[CITATION][C] Phantom limbs as reported by S. Weir Mitchell

M Nathanson - Neurology, 1988 - AAN Enterprises
M Nathanson
Neurology, 1988AAN Enterprises
Descriptions of the phenomenon of phantom limbs by S. Weir Mitchell appeared in two lay
periodicals before being published for the medical S. Weir Mitchell (1829-1914), neurologist
extraordinaire, one of the fathers of American neurology and respected popular literary
figure of his time, is credited with the first careful clinical investigation and explanation of
what he referred to as the “phantom limb.” 4 Mitchell acknowledged that “the feelings and
delusions of men who had lost members have often been the subjects of casual notice in …
Descriptions of the phenomenon of phantom limbs by S. Weir Mitchell appeared in two lay periodicals before being published for the medical S. Weir Mitchell (1829-1914), neurologist extraordinaire, one of the fathers of American neurology and respected popular literary figure of his time, is credited with the first careful clinical investigation and explanation of what he referred to as the “phantom limb.” 4 Mitchell acknowledged that “the feelings and delusions of men who had lost members have often been the subjects of casual notice in surgical treatises from as far back as Ambrose Park’s time.” 2 Mitchell’s initial description was published anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly in 1866 (figure 1) as a story entitled “The Case of George Dedlow.”’It was an account written in the first person by a fictional army physician who, after a series of severe injuries, eventually had all his limbs amputated for a variety of reasons. Most of Dedlow’s behavior, hallucinations, and delusions relating to his absent limbs were based on the verbalizations and reactions of Mitchell’s own patients. These patients were cared for in the “Stump Hospital,” Philadelphia, devoted to hundreds of amputees from the Civil War. Much of Mitchell’s writing for the lay reader (novels, short stories, and poetry) was sprinkled with his experiences from casualties during and after that war.
In relation to Dedlow’s initial wound involving his right arm before amputation, Mitchell described the symptoms of causalgia:“I felt as if the hand was caught and pinched in a red-hot vice... at length the pain became absolutely unendurable, and... I screamed, cried, and yelled in my torture, until, as I suppose, my captors became alarmed, and, stopping, gave me a handkerchief,-my own, I fancy,-and a canteen of water, with which I wetted the hand, to my unspeakable relief.” Following the amputation of the right arm near the shoulder joint,“I said, pointing to the arm which lay on the floor:‘There is the pain, and here am I. How queer!’”
American Academy of Neurology