Esdaile, J. (1846). "Mesmerism in India, and Its Practical Application in Surgery and Medicine."

Esdaile, J. (1846)." Mes­me­rism in In­dia, and Its Prac­ti­cal Ap­p­li­ca­tion in Sur­gery and Me­di­ci­ne." Lon­don, Long­man, Brown, Green and Longmans.l.

James Es­daile (1808 - 1859), ein schot­ti­scher Chir­urg, war An­ge­stell­ter der East India Com­pa­ny. Er lei­tete ein klei­nes Kran­ken­haus in der Nähe Kal­kut­tas, wo er häu­fig Mes­me­ris­mus ein­setz­te, um sei­nen Pa­ti­en­ten eine schmerz­freie Ope­ra­tion (z.B. bei Am­pu­ta­tio­nen oder bei der Ent­fer­nung von Tu­mo­ren) zu er­mög­li­chen. Seine Ar­beit wurde von einem Ko­mi­tee un­ter­sucht, das vom De­puty Go­ve­nor of Ben­gal ein­ge­setzt wor­den war und das sei­nen Er­folg be­stä­tig­te. Im fol­gen­den Text wer­den ei­nige sei­ner Fälle - von Es­daile selbst - beschrieben.

CHAPTER VII.

In sur­ge­ry, the be­ne­fits of Mes­me­rism are not con­fi­ned to the ex­tinc­tion of pain du­ring an ope­ra­tion, but are of the grea­test ge­ne­ral and par­ti­cu­lar ad­van­tage in the af­ter-treat­ment of sur­gi­cal di­sea­ses. The ner­ves and brain have ncoht been shat­te­red by bo­dily and men­tal an­guish, wicht ge­ne­rally ex­ci­tes an iir­ri­ta­tive fever in the sy­tem, was­ting the po­wers of life and rou­sing local in­flam­ma­tion in the in­ju­red part; the­reby often de­stroy­ing all the hopes and pre­cau­ti­ons of the sur­ge­on. In the mes­me­ric sleep, only the ne­cessary local in­jury has been in­flic­ted; and on awa­king , the pa­ti­ent so­me­ti­mes feels no pain wha­te­ver, and ge­ne­rally only a slight smar­ting in the wound; and the con­sti­tu­tion sets about re­pai­ring the breach of sub­stance quiet­ly, and under the best pos­si­bly cir­cum­stan­ces: if local pains fol­low, they can be ea­sily re­mo­ved by to­pi­cal ma­ni­pu­la­ti­ons; all which will be seen in the following.

JOURNAL OF PRAC­TI­CAL MESMERISM

May 12th. - Bu­xoo, a Khit­mat­gan. There is a fi­stu­lus ope­ning in the ure­thra und the glans penis which is sloug­hing, and re­qui­res to be am­pu­ta­ted. I de­si­red him to be mes­me­ri­sed, and re­tur­ned in an hour. I found him as­leep, and when loo­king at him, he sud­denly ope­ned his eyes, but im­me­dia­tely went to sleep again, and in five mi­nu­tes after I cut off the glans, wi­thout awa­king him. He awoke soon af­ter, and said it was from fear, not pain.

May 5th. - Ran­too­nee But­tachan­gie, aB­rah­min; aged 40. there is a pro­di­gious Fun­gus hae­ma­to­des pro­tru­ding from the left el­bow-­joint. A swel­ling took place at the joint when he was five years old, and has gone on in­cre­a­sing gra­dual­ly, but the skin re­mai­ned en­tire till an in­ci­sion was made by a na­tive doc­tor, twelve days ago, when the bloody mass star­ted through the in­te­gu­ments. I ex­actly re­sem­bles the con­tents of an old an­eu­rism; the struc­ture of the fun­gus ha­ving been be­oken up by the ac­tual cau­tery ap­p­lied to it all over, in order to stop the blee­ding: it was a fright­ful mass. I de­si­red him to be care­fully mes­me­ri­sed, an went to Chin­su­r­ah, to con­sult with Dr. El­ton, in charge of the troops the­re. We re­tur­ned to the hos­pi­tal to­gether, and found him in a pro­found sleep, and de­ci­ded to take the arm off in­stant­ly. It was re­mo­ved, wi­thout his mo­ving or com­plai­ning, and Dr. Elton as­su­red me that his coun­te­nance had never chan­ged. He awoke im­me­dia­tely after the limb was off, and de­cla­red, again and again, that he was aware of nothing ha­ving been done to him till he awoke and saw his arm was gone; and he then saw Dr. Elton for the first time.

May 13th. - Is doing well.

May 16th. - He com­plains of pain in the stump to-day.- To be mesmerised.

May 17th.- He was ea­sily put to sleep yes­ter­day, and slept for three hours; was free from pain when he awo­ke, and con­ti­nues so.
          
May 11th. - Meeroo­la, a po­li­ce­man; aged 28, strong and he­al­thy loo­king. He has got a fatty tu­mour of the right mam­ma, which he begged me to re­move to-day. I de­si­red him to lie down, and let me care­fully ex­amine it, and com­menced mes­me­ri­sing him. In ten mi­nu­tes he was fast as­leep; in five mi­nu­tes mor I trans­fi­xes the tu­mour with a hook, drew it up off the muscles, and cut it out, wi­thout di­stur­bing him in the least, and he did not awake till half an hour af­ter­wards. He de­cla­res that he felt no pain till he awo­ke, and re­mem­bers nothing after my hands were pla­ced on his sto­mach, which was in about five mi­nu­tes from the commencement.

May 26th.-Ram Dass, a large ro­bust man, has a su­per­nu­me­rary toth bet­ween the eye-too­th, and the first grin­der, gro­wing ho­ri­zon­tally into his mouth, and causing him great an­noyan­ce. I ent­ran­ced him in a quar­ter of an hour, lying on a mat­tress on the ta­ble, and pro­cee­ded to open his jaws. I cost me some trou­ble to relax the tem­po­ral muscles, and I had to pro­ceed cau­tious­ly, as he did not ap­pear to be under the ex­treme in­flu­ence of the mes­me­ric power. From its po­si­tion , it was dif­fi­cult to lay hold of the too­th, but it was at last gras­ped, and ex­trac­ted. He moved and mo­a­ned a litt­le, but I soon tran­quil­li­sed him again, and he did not awake till al­most suf­fo­ca­ted by the blood. He de­cla­red he awoke from this cau­se, and not from pain.

May 29th.- Si­be­hurn Sin­gh, a young ro­bust man, had his thumb nearly cut through by a sword, four­teen days ago. An at­t­empt was made to unite it, but fai­led; and the point of the fin­ger would be a nui­sance if kept. In ten mi­nu­tes I made him in­sen­si­ble, and cut of the end of the thumb wi­thout awa­king him. He soon after quietly ope­ned his eyes, and I asked him: - "Have you been as­leep?" "Yes." "Have you any pain?" "No." "has any thing hurt you to-day?" "No." "Do you wish your nail cut off?" "Yes." "Look at it." "He did so, loo­ked con­foun­ded, and ex­clai­med, It’s go­ne!" "Who did it?" "­God knows." "How did it hap­pen, has it fal­len off itsel­f?" "I can’t tell - I know nothing about it."

June 2d. - Gun­ga­ram Dass, a pri­so­n­er, was in­ju­re, ten days ago, ba some rub­bish fal­ling on him, and in con­se­quence trhree large ab­sces­ses have for­med at the el­bow, wrist, and an­kle, which re­quire to be ope­ned the ab­sces­ses, and left him slee­ping. On my re­turm. After two hours, he had just awo­ke, and I found him sit­ting up loo­king at his wounds. I asked him how the pus had es­ca­ped, since I saw him in the mor­ning? He could not tell. Of its own ac­cord? He sup­po­sed so. Had any one cut or hurt him to-day? No one.

Oct. 8th. - Na­zir, a pea­sant, aged 60, has suf­fe­red from en­lar­ged and scir­r­hous tes­tis for four years; the parts are as large as a child’s head, and ex­tir­pa­tion is ne­cessa­ry.- he was ent­ran­ced after two hours to-day.
          
Oct. 10th. - He was mes­me­ri­zed the se­cond time, to-day, in the prpe­sence of Mr. Suther­land, Dr. Owen, the Rver­end Mr. Brad­bu­ry, Major Ridd­le, Mr. Hig­gen, Mr. Mul­ler, Mr. Gra­ves, Mess­rs. Sa­vi­gny, Mr. Cal­der, and Mr. Bartlett.
I re­mo­ved the parts wi­thout his sho­wing any sign of sen­si­bi­lity till the last ar­tery was being tied: he the woke up, but went im­me­dia­tely to sleep again for half an hour, and on awa­king, said that he was only con­s­cious of a little pain when he awoke for a mo­ment, and found me to be tying so­me­thing. He was cheer­ful and tal­ka­ti­ve, and sho­wed no sign of suf­fe­ring or ex­haus­tion in his coun­te­nance of man­ner, and said the pain in the wound was very trifling.

Nov 26th. - Mahes Ba­ner­gie, a Brah­min, aged 40, has got an en­lar­ged tes­tis, the size of a childs head; it is red, glis­te­ning, and very pain­ful, and there is a scro­tal her­nia above it. He was ent­ran­ced on the first trial, and I re­tur­ned the gut into the ab­do­men , hand­ling the in­fla­med part very ru­de­ly, wi­thout his sho­wing the least sen­si­bi­li­ty. I then, in the pre­sence of Cap­tain D. L. Ri­chard­son, diss­ec­ted out the di­sea­sed or­gan. The ope­ra­tion was te­dious, as I had to care­fully se­pa­rate the mass from the her­nial sack. He mo­ved, as in an un­easy dre­am, bit did not awake till we were tying the ar­te­ries, which were very nu­me­rous; he the said, that he had felt nothing till that mo­ment. The mus­cu­lar mo­ve­ments, so­me­ti­mes seen, loo­ked more like the con­trac­ti­ons in­du­ced by cut­ting a re­cently dead ani­mal, than the com­mon con­tor­ti­ons from pain; and I be­live may be avoi­ded by pa­ti­ence, as every trance seems to de­e­pen the in­sen­si­bi­li­ty. I need not pint out to the sur­geon the ad­van­tage he would de­rive from the mes­me­ric tran­ce, in re­du­cing stran­gu­la­ted her­nia, and spas­mo­dic stric­tu­res of the urethra.

Oct. 25th. - Goo­roo­chuan Shah, a shop-kee­per, aged 40. he has got a "­mons­ter tu­mour," which pre­vents him from mo­ving; its great weight, and his ha­ving used it for a wri­ting-­desk for many years, has pres­sed it into its pre­sent sha­pe. His pulse is weak, and his feet oe­de­ma­tous, which will make it very ha­zar­dous to at­t­empt its re­mo­val; bit with such an ap­pen­dage life is li­te­r­ally a bur­then. He be­came in­sen­si­ble on the fourth day of me­me­ri­sing, and was drawn with the mat­tress to the end of the bed (my usual mode of pro­cee­ding:) two men then held up the tu­mour in a sheet, pul­ling it for­ward at the same time, and, in the pre­sence of Mr. Ben­nett, I re­mo­ved it by a cir­cu­lar in­ci­sion, ex­pe­di­tion being his only sa­fe­ty. The rush of ve­nous blood was great, but for­tu­na­tely soon ar­res­ted; and, after tying the last ves­sel, the mat­tress was again pul­led back upon the bed with him upon it, and at this mo­ment he awo­ke. The loss of blood had been so great that he im­me­dia­tely fell into a fain­ting state, and it took a good while to re­move him. On re­co­ve­r­ing he said that he awoke while the mat­tress was being pul­led back, and that nothing had di­stur­bed him. The tu­mour weig­hed eighty pounds, and is pro­ba­bly the lar­gest ever re­mo­ved from the human body. I think it ex­tre­mely li­kely that if the cir­cu­la­tion had been hur­ried by pain and strug­g­ling, or if the shock to the sys­tem had been in­cre­a­sed by bo­dily and men­tal an­guish, the man would have bled to dea­th, or never have ral­lied from the ef­fects of the ope­ra­ti­on. But the sud­den loss of blood was all he had to con­tend against; and, though in so weak a con­di­tion, he has sur­moun­ted this, and gone on very well.

Dec. 1st. - Has been al­lo­wed to go home at his own re­quest: the wound I fil­ling up slow­ly, for want of in­te­gu­ment.