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Just as
chemistry arose from alchemy, astronomy from astrology, so
hypnotism had its origin in mesmerism. Phenomena such as Mesmer
described had undoubtedly been observed from early times, but to his
work, which extended from 1756 to his death, in 1815, we owe the
scientific interest which, after much error and self-deception, finally
led to what we now term hypnotism.
John Elliotson (1791–1868), the foremost
physician of his day, was the
leader of the mesmeric movement in England. In 1837, after seeing
Dupotet's work, he commenced to experiment at University College
Hospital, and continued, with remarkable success, until ordered to
desist by the council of the college. Elliotson felt the insult keenly,
indignantly resigned his appointments, and never afterwards entered the
hospital he had done so much to establish. Despite the persistent and
virulent attacks of the medical press, he continued his mesmeric
researches up to the time of his death, sacrificing friends, income and
reputation to his beliefs.
The fame of mesmerism spread to India,
where, in 1845, James Esdaile
(1808–1859), a surgeon in the East India Company, determined to
investigate the subject. He was in charge of the Native Hospital at
Hooghly, and successfully mesmerised a convict before a painful
operation. Encouraged by this, he persevered, and, at the end of a
year,
reported 120 painless operations to the government. Investigations were
instituted, and Esdaile was placed in charge of a hospital at Calcutta,
for the express purpose of mesmeric practice; he continued to occupy
similar posts until he left India in 1851. He recorded 261 painless
capital operations and many thousand minor ones, and reduced the
mortality for the removal of the enormous tumours of elephantiasis from
50 to 5 per cent.
According to Elliotson and Esdaile, the
phenomena of mesmerism were
entirely physical in origin. They were supposed to be due to the action
of a vital curative fluid, or peculiar physical force, which, under
certain circumstances, could be transmitted from one human being to
another. This was usually termed the "od," or "odylic," force; various
inanimate objects, such as metals, crystals and magnets, were supposed
to possess it, and to be capable of inducing and terminating the
mesmeric state, or of exciting or arresting its phenomena.
The name of James Braid (1795–1860) is
familiar to all students of
hypnotism. Braid was a Scottish surgeon, practising in Manchester,
where
he had already gained a high reputation as a skilful surgeon, when, in
1841, he first began to investigate mesmerism. He
successfully
demonstrated that the phenomena were entirely subjective. He published
"Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep," in 1843, and
invented
the terminology we now use. This was followed by other more or less
important works, of which I have been able to trace forty-one, but all
have been long out of print.
During the eighteen years Braid devoted
to the study of hypnotism, his
views underwent many changes and modifications. In his first theory, he
explained hypnosis from a physical standpoint; in the second, he
considered it to be a condition of involuntary monoideism and
concentration, while his third theory differed from both. He recognised
that reason and volition were unimpaired, and that the attention could
be simultaneously directed to more points than one. The condition,
therefore, was not one of monoideism. He realised more and more that
the
state was a conscious one, and that the losses of memory which followed
on waking could always be restored in subsequent hypnoses. Finally, he
described as "double consciousness" the condition he had first termed
"hypnotic," then "monoideistic."
Braid maintained an active interest in
hypnotism up to his death, and,
indeed, three days before it, sent his last MS. to Dr. Azam, of
Bordeaux, "as a mark of esteem and regard." Sympathetic notices
appeared
in the press after his death, all of which bore warm testimony to his
professional character. Although hypnotic work practically ceased in
England at Braid's death, the torch he had lighted passed into France.
In 1860, Dr. A.A. Liébeault
(1823–1900) began to study hypnotism
seriously, and four years later gave up general practice, settled in
Nancy, and practised hypnotism gratuitously among the poor. For twenty
years his labours were unrecognised, then Bernheim (one of whose
patients Liébeault had cured) came to see him, and soon became a
zealous
pupil. The fame of the Nancy school
spread, Liébeault's name became
known throughout the world, and doctors flocked to study the new
therapeutic method.
While Liébeault's work may justly
be regarded as a continuation of
Braid's, there exists little difference between the theories of Charcot
and the Salpêtrière school and those of the later
mesmerists.
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