John Elliotson

John Elliotson (October 29, 1791 - July 29, 1868) was an English physician, born in Southwark, London.

He studied medicine first at Edinburgh (1805-1810), where he was influenced by Thomas Brown, M.D. (1778–1820), who held the chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh from 1808 to 1820, and then at Cambridge (1810-1821), in both which places he took the degree of MD, and subsequently in London at St Thomas' and Guy's hospitals. In 1831 he was elected professor of the principles and practice of physic in London University, and in 1834 he became physician to University College Hospital.

He was a student of phrenology and mesmerism, but it should be noted that at the time both fields were vying for scientific authority. Study of such topics, which we now consider ‘pseudo-science’ was less obviously derisive to mid 19th century academia. Elliotson hoped his development of mesmerism would lead to new therapeutic applications for medical science (and so also help score 'social reform' points against UCL's 'Tory' Rival, Kings). Elliotson tended to use working class, female subjects for mesmeric research and demonstration, often from Irish immigrant communities. This was not unusual, but was perhaps his downfall. Because the effects of mesmerism took place in the subjects mind, the scientific community had to believe their testimony. Elliotson tried using middle-class peers as subjects, but felt they brought with them an undesirable obtrusion of their own sense of identity and their expectations of the experiment would led them to censor their reports. In comparison, Elliotson, rather patronisingly to contemporary eyes, felt the poorer subjects were closer to the mechanical instruments or animals of physical or physiological experimental traditions. He famously claimed he could play the brain of his subjects as he would a piano. The same prejudices, however, made it easier to discount his work, especially as Elliotson's subjects proved to be slightly less passive than he had hoped.

His interest in mesmerism eventually brought him into collision with the medical committee of the hospital, a circumstance which led him, in December 1838, to resign the offices held by him there and at the university. According to Alison Winter's study of 19th C Mesmerism, this was largely down to the actions of the Lancet which at the time was relatively new and, with the medical profession itself, seeking to prove its authority. Its founder, Thomas Wakley initially supported Elliotson but quickly changed his mind, considering the mesmeric subjects and experiments rather too 'unruly' for his taste. The Lancet ran a series of trials of Elliotson's mesmeric experiments at Wakely's home in Bedford Square during the summer of 1838, with a jury of witnesses drawn from the medical establishment. The results of these trials not only discredited Elliotson but helped clarify the authority and status of both Wakely and the Lancet. Elliotson continued the practice of mesmerism, holding mesmeric séances in his home and editing a magazine, The Zoist, devoted to the subject. In 1849 he founded a mesmeric hospital. He died in London on the 29th of July 1868.

Elliotson was one of the first teachers in London to appreciate the value of clinical lecturing, and one of the earliest among British physicians to advocate the employment of the stethoscope. He wrote: He was the author of numerous papers in the Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, of which he was at one time president; and he was also a fellow both of the Royal College of Physicians and Royal Society, and founder and president of the Phrenological Society. WM Thackeray's Pendennis was dedicated to him.
 * a translation of Blumenbach's Institutiones Physiologicae (1817)
 * Cases of the Hydrocyanic or Prussic Acid (1820)
 * Lectures on Diseases of the Heart (1830)
 * Principles and Practice of Medicine (1839)
 * Human Physiology (1840)
 * Surgical Operations in the Mesmeric State without Pain (1843)