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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    himself in his sleep . The narration runs thus:—“ Sometimes they have found him fast asleep with the Pot in his Hand in Bed, and sometimes with his Mouth full of Meat. 55 Again,—“In this manner he lay till the 19th of Nov., when his Mother hearing him make a noise ran immediately up to him, and found him Eating/’ Again, he did not always eat and evacuate with regularity, as Sir Benjamin Brodie represented:—“In this manner he lay for about ten weeks, and then could eat nothing at all, for his Jaws seemed to be set, and his teeth clenched so close, that with all the Art they had with their Instruments they could not open his Mouth, to put anything into it to support him. At last, observing a hole made in his Teeth, by holding his Pipe in his Mouth, as most great Smokers usually have, they, through a Quill, poured some Tent into his Throat now and then, and this was all he took for six weeks and four days , and of that not above three pints or two quarts , some of which was spilt too; he made water but once and never had a stool all that time” The narrator, Dr. Oliver, E.B.S., a physician of high standing, an F.B.S. in days when the fellowship was not so common as at present, did not pronounce the man an impostor as Sir Benjamin Brodie so fearlessly does. “ I have no room,” he says, “ to suspect this to be any Cheat, because I never heard of any gain to the family by it, though so near the Bath , and so many People went thither out of Curiosity to see the Sleeper, who, when awake, was a support to his old Mother by his Labour, but now a certain charge to her. Besides, there was seldom any body in the house to attend any profit that might be made by it, he being left alone in the house and every body at liberty to go up to his Bedside.” Indeed, the old Mother was so far from deserving the charge of colluson with her son that, being as ignorant of his disease as Sir B. Brodie, she at first believed his sleep was only sulkiness or “ sullen humour,” and placed food at his bed-side lest he should be starved. How, indeed, could Dr. Oliver for a moment have thought the man an impostor ! For to pass over the scarifyings and various external irritations, hollowing his name in his ears repeatedly and as loudly as possible; pulling him by his shoulders; pinching his nose; and stopping his nose and mouth till Dr. Oliver feared he might choke the man; running “ a large Pin into his Arm to the very Bone,” but all to no purpose, for in all this time he gave (me) not the least signal of his being sen sible,” Dr. Oliver held a phial of solution of ammonia under one of