Genre:

Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Animal Magnetism, Medical Treatment

    Reports on a case presented to the 'Association for the Encouragement of Mesmeric Mummery' that Dr Collyer (probably an allusion to Robert H Collyers) had entranced a female patient and removed one of her teeth without causing her any pain. Reports on Professor Quizemall's study of an individual who, on 'emerging from a public-house', was 'evidently under a strong mesmeric influence' because he oscillated 'from side to side'. After the individual collapsed on the pavement a policeman 'made a few passes with a thick staff over the shins of the patient, with the view most probably of disengaging the mesmeric matter'. Quizemall notes that the patient had unknowingly 'lost several sovereigns' whilst under the mesmeric influence.