The Mesmerist

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At the beginning of the 1800s, surgery was a brutal affair. If you needed to have a tumour removed or a leg hacked off, the most surgeons could offer by way of relief was a large s wig of brandy. In addition, the medical profession was riddled with nepotism and corruption so that it was who - rather than what - you knew that was more important than knowledge. Into this arena came two ambitious young men - Thomas Wakley and John Elliotson. These two were avid consumers of the latest scientific views and findings. Together they promoted the idea of public hospitals that were more than slaughterhouses. But as with every dramatic rise, there came a fall. And that fall began in the summer of 1837, when a French visitor, the self-styled Baron Jules Denis Dupotet, arrived to promote the practice of mesmerism. Show more