False accusation in the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society against a poor man because he suffered no pain while his leg was amputated in the mesmeric coma : and cruel refusal of the Society to receive his solemn denial of the truth of the false accusation / By Dr. Elliotson.

  • Elliotson, John, 1791-1868.
Date:
1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: False accusation in the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society against a poor man because he suffered no pain while his leg was amputated in the mesmeric coma : and cruel refusal of the Society to receive his solemn denial of the truth of the false accusation / By Dr. Elliotson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    m / /u FALSE ACCUSATIL_ Society against ft (j&ffr man beet ical and Chirurgical fee suffered no pain -y J mxAj itvwrv OWJJC/CUs flU JJ til ft while his Leg ipgs, amputated in t/hf^h earner ic coma; and cruel refusal of^Mie Society to recebof^ks solemn denial of the truth of tlmfalse accusation. 1 tL T71- “ Thou shalt r\)?J»T false witness agaj* ' - Ir. Elliotson. neighbour.’ * Ninth Commandment. [Extracted from1 rr April, 1851.] It is universally known that a leg was amputated* at Wellow in Nottinghamshire, in 1842, in the mesmeric coma, without any pain, and that the patient rapidly recovered. Mr. Topham the mesmeriser, and Mr. Ward the surgeon, drew up the case and transmitted it through the hands of Mr. Stanley! to the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, before whom it was read in the same year. As the Society was satisfied beforehand, without any ac¬ quaintance with the subject of mesmerism, but by the force of irrational prejudice and bad feeling, that mesmerism was an absurdity and imposition, every kind of folly was uttered by the Fellows, to express their conviction that the poor pa¬ tient was a rogue, and the two gentlemen concerned in the case a pair of blockheads or rogues, just as each speaker was inclined to represent them. Some talked of people who bore pain silently by strong resolution ; forgetting that in such in¬ stances the strong resolution is manifested by some external sign, as holding the breath, clenching the hands, biting the lips, &c., &c.: whereas this patient shewed no signs whatever of resolution, but lay perfectly placid, without any muscular action or expression, and breathing calmly; just as they now frequently see patients lie when operated upon under the influence of chloroform, but not one of which patients, even if he does not lie placidly but struggles and hollas, or talks freely, is pronounced an impostor when he afterwards de¬ clares that he felt no pain.j; “The operation was now commenced. * Mr. Ward, after one earnest look at the man,’ in the words of Mr. Topman, ‘ slowly * The first operation rendered painless in England by mesmerism was the introduction of a seton by my order into the neck of Elizabeth Okey in University College Hospital, in 1838. The second was the division of the ham strings by Dr. Engledue at Southsea, in 1842. t Mr. Stanley most justly considered the case so satisfactory that he assured me it was “ as clean a case ” as he had ever read: and yet he sat in timid silence at each meeting, and allowed the authors to be ill treated. + See my exposure of the self-condemnation of the enemies of mesmerism bv their opposite conduct in reference to the senseless state induced by chloroform in Zoist, No. XVII., p. 44. A