Genre:

Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Benjamin W Richardson Asclepiad

Subjects:

Mesmerism, Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners, Anaesthesia, Boundary Formation

    Notes that Richardson's article dismisses hypnotism as a 'contagious [...] epidemic' and also claims 'that Napoleon hypnotised and governed by soldierly suggestion thousands of men who, on the field of battle, knew no fear. Under the same kind of power a medical practitioner can sometimes abolish physical pain; but it is not a method that can be depended upon with any certainty'. For Richardson 'the hypnotic method will never become a serious rival of the physical anaesthesia, local and general, produced by ether' and will soon be seen as merely one of many 'passing vanities'.