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

  • James Esdaile
Date:
1847
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 Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    to some extent at least, the object of the author, who obvi- ously desires that the British public shall have every fa- cility in procuring information regarding the derided sci- ence of which, and with such good reason, he is so decided an advocate. On the probable reception of the work in this country, it may be imprudent to speculate; but I cannot help hoping that the evident honesty of the writer, and his wil- lingness to receive assistance, even from his opponents, in detecting the imposture of Mesmerism, if imposture it be, will conciliate the most incredulous, and induce them calmly to examine a multitude of facts accumulated by a man who has never been suspected to be either a knave or a fool. Every body is alike interested in fair play being afforded to the propounders of the strange facts and theo- ries connected with Mesmerism. It is to be borne in mind, that it may be used for evil as well as for good ; and that, if we obstinately refuse even to examine the subject, we expose ourselves, defenceless, to the abuse of a power capable of being perverted to the most nefarious ends. This, perhaps, will not be reckoned a fanciful danger by those who carefully peruse the author's remarks on the singular trial for the abduction of a boy. And if from this case, corroborated by the general impression in India of the frequency of far more detestable crimes, the public arrive at the conviction that Mesmerism is a terrible engine in the hands of a villain, as we have good reason for be- lieving it to be, surely our legislators, who spend laborious nights in perfecting bills of pains and penalties against the felonious abductors of favourite poodles and the various members of the canine race, will see it to be their duty to make the practice of Mesmerism penal, save by regularly educated medical men. If my brother's book do nothing ]*
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