Bibliograph

Type

Label

Mesmerized, powers of mind in Victorian Britain, Alison Winter

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-451) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Mesmerized

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

39217102

Responsibility statement

Alison Winter

Sub title

powers of mind in Victorian Britain

Summary

Across Victorian Britain, in castles and cottages, rectories and pubs, and even hospitals and churches, thousands of women and hundreds of men were put into mesmeric trances. Apparently reasonable human beings twisted into bizarre postures, called out in unknown languages, and placidly bore assaults that should have caused unbearable pain. The Victorians were literally entranced - mesmerized - with this phenomenon

Table Of Contents

Discovery of the island of mesmeria -- Animal magnetism comes to london -- Experimental subjects as scientific instruments -- Carnival, chapel, and pantomime -- The peripatetic power of the "New Science" -- Consultations, conversaziones, and institutions -- The invention of anesthesia and the redefinition of pain -- Colonizing sensations in victorian India -- Emanations from the sickroom -- The mesmeric cure of souls -- Expertise, common sense, and the territories of science --The social body and the invention of consensus

Classification

Creator