
I am Sir,
Very trulyyours,
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.
LETTER 3
Andover,
LETTER 2
Andover,
Mass
3d Feb.
1884.
Dear Dr. Mitchell:
The kindness I referredto,was a prescription
for sleeplessness sentme throughMrs. Hawley.
Your book has not reached me; when it comes
Mass
16th Feb.
1884.
My dear Dr. Mitchell:
I thank you for your kind offer of medical
help. It is good in you, and I have meant to say
so before now; but have been illwith rather a
severe attack of laryngitis,since your note came,
and unable, till now, to write. I did not want
to dictate to you, by such amanuenses as I can
command just now.
I am afraid my "pathy" will never seem "a
I shall read itas soon as possible?but
I do not
read. I shall thankyou hereby, for the giftof it.15 failure" tome, for itwas the harm the other
Sometime (touching theDoctors of fiction)
did me that converted me to this; and who
so devout as a proselyte?21 Still, I trust I am
I may send you my Doctor Zay.16Although a
woman and a homeopathist, you will be liberal
enough to grant her professional courtesy, I
think.171have there tried to draw a Doctor by
reflection, or by reflex action; the result is, at
least I hope, a patient. Neither have been well
done?excepting Lydgate, as you say.181should
liketowrite such amedical storyas allmanner of
personal kindness fromphysicians would make
broad enough in sympathy to respectpower and
success wherever I see them.
All the same, by your kind permission, I
shall entrust "Doctor Zay" to your professional
courtesy.Meanwhile, had I the "Philadelphia
in my convalescence, I should enjoy
them. You see, I do not mean to be forgotten
Tales"
of your promise!
Very trulyyours,
impossible.19
Iwish you success with your Philadelphian!20
I shallwatch forhim with interest.
Thank you for your kind wish to do some
E.S.
Phelps.
thing forme. The main troublewith that is that
I am a devout homeopathist?For
the first time
formany years, I have been under Allopathic
LETTER 4
sick?creature. Not one woman infivehundred
Bank of Spain." That has a great charm and
Andover,
Mass
27th Feb.
1884.
care thiswinter, but only as seeking the advice
of an expert innervous disease for a brief exper
My dear Dr. Mitchell:
I have read your book all through,with a very
iment.21I do not think it right (forme) to take deep interest.Thank you for it.All the stories
hold the reader, all are vivid, and show a rich
drugs. "What iswrong with me" nobody wholly
a
a
am
I
knows.
experience and observation; but best I like:"The
perfectly sound?while yet
is physically, as well as I. But I have been torn
86
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volume
17 no.
1 2000
originality.
As soon as I am able to be about Boston
to the fly-leaf of
again, so that I can put pen
a copy of "Doctor Zay," I shall commend her
to your courtesy. As yet, I am more or less a
no plans except
prisoner, and can carry out
those of patience.
culcates a kind of self-defence, thatmay become
almost brutal in the tenderestman; to save him
selffrom being spent and wrecked by sympathy,
or its correlative thoughtfulness, he may force
himself into a coat-of-mail thatbruises?if not
kills?a patient. . .But what a lecture on The
Profession! I should beg your pardon.
The last number of "War-time" held me
So. Do not sayyou will write no more doctors.
from beginning to end. Dr. La Grange [sic] is
sure
Write
am
Dr.
the Other kind of a Doctor. Analyze a
I
him.
know
admirably drawn. I
some things no one but a
nobler one.?Say
Wendell has a mixed career before him. Hester
will love theDoctor? He her, possibly, afterall, in
with
the end?Meantime, Mrs. Westerly will flirt
to
him. Possibly,Mrs. Morton may try educate
him. I can hardly think itwill be more, with
either of themature women, unless he ismore.
But he may become more, or even much?
except for a certain inherent lack of nobility.23
You manage thewomen of the world, and
the crude young physician, excellentlywell. You
have courage in flayingWendell's small and
petty motives. Will your colleagues love you
for it? From one point of view, they could
afford to.?The introduction ofHester into the
Wendell family seems tome a trifleabrupt, as a
point of art?since you asked me to criticize.
Very trulyyours,
E.S. Phelps.
Mass
of
course,
tome! I should like to see you do it.?There is
no material in civilized history for a novel, like
that in the experience of a high-minded Doctor
and a strong and attractivepatient. I have never
seen it successfully done.
Rosamond
was not a patient?nor
Doro
thea.25
Your depth of experience in detail, and your
keen observing power "tell," in your story. I
should do another doctor rightoff ifIwere you!
Mrs. Westerly proves to be admirable. I like
her fidelity to him. That is love. Nothing less
deserves the name. But I really shrinkfrom the
polish and carve?to the end. It is hard to do
two things. Itneeds two souls, and fourbodies.
1884.
My dear Dr. Mitchell:
Why should you have the blues over your
It varies,
say.
hope youwill write another novel as soon as you
can?without leavingyour own greaterwork; in
which you have such a permanent reputation to
18th November
story?
can
What a story Iwould like towrite if Iweren't
afraid I should be thought to touch off some one
of half a dozen Doctors who have been verykind
scene to be where she must find him out.26 I
LETTER 5
Andover,
Doctor
like most
stories,
but it is a strong and interesting tale. I have
turned to it, first,with every number. This last
one confounds me! I have been perpetually sur
But do forgivemy earnest personal frankness.
I have been "led on" by the subject?
As toDoctor Zay.Were I an old friend,instead
of a very new
one?or,
I
ought
rather
to say, new
should take you to task a little
acquaintance?I
forwhat you sayofwomen physicians. Itdoesn't
seem tome quite fair27;or else you really don't
prised by the incidents,but this,who could have
expected? Yet I have seen equal carelessness (not
know!?and
ofAconite.24 It is a "strait and narrow way"?to
be a physician of thehuman body and soul. The
saddest thing about the profession, is that it in
success or failure. I have directly, or indirectly,
been themeans of putting four young women
in other directions; bluntness
to the consequences of deadlier hurts than that
with medicines)
most men-Doctors
do not.
I know women
physicians thoroughly. For
some yearsmy most intimate friendwas one of
them.281know the career,frommatriculation to
Jennifer S. Tuttle
87
into the profession; who have all honored
ofMelancholia, or even "unrequited affection"
a complication of
?with
jaundice, and possi
There are charlatans among us?as among
bly undiagnosticated phthisis32?but you know
you; but there are scholarly, brave, reliable, what "themodern wood-cut" is!
and splendidly successfulwomen,?not a few?
it,
so far.29
doing your sacred work most sacredly.
Every fact and figure that I gave in Doctor
Zay was understated, from what I know to be
the existing realities.30It is a subject inwhich I
have "graduated." So I spoke fearlessly.
As for Homeopathy?well!
I can't expect
am
as I am, from
I
from
there.
you
anything
experience, not inheritance. But I have learned
to be tolerant and appreciative of all the strong
points in a system that I cannot believe to be
best forme or for theworld.
And that reminds me. You ask about my
health. Are you coming to Boston? If you do,
may I see you? I am a Homeopathist, and
that permanent
somebody else's patient?in
we
in
which
to
theDoctor who has
way
cling
done themost for us although he cannot cure
I am tied here at home; and to come to
us?and
Philadelphia for treatmentwould be impossible
in itselfeven were itnot all as it is,otherwise:?
but I should like verymuch to ask you a few
questions about the outcome ofmy condition.
It is a pretty serious one. Yet I have a perfectly
sound
a woman
body?seldom
so sound.
For
is
thereany kind of reason, in reason,why I should
live in tortureas I do?and must. I broke down
at thirty-three?in the Temperance Work,
called?six
years
LETTER 6
Andover,
20th Nov.
1884.
Dear Dr. Mitchell:
I add tomy volume of yesterday a word of
appendix to say: I have just read the closing
number of your story; and it seems to me
originally and powerfully done.
Some of your touches at character are subtle
and strong?fine! But ifI had been Alice West
erly,I am afraid I shouldn't have gone toEurope,
and lefta penitent man to?take morphine?
without me!33
That isawoman's criticism?not an author's.
And, I am glad to see the high standard held
severely, too. There's need of it. If a woman's
love is good for anything, it isworth a man's
being noble for; and itneeds men to say so.
Pray pardon my much speaking. If I have
been a little too spontaneous in treating of
your story, and thoughts suggested by it?
please attribute it,with a doctor's leniency, to
the crashing pain inmy brain which alternately
paralyzes or febrilizes (if there is such a word)
"what is called thinking."
so
ago.
Mass
Now
Sincerely,
E.S. Phelps.
ifDr. Wendell had been a Homeopathist,
he wouldn't have used Aeon. Tine:?Edward
I have "accepted" my lot. But I should like a
would
have been alive now?and where would
a
so
as
fresh opinion, from wise
to its
source,
have
been
your denouement!
probable result. I suffermore from the future,
even than from the present.
The writing of this letterhas already caused
such anguish in the brain, that Imust stop and
bear it in idleness for the next three or four
hours. So I am.
Sincerely yours,
E.S.
Phelps?
I send you my poems?just out.31 In the Poems
thepicture looks as ifIwere in an advanced stage
88
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17 no.
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LETTER 7
Andover
Mass
ThanksgivingDay, 1884.
My dear Dr. Mitchell:
A word to tell you how much I appreciate
your most kind medical offer of help. Every
thing else aside, it is a moral impossibility for
me to get any sleep in any house, hospital, or
boarding-house, hotel or even under a friend's
roof?there isnone to be had, exceptwhere I can
control every noise indoors and out. Philadel
phia could not cure, unless I had means to rent
could I do that, Imight
my own home?and,
have been better before now.
Insomnia ismy chief disease; perhaps the
know of no other; that, and its
only one?I
effectson the brain.
All the same, I thank you most deeply.When
Brooks, I re
you do come to Boston?(Mr.
member, spoke of your being with him) let
talkwith you.34 I would like not to wait,
but to consult you by letter if it could do any
good. I have good reason, afteryears of tug, to
But plainly, you and I will never write the
Combination Medical
Story, shall we?!!?I
"
heard various pleasant things said ofyour War
time," just after Ihad sentmy letterand note.My
father,who is a good critic, spoke of the power
of the closing chapter; and friends in Boston
wrote me ofWendell, quite as ifhe were one
of their acquaintances. "PoorWendell"! just as
one would say: "Poor Anybody." Alice Westerly
is called "certainlywell done."
Success be with you, always, in all things!
Sincerely yours,
E.S. Phelps.
me
that I can
be thoroughly alarmed, now?not
can
never
I
for
but
that
death;
compass
hope
life;and shall "die at the top" in spite of a fight
LETTER 8
Andover,
Mass
Feb.
11,1887.
which I have tried to sustain bravely. It is the
prognosis that Iwant. Nothing can saveme?
Dear Dr. Mitchell:
or any skill. Death must be my only Healer;
and he is not as generous as yourself, to proffer
aid.
"Octopia" is exquisite, as a name.35 A medical
friend tellsme he thinks not one person out
of a thousand would see through it; while
from eithermyself ormy circumstances; and so
I can never be saved, that I see, by any school,
of the Great Medical Novel, in
me say: The objections you
let
explanation,
raise to the relations of sentiment in that po
sition, I had never thought of; perhaps because
Meanwhile,
my own illness has always been what one of
my friends calls "such an etherial kind"! and
physicians have seemed rather psychologists
than physiologists inmy personal experiences
with them. Partly, too, because the factswould
not always bear out your objection. What I
had
in mind was
the "exceptional opportu
for
acquaintance; which our usual soci
nity"
does
best to deprive men and women
her
ety
of. The novelist, especially, needs ample room
for his hero and heroine to develop thatmost
difficult of arts?personal comprehension be
tween a man and a woman. I think it very
rare?very rare; and the lack of it is the sad
dest thing in theworld; especially inwomen's
worlds.
This is to tell you that I have read "Roland
Blake" with many sorts of interest. It is a good
story.Prettyhard on the typical invalid!Though
the thousandth would enjoy it enough for the
whole.
I said: One out of twenty.
This winter I have been a cripple for four
months with a sprained ankle; and now, apres
celdya sprained back, which prevents me from
even getting into a carriage. In this (to me)
perfectly unprecedented experience of help
lessness, and galling infliction of being waited
gaveme theheart-ache. I never
upon?Octopia
had touse a hot-water bag, before, in allmy sick
life,and hers is "ever before me," so that I hide
mine from view like a guilty secret!
But thatdoes not interfere
with the excellence
of the story.Give me the other kind of invalid
sometime? You must know her.
Iwish I could have seen you when you were,
recently,at Boston.
Yours very truly,
E.S. Phelps
S. Tuttle 89
Jennifer
LETTER 9
more
Newton
things from within than without. I am
certain that the sights I referto, are not reprints.
They are absolutely new, at themoment?clear
Centre, Mass.
January 13th 1897.
creations. But I never in the least imagine them:
Dear Doctor Mitchell:
I have just read with much interest your
paper onmescal.36Having a natural love of color
(which I was once advised by a girted but not
imaginative physician "not to speak about"!?I
think itwas because I said I admired a pair of
shoes with pink leather tops!) I followed your
experience with special appreciation.
It suggested tome to tellyou this. I cannot
they are visitors, flashing in. I have taken them
to be thework of an overwrought brain; but it
was, (presumably) a sane one. Where did they
comefrom*Where do the thingsyou saw under
this drug influence come from?Are these the
kinds of things that the insane see, and believe
in?While we see and do not trust them?
I give you account of the experience forwhat
it isworth. That may be nothing at all.
I never spoke of it,before; supposing ita com
match it incoloring, or invariety,or in intensity;
but I have often experienced something very mon and natural thing.Your paper would seem
to class it,or itskind, among the uncommon,
similar to it.Drugs, I never touch in any form.
a
on
or
I have lived through half lifetime (except
intoxicant.
rare occasions, years ago, two or three grains of
chlorals37)of severe insomnia without them. So
that thevisions I referto, are absolutely unmed
icated ones. Perhaps I ought to add that I never
see ghosts and have no clairvoyance whatever
inme.?But, often, on a sleepless or a wakeful
night,?perfectly conscious, fully awake, and
under the effect of no intoxicant or anodyne
of any kind?I
I never
saw
on
suddenly perceive thingswhich
earth?nor
in literatures?nor
At all events itmaybe of some interesttoyou
in this sort of study; or itmay not. I never took
any notes of these effects. I remember that they
came suddenly, always; and that I knew, thereby,
that the nightwas far spent, and the brain with
it;or else that Iwas sicker than usual.
We have narcotics enough. I hope to learn
your new delirium will not be added to our
general dangers! Your paper was very interesting
and valuable?
in fancy. These are usually highly ornate ob
jects; which reminded me of your experience
with this drug. They may be colored, more
or less, but color is not the chief element in
their impression. That is one of complicated
design?architecture, jewelry,relievo,diagrams
and plans, endless and always beautiful design;
perfecdy accurate,?even mathematically so?
perfectly artistic, complete, and exquisite.?I
used to draw and paint; but itwould be the toil
ofweeks ormonths to execute what I see; and I
am sure that I have never seen itsprototype.
Very trulyyours,
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
NOTES
Several
deserve my appreciation
people
for their help
with thisproject. I am very gratefulto Charles B.
Greifenstein,
Curator
of Archives
and Manuscripts
at theCollege of Physiciansof Philadelphia; EllenM.
Shea,ReferenceLibrarian at theSchlesingerLibrary,
RadcliffeCollege; TerryA. Bragg,McLean Hospital
Archivist;
Carol
Farley Kessler,
biographer
of Eliza
Recendy, in looking over a book of Lincrusta
Walton designs,381found something resembling
their effects;but I had never seen such a book
beth StuartPhelps; and Peg Hughes, Assistant to the
tillwithin a fewweeks, so that I could not have
been influenced thereby; and my lifehas been
so imprisoned by illness that I have seen far
would also like to thank theCollege of Physicians
90
legacy:
volume
17 no.
1 2000
ExecutiveDirector,Andover Historical Society, for
their cheerful
of Philadelphia
Research
assistance
with my
for awarding
Fellowship,
which
me
obscure
a Francis
provided
me
queries.
I
C. Wood
access
to
theMitchell Papers; aswell as to thanktheirLibrary
forpermission to quote from the S.Weir Mitchell
Collection. Finally,I offer
my sincerethankstoDavid
Kuchta forhis generouseditorialandmoral support.
1.Phelps espoused thesecauses elsewhere inboth
her nonfictionand her novels, especiallyThe Silent
Partner (1871),The StoryofAvis (1877),and Doctor
Zay (1882).Fordetaileddiscussionsofherpromotion
ofwomen's rights,seeKessler,ElizabethStuartPhelps,
especiallyChapterThree (43-74);Kelly; Stansell;and
Ward.
2. Carol FarleyKessler addresses thisparticular
in "The Woman's
breakdown
tailed
discussions
Hour"
of Phelps's
256-57.
For de
inva
literary career,
6. There has been extensivefeministanalysisof
the rest cure
in the last few decades.
See
especially
Bassuk; Poirier,"TheWeir Mitchell RestCure"; and
Wood.
of Mitchell's
7. Some
women
best-known
pa
tientswere EdithWharton, JaneAddams, Catharine
Beecher,andWinifredHowells (daughterofWilliam
Dean
treatment
The
Howells).
used on Vir
also was
giniaWoolf by herdoctor.Addams, Howells,Woolf,
and CharlottePerkinsGilman registeredcriticismof
thecure. See Poirier,"TheWeir Mitchell RestCure."
8. See especiallyhisWear and Tear, orHints for the
Overworkedand "Addressto theStudentsofRadcliffe
College."
9. Scholars disagree about the extent to which
lidism,and other biographical issues, see Bennett;
Coultrap-McQuin; Kelly; and Kessler,Elizabeth Stu Mitchell allowed thatwomen could be capable physi
art Phelps
Hour."
and "The Woman's
cians;
3.Homeopathy derived itsname from theprin
ciple that"like cures like":homeopathistsheld that
157 n. 26.
see Golden
10.For analysisof theseissues inMitchell's fiction,
see especiallyGolden, and Poirier, "The Physician
diseases could be cured by drugs, administered in and Authority."
11.All of thefollowinglettersare frombox 9, series
minute doses,which produced the identicalsymp
toms in a healthyperson. Popular among theurban 4.3, folder10,S.Weir Mitchell Papers, Libraryof the
upper classes in the second half of the nineteenth College of Physiciansof Philadelphia.
century,
viewed
homeopathy
disease
12. Phelps
"fundamen
to the first two chapters
refers here
of
Mitchell's novel In War Time,which was printed
sympathetic,
individualizedattentionon the part of the doctor seriallyin theAtlanticMonthly for twelve issues in
tally as a matter
of spirit," and stressed
towardthepatient (Starr96-97). Attacked and out
numberedbyorthodoxphysicians,homeopathswere
much
more
of women
welcoming
practitioners.
In
her autobiography,Phelps proclaims proudly that
she holds her belief in homeopathy "on a par with
the Christian
homeopathy,
For
(252).
religion"
see Martin
Kaufman,
has been widely
tract physician
Homeopathy
in
as he succumbs
noted.
was
particularly
well
during
See, for example,
118-20 and Coultrap-McQuin
5. Phelps
198-99.
acquainted
with
Dr. Mary Briggs Harris, a physicianwith whom
she sharedmany feministconvictions, and in her
with other
letterstoMitchell, she claims a familiarity
medical women. Also, in both her fictionand her
she wrote
nonfiction,
ofmedical
traces the deterioration
of
of the professions
"masculinization"
in support
careers. These
detail below.
See notes
of women's
pursuit
issues are discussed
inmore
28,29,
and 30.
the novel
experience,
in
takes place
Philadelphia during theCivil War. In addition to
exploring the effectsof thewar on civilian life, it
and moral
this period
Bledstein
own
a discussion
America.
4. The
1884and laterpublished inbook form.Informedby
Mitchell's
of Dr.
and generally
increasingly
a con
Ezra Wendell,
a sympathetic
to his own
character,
carelessness
laxity.
13. This
is "John True's
Decoration
(later
Day"
published as "Too Late"), printed inOur Continent in
May of 1883.Like herpoem "TheUnseen Comrades"
(in Songsof theSilentWorld), itpraises thehumanity
and patriotism of the Soldiers' Home at Chelsea,
Massachusetts.
14. Dr.
surgeon
Edward
Cowles
for the Union
(1837-1919),
Army, was
a
formerly
Superintendent
of
theMcLean Asylum (laterHospital) in Somerville,
Massachusetts,
from
1879 to 1903. In speeches
before
theAmericanMedico-Psychological Association in
Jennifer S. Tuttle
91
1894and 1895,Cowles andMitchell would laterhave
a public disagreementabout the stateof American
psychiatry.For detailed discussion of this conflict,
see Patrick
Mulvey
the McLean
Medical
Hospital:
Treatment"
"Edward
Bennett,
(Diss., Harvard
and Moral
Theories
U,
and
Cowles
20. In War
Time's
21. Phelps confided to JohnGreenleafWhittier
in Februaryof 1884 that,due to increased family
obligationsafterherbrother'sdeath, sheexperienced
the "firstacute illness since her childhood" during
this time (qtd.
1985) 27-29.
Dr. Wendell.
in Kessler,
"The Woman's
Hour"
257).
Mitchell's collectionof three However, I have been unable todetermine thename
15.This ismost likely
storiesset inPhiladelphia,Hephzibah Guinness;Thee of the expert or the nature of experiment to which
and You; andA Draft on theBank ofSpain, towhich
Phelps laterrefersas his "PhiladelphiaTales."
16.Firstpublished seriallyin theAtlanticMonthly,
Doctor
the successful
(1882) presents
Zay
a
the title character,
homeopathic
of
practice
woman
17. The
physician
and
homeopathic
caused
com
but also economic
petition, iswell documented. Basing theirtheories
of healing on the principle thata condition could
much
is referring here,
Phelps
by allopathic
iswell
documented.
sometimes
the "harm"
often
in the mid-nineteenth
medicine
See, for example,
and Wood.
94-95
though
"allo
in not only
rooted
schools,
theories of healing
opposed
particular
86-87,
enmity between
(or orthodox)
pathic"
22. Though it is not clear towhich incident in
century
in rural Maine.
working
she refers here.
In contrast,
as
criticized
Starr
homeopathy,
a
was
ineffectual,
therapy. See Starr 97.
gender
23. Dr. Lagrange
isWendell's
at the hos
superior
pitalwhere heworks;Miss Hester Gray is theyoung
ward
of Dr. Wendell;
Mrs.
is a gracious
Westerly
widow withwhom Dr.Wendell becomes ro
be cured through inducing the opposite condition young
involved;andMrs. Morton is themother
in the body, allopaths inaugurated the American mantically
an
Medical
in an attempt
Association
to dominate
the
practice ofmedicine. In 1847,when theAMA was
formed, it included in its code of ethics a clause
strictlyforbiddingconsultation between allopaths
and
any so-called
were
whom
was
"irregular"
grouped
practitioners,
the homeopaths.
among
Weir Mitchell
18.TertiusLydgate isa physician inGeorge Eliot's
Middlemarch (1871). Significantly,speaking of his
own fictional
in his unpublished
characters
(circa 1900), Mitchell
ography
"I am quite
istic immodesty,
wrote with
autobi
character
sure that as pictures
of
doctorsand patientstheyarenot surpassed inEnglish
by any except
Walter
Lydgate
in 'Middlemarch'"
(qtd.
in
172).
19.Originally,Phelps wrote "almost" before the
word
it out. She may
but then crossed
"impossible,"
have finallydared to portray such a doctor in The
Gates Between (1887), inwhich thephysicianEsmer
aldThorne isreformedonlywhen he reachesheaven,
that he has had
where
he "realizes
habit
of classifying
dyspeptic'
minded'
92
"
women
as
rather than as 'unselfish,
(Kessler, Elizabeth
LEGACY^
VOLUME
an unwholesome
'neuralgic,
17
hysteric,
intelligent, high
Stuart Phelps
NO.
37).
1 2000
patient Edward Morton,
invalided
soldier.
24.Also calledmonkshood and wolfsbane,aconite
isa poisonous drugderivedfromthetuberousrootof
Aconitum
doses
napellus.
Itwas
as a diuretic
and
in the past
used
inminute
to treat conditions
such
as
hypertension.InMitchell's novel, the invalidEdward
an allopath.
considered
of Dr. Wendell's
Civil War
Morton
dies when Wendell,
designates
the wrong
an occurrence
which
his physician,
vial
sparks the novel's
as Phelps
notes
fatal dose
of tincture of aconite
abbreviates
in her next
as "Aeon.
Tine"),
carelessly
to be given,
of medicine
denouement,
letter. Edward
(which
a solution
receives
Phelps
a
later
of alcohol,
possibly containingwater, intowhich aconite has
been
infused.
25.Rosamond is thewife ofDr. Lydgate inMid
dlemarch.
Dorothea
Brooke
is another
character
in
the novel.
26. That
is, when
she discovers
that Dr. Wendell
not only killed his patient throughnegligence,but
alsomishandled fundsheld in trustforhisward.
27. Originally,Phelps wrote theword "candid,"
which
she then replaced with
28. This
is a reference
"fair."
to Dr. Mary
Briggs Harris.
In addition to sharinga workspace during the late
1870s,Phelps and Harris were both committed to
access
rights and
improving women's
to the profes
McQuentin in Phelps's story"Our LittleWoman"
(1872). See Kessler,Elizabeth StuartPhelps 55.Here
echoes
Phelps
an earlier
to
letter written
William Dean Howells, then editor of theAtlantic
Monthly, inwhich shetakesissuewith hisportrayalof
awoman
in his novel Doctor
physician
Breen's Practice
(1881) (towhich Doctor Zay is in part a response).
Appealing again to a sense of fairnessand alluding
to her acquaintance
with Harris,
"I don't
she writes,
feel thatDr. Breen is a fairexample of professional
women; indeed,Iknow she isnot forIknow theclass
from
thoroughly
under
observation
long personal
unusual opportunities" (qtd. inCrowley 182).
29.1 have been unable todetermine towhich in
dividuals
Phelps
women
refers here. Because
to enter the medical
fiction, such as Doctor
as "The
Zay,
have
she may
Tried,"
Experiment
in both
profession
and her nonfiction,
her
such
received
lettersfromwomen who became physicians telling
her of her influence.Since so littleof her personal
is extant,
correspondence
this is only conjecture.
30. Doctor Zay defendswomen physicians toher
skepticalpatientWaldo Yorke in similar terms. In
to his
response
assertion
that she
is an exception
serts, "You
remark..
a
only exhibit your ignorance by such
. .
now
us
of
the
thousand
practic
Among
ingmedicine in thiscountry,therearemany more
than
successful
I, and
there is some
abroad
superb
work done. I should liketogiveyou the figuressome
are very interesting"
time. They
archaic
rest cure patients
(164).
36. Mescal
33. Driven
to illness by regret over his own weak
and misdeeds,
opium,
the prime
Dr. Wendell
alkaloid
of which
seeks
refuge
in
is morphine.
Unable to pursue her relationshipwith him, Alice
Westerly flees to Europe, where she remains at the
novel's
complained
tons"
caline.
flowering
are the active
properties,
in the alkaloid
ingredient
but
mes
for its hallucinogenic
of color
particularly
Lophophora
or "mescal
heads
is known
Mescaline
or
cactus
is the peyote
whose
williamsii,
and
In an
sound.
article first
printed in theBritishMedical Journal in
curious as to thepossible therapeutic
Mitchell,
1896,
uses of the drug,wrote of his experimentationon
himself.He kept a detailed logof itseffects
upon him
throughouttheday,tracingfeelingsof "exhilaration"
and "a pleasing sense of languor" (1625), as well as
of an elaborate
icate floating films of colour"
Gothic
tower and "del
conscious
(1626). Upon
attemptsto conjure,he spied "what seemed a shop
with apothecaries' bottles, but of such splendour
green,
red, purple
as are not outside
of the pharma
cies of fairyland."The colors he saw,which defied
description,"linger[edJvisibly" inhismemory, and
were "unknown to [his]experience" (1627). Itshould
probablybe noted aswell thatamid thisexperimenta
had
"two consultations
and saw several
(1625).
patients"
37. Chloral hydrate crystals,soluble in alcohol
and water,
were
formerly
used
as a sedative
and
a
hypnotic.
38. Lincrusta
covering made
"is
the patent
name
for a wall
F.Wal
by the linoleum manufacturer
1877....
It was
or shallow
stucco-work"
wasting away of thebody or part of thebody.
nesses
Mitchell
used
to imitate
linenfold
and other typesofwood panelling, stamped leather,
or for the
term for tuberculosis
about whom
repeatedlyinhismedical writings.
ton from
31.Songs of theSilentWorld and OtherPoems.
32. An
grasp.She is the fictionalembodimentof thewomen
tion, Mitchell
inbeing so accomplished inher profession,she as
tyrannical,
and "half-sick"invalidinRoland Blake (1886),whose
tentacleshold her entirehousehold in their
figurative
hallucinations
she encouraged
is the scheming,
Darnell
35. Octopia
sions.Kessler suggeststhatHarris was likelyamodel
forDoctor Zay, aswell as foraspiringphysicianLois
and below,
was a friendof both Phelps andMitchell.
end.
34. Phelps very likelyrefersto reformminister
Phillips Brooks of TrinityChurch in Boston, who
(Fleming
and Honour
486).
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Ellen
olution
L. "The
of Victorian
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male Body inWesternCulture. Ed. Susan Rubin
Suleiman.
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Harvard
UP,
1986.139-51.
Bennett,Mary Angela. Elizabeth StuartPhelps.Phil
adelphia:U of PennsylvaniaP, 1939.
Jennifer S. Tuttle
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Susan.
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5 Dec.
for
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Womanly."
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The
Revisited:
Novelists
New
in -.
Boston:
"
Catherine.
the Rest
'Overwriting'
Cure:
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Joanne B. Karpinski.
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1992.144-58.
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