Mesmerising The Body

Can surgery be painless without modern anaesthetics like ether, chloroform, or chemical sedation? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Before chemical anaesthesia, mesmerism—originating in Vienna—was used to numb patients’ bodies, allowing painless surgeries, and it found remarkable success in colonial Bengal through the pioneering work of Dr. James Esdaile. Ghosal’s Mesmerising the Body delves into this unique chapter of Indian medical history, drawing on archival records, medical reports, and contemporary accounts, while also tracing how mesmerism shifted from a medical practice to a topic of folklore in twentieth-century Bengali literature.