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

Date:
1846
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 Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    318/328 page 282
    S82 order to ascertain whether the somnambulist made really any use of his eyes, the Archbishop held a inece of pasteboard under his chin, to prevent him from seeing the paper on which he was writing ; but he continued to write on without appearing to be incommoded in the slightest degree. The paper on which he Avas writing was taken away; but the somnambulist immediately perceived the change. He wrote pieces of music while in this state, and in the same manner with his eyes closed. The words were placed under the musical notes. It happened, upon one occasion, that the words were written in too large a character, and did not stand precisely under the corresponding notes. He soon perceived the error, blotted out the part, and wrote it over again with great exactness. I hope that these examples, to which I might add a great many others, will be sufficient to show that the somnambulist, during this extraoi'dinary state, is enabled, apparently without the use of his eyes, to receive impressions equally well, or, at least, with the same consequences to his perceptive faculty, as when awake. Mr. Colquhoun, the translator of Wienholt, supplies us from his extensive reading, with a number of the best authenticated cases descriptive of the same con- dition of things in Somnambulism, and derangement of the nervous system induced by Mesmerism ; and as this is the only physical symptom of any consequence, described by European Mesmerists, which I have not yet seen in India, I hope that ]Mi\ Colquhoun will
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3