Numerous cases of surgical operations without pain in the mesmeric state; with remarks upon the opposition of many members of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and others to the reception of the inestimable blessings of mesmerism / By John Elliotson.

  • Elliotson, John, 1791-1868.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Numerous cases of surgical operations without pain in the mesmeric state; with remarks upon the opposition of many members of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and others to the reception of the inestimable blessings of mesmerism / By John Elliotson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    insensibility ; those which have taken place upon other persons, after the operation itself had reduced them to that state; and, also, the effects produced upon brutes; no longer permit it to be doubted that the proximity of two animated bodies, in a certain position, and with the help of certain motions, do produce a real effect, wholly inde pendent of the imagination of either . It is also evident that these effects are owing to a communication which takes place between the nervous systems of the two parties.” La Place thus writes:*—“The extraordinary phenomena which result from the extreme sensibility of the nervous system in some persons have given birth to a variety of opinions, on the existence of a new agent, denominated animal magnetism. It is natural to suppose that the influence of those causes is very weak, and that it can easily be disturbed by accidental circumstances, but it would he unfair to conclude that it never exists, merely because, in many cases, it does not manifest itself. We are so far from being acquainted with all the agencies of nature, and with their different modes of action, that it would be unphilosophical to deny their existence, because in the present state of our knowledge they are unexplainable to us.” M. Chenevix states that he had more than one conversation with La Place upon the subject, about 1816 and 1817, and that the expression of that great philosopher constantly was: “that the testimony in favour of the truth of mesmerism, coming with such uniformity from enlightened men of many nations, who had no in terest to deceive and possessed no possible means of collusion, was such that, applying to it his own principles and formulas respect ing human evidence, he could not withhold his assent to what was so strongly supported .” f Sir Benjamin Brodie joins the ranks of Mr. Wakley, and id genus omne of intellect, and information, and character, rather than of La Place! Although it would disgrace Sir Benjamin Brodie to listen to mes merists for a moment or to withhold his sneers, “ it would not,” I quote M. Chenevix, “disgrace the greatest man whom England ever has produced to attempt an experiment or two upon a doctrine which Hufeland, Jussieu, Cuvier, Ampère, and La Place believed. Nay, would it not disgrace him more to condemn, without knowing any thing about it, what they knew and credited ? Is supercilious * Traité Analatique da Calcul des Probabilities, p. 158. t London Medical and Physical Journal. June 1829, p. 500.