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Education: Online Activities

Dr. Mitchell’s ‘Rest Cure’

Charlotte Perkins Gilman received the rest cure treatment from Dr. S. Weir Mitchell (1829–1914), who was a nerve specialist and authored many books. Here, you can read the “Rest” chapter from Mitchell’s Fat and Blood and How To Make Them, and find out how he designed the rest treatment for women with nervous exhaustion.

“Rest” in Fat and Blood and How To Make Them, S. Weir Mitchell, 1877

Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, MD (1829–1914) built an eminent medical career and authored several books during his lifetime. In this 1877 edition of Fat and Blood and How To Make Them, Mitchell introduces his success in “renewing the vitality of feeble people by a combination of entire rest and of excessive feeding…,” along with massage and electricity. View more books authored by Mitchell in the digital gallery.