The Mesmerist: How Hypnotism came to Victorian London

Best-selling author Wendy Moore will talk about her latest book, The Mesmerist: the society doctor who held Victorian London spellbound, which tells the story of John Elliotson, the esteemed Victorian physician who introduced hypnotism to London in 1837. Elliotson’s demonstrations on patients at University College Hospital drew hundreds of awed spectators and launched a mesmerism mania which swept the country. Wendy will show how the questions raised by these spectacles led to his ruin.