Mesmerism in 1845.

  • Lietch, David Ross, -1881.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mesmerism in 1845. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    realised. Meantime, in illustration of the subject before us, we quote the fol- lowing paragraph, which describes the state of the disease at the latest period to which the report extends. December 6.—Again I made a careful examination into the state of Miss M. The fundus uteri is more disengaged than at the last examination, and admits of being raised somewhat higher. It is certainly less fixed, and in this respect has improved at each time of examination since April 2, when the first degree of improvement was observed. The retroversion continues, the fundus still extending towards the sacrum, while the os uteri approaches the pubes—the organ remains large and firm, and is yet turned back nearly at a right angle from the cervix uteri. The two membranous pendicles remain hanging out of the os uteri, as at the last examination. The health is represented as quite good, and the catamenia as regular, the nervous pains and irritations having all subsided. The person is less full, but, as abdominal distention depended principally upon the gaseous and other contents of the intestines, and, in a slight degree only, on the uterine tumour, it is probable that renewed ha- bits of activity have greatly contributed to restore the symmetry of the per- son in this respect. I have endeavoured to render the preceding sketch comprehensive and con- cise, avoiding equally unnecessary details, and omitting nothing essential to the full comprehension of the true character of the case. Knowing well that no symptoms of malignant disease of the affected organ existed, I always be- lieved that a time would arrive, when my patient would be relieved from most of her distressing symptoms, and released from her long continued confinement. The catamenial crisis appeared the most probable period, but I did not despair of this happening sooner; though she never willingly listened to any suggestions of the probability of such prospective events, and seemed always best satisfied icith anything approaching to an admission, that she must ever remain a secluded invalid':' P. 20. Who does not see, in the sentence we have placed in italics, a condition of mind in itself calculated to keep the patient confined to her room, to de- mand opiates, and to produce much of the sinking and distress ? And so soon as by means of any stimulus, hope in the curative power of mesmerism— or any other sufficiently strong—this gloomy, despondent state of mind had been removed,—who would not expect to hear of her giving up the opiates, and of her consequent improved digestion, health, and general habits? Mr Greenhow further remarks:— In the history of this case it is probable that the advocates of mesmerism will find reasons and arguments in support of their opinions. But the experienced practitioner, carefully distinguishing the post hoc from the propter hoc, will have little difficulty in bringing the whole into harmony with the well-established laws of human physiology. We have been thus minute, because it seemed, even at the expense of beiflg charged with tediousness, to be our duty, to quote at length this particular case. In the whole of mesmeric literature, we have met with no case of equal importance to that of Miss Martineau. The poultices of Teste, the rose water lotions of Townshend, and the vague generalities of other mesmeric practisers are mere trifles compared to hers. As to the table of diseases cured or relieved by mesmerism, of which, on April Fools' day, there is a very circumstantial one gtven in the Critic, signed by « Humanitas, and as to the reports of cures of nervous diseases in the Zoist, we cannot place the least reliance on them. Io authenticate facts like these, we must not only have the names 01 the observers and recorders,—but these must be medical men, and me- dical men known to be clear and cool headed, experienced in disease, and not apt to be carried away by enthusiasm, nor dazzled by theory. From such evi- dence alone would we give credence to the alleged powers of any new remedial agent; we are surely, therefore, justified in demanding it in the case of mes- merism. We have in Miss Martineau, however, a lady of talent and veracity, (v, hose malady every educated person in England knew and lamented to be of a serious nature ) recording her own sensations, stating circumstantially her pro- gress from sickness to health, and giving her unqualified assertion, that mes-