Mesmerism in India, and its practical application in surgery and medicine / by James Esdaile.

  • Esdaile, James, 1808-1859.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mesmerism in India, and its practical application in surgery and medicine / by James Esdaile. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    so numerous, and were so well supported by credible witnesses, and kept their ground so firmly, both against adverse reasoning and ridicule, that I felt compelled to surrender my belief in the existence of the Unknown Power, or cease to exercise my reason and judgment. Ten days before making my first ex- periment, I thus wrote to a friend in England:— What think you of this new mystery, Mesmerism? For my part, I am thinking seriously about it, and cannot help suspecting that we have hit upon one of Nature's great secrets. I keep myself perfectly neu- tral, and hear the pro and con. If it turns out to be a delusion, I shall be happy to assist in digging its grave. The uniformity of the phenomena described by different persons, and coming from various parts of the world, strongly arrested my attention, and im- pressed me with the conviction that some new gen- eral law of Nature had been discovered. England, France, Germany, and America, all combined to give the same evidence in support of the new doctrines, or, rather, new phenomena of Nature. About the time that Miss Martineau's disclosures appeared, I also read a curious and striking document written in May, 1841, by the Archbishop of Lausanne and Ge- neva, and addressed to the Sacred Penitentiary, at Rome. As it may possibly make the impression upon others that it did on me, it is here transcribed. Most Eminent Lord, Since that which has hitherto been answered respecting animal magnetism seems by no means to