John Kearsley Mitchell



John Kearsley Mitchell (May 12, 1798 – April 4, 1858) was an American physician and writer, born in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). He graduated from the Medical College of the University of Pennsylvania in 1819. Before he went to Philadelphia to practice his profession, he made three voyages to the Far East as ship's surgeon. In 1826 he became professor of medicine and physiology at the Philadelphia Medical Institute and in 1833 professor of chemistry at the Franklin Institute. From 1841 to 1858 he was professor of the theory and practice of medicine at Jefferson Medical College.

He was also the father of American physician and writer Silas Weir Mitchell (February 15, 1829 – January 4, 1914).

His works include:
 * St. Helena (1821), a poem
 * On the Wisdom, Goodness and Power of God as Illustrated in the Properties of Water (1834)
 * Indecision, a Tale of the Far West, and Other Poems (1839)
 * On the Cryptogamous Origin of Malarious and Epidemic Fevers (1849)
 * Five Essays on Various Chemical and Medical Subjects (1858), published posthumously by his son S. Weir Mitchell.