Connection with hypnotism[edit] Esdaile is thought by many to have been a pioneer in the use of hypnosis for sur gical

anaesthesia in the era immediately prior to James Young Simpson's discover y of chloroform. However, Esdaile had studied neither hypnotism nor Mesmerism hi mself. Although some would trace the practice of hypnotherapy back to Faria, Gassner, a nd Hell, it is conventional to trace what we now know as hypnotism back to the S cottish surgeon James Braid's reaction to a public exhibition of mesmeric techni ques given by Charles Lafontaine in Manchester on 13 November 1841. There are some similarities between both the theory and practice of Victorian Me smerism and hypnotism. Braid reported favourably upon the Government committee c haired by Atkinson's September 1846 report on Esdaile's use of Mesmerism in an I ndian hospital, although only 30% of his clients actually exhibited no signs of pain during their operations.[10] However, Braid also expressed reservations abo ut Esdaile's claims of supernatural powers possessed by certain subjects, and th e fact that his operations were yet to be demonstrated in British hospitals. In theory I entirely differ from Dr. Esdaile. He is a Mesmerist that is, he beli eves in the transmission of some peculiar occult influence from the operator to the patient, as the cause of the subsequent phenomena.[10] In fact, as this report shows, Esdaile did not generally "Mesmerise" the patient s himself but employed native Indian boys to spend 2 8 hours per day with each pat ient in a darkened room, employing a technique that involved breathing on the pa tient's body. The resemblance to the conventional techniques of Mesmerism is the refore minimal.