Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's Strange Encounter
The Legend:
Dr. Silas Weir Mitchel was an extreememly well-known physician in the city of Philadelpha, PA, in the United States, during the 19th century, and a story is told of a very strange event that happened to him one night.
It was a Winter evening, and Dr. Mitchell had fallen asleep in a chair after a long day in surgery. Awakened by the bell, he found a thin, shivering girl clutching a threadbare shawl around her shoulders on his doorstep. She begged him to come help her mother who, the girl explained, was very ill. Dr. Mitchell gathered his equipment and then followed the girl through the snowy night to an old tenement, and then upstairs.
The girl's mother turned out to be a former house servant of Dr. Mitchell's. He immediately recognized the signs of pneumonia, and sent for the medicines needed to save her. He then made her as comfortable as possible, and congratulated her on having such a dutiful daughter.
At this, the woman looked surprised. Her daughter, she informed the doctor, had died a month previous. The woman pointed to her dead daughter's shoes and shawl that were in a little cupboard. Dr. Mitchell inspected the shawl; it was undoubtedly the same he had seen the girl wearing earlier, but was dry and warm... it could not have possibly been out in the snow that night. The girl that had led him to the woman was nowhere to be found.
Dr. Silas Weir Mitchel was an extreememly well-known physician in the city of Philadelpha, PA, in the United States, during the 19th century, and a story is told of a very strange event that happened to him one night. It was a Winter evening, and Dr. Mitchell had fallen asleep in a chair after a long day in surgery. Awakened by the bell, he found a thin, shivering girl clutching a threadbare shawl around her shoulders on his doorstep. She begged him to come help her mother who, the girl explained, was very ill. Dr. Mitchell gathered his equipment and then followed the girl through the snowy night to an old tenement, and then upstairs. The girl's mother turned out to be a former house servant of Dr. Mitchell's. He immediately recognized the signs of pneumonia, and sent for the medicines needed to save her. He then made her as comfortable as possible, and congratulated her on having such a dutiful daughter. At this, the woman looked surprised. Her daughter, she informed the doctor, had died a month previous. The woman pointed to her dead daughter's shoes and shawl that were in a little cupboard. Dr. Mitchell inspected the shawl; it was undoubtedly the same he had seen the girl wearing earlier, but was dry and warm... it could not have possibly been out in the snow that night. The girl that had led him to the woman was nowhere to be found.
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