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.