Thanks Orion Publishing Group and netgalley for this ARC.

I love a biography that reads just as well as fiction. People didn't want to stretch their minds or let go enough to take mesmerism seriously, but time has proven them wrong.

This book begins at University College Hospital in 1838, with the unveiling of a powerful new treatment, which was believed to be able to conquer pain and even disease. With such a notable scientist as Michael Faraday in the audience, you could imagine this breakthrough was a rigorously tested medical procedure. In fact, it was a demonstration of mesmerism. Author Wendy Moore deftly takes us back to a time when the world was changing due to the Industrial Revolution, but medicine was still very much in its infancy. There was still talk of ‘the balance of humors,’ and bleeding patients, as well as the use of leeches, were very much in evidence.

This is the story of Professor John Elliotson, who went to train as a doctor, but had to fight nepotism to gain a position. At that time, important medical positions were often given to the relatives of those who had previously held them, regardless of their ability to carry out the post they inherited. It was a very frustrating for an ambitious young man, who needed the prestige of a position in a teaching hospital in order to carry out research and earn enough money to support a family. Elliotson was desperate to tackle the old fashioned way that medicine was run and he had an ally in Thomas Wakley, who had started a publication, “The Lancet” to tackle corruption and malpractice in hospitals and medical schools.

Elliotson’s career, and life, was changed with the arrival in England of a Frenchman – Baron Dupotet, who gave a series of lectures, and demonstrations, on ‘Animal Magnetism.’ Although unknown in London, Elliotson was intrigued in the controversial practice of mesmerism; named after the German physicist Franz Anton Mesmer. Elliotson believed mesmerism could be harnessed, in order to perform operations without pain. This was obviously important in a time when patients had to suffer major operations, such as amputations, without anaesthetic.

In this book we read how Elliotson’s belief in mesmerism divided the medical profession and allowed his enemies to attack him; especially Robert Liston, UCL’s Professor of Clinical Surgery, who clashed with Elliotson. Indeed, Elliotson was criticised for giving the Baron permission to continue experiments with female patients at University College Hospital, while he was on holiday. However, he gained unexpected support from Charles Dickens, who was enthralled by the demonstrations of mesmerism. So much so that he made Elliotson the Dickens family doctor and introduced him to other writers, artists and actors. In fact, Elliotson became very much a ‘celebrity’ doctor, which undoubtedly caused jealousy and suspicion.

This is not only a story about Elliotson, but about the desperate search for a way to make medical operations safer and pain free, with mesmerism seeing a viable alternative before other methods became available. Meanwhile, there was charges of fraud, of scandal and demonstrations of mesmerism that seemed to belong more in a music hall than a medical school. Elliotson had his devoted disciples, but also plenty that poured scorn. Really though, it is a story of science versus superstition and a fascinating tale of medicine in Victorian London. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.