DR. GOODENOUGH
NATURE AFFORDS A UNIVERSAL MEANS OF
HEALING AND PRESERVING MEN.
Anton Mesmer
 Dr. Goodenough was the alias given by the writer Thackeray to the innovative and esteemed 19th century English physician John Elliotson, who introduced the stethoscope into Britain. When Jules du Potet visited and toured England circa 1837, he gave Elliotson “lessons” in animal magnetism – sufficient to make him a true believer and practitioner. But, his beliefs and public demonstrations met orthodox resistance and he was eventually forced him to leave the University College Medical School and Hospital in London. Nonetheless, Dr. Goodenough developed a wide following for his works as well as The Zoist magazine which he published for a dozen years and volumes. From The
History of Pendennis by William Makepeace
Thackeray, 1879.
A dismal sitting it was for all parties; and when Goodenough appeared, he came like an angel into the room. It is not only for the sick man, it is for the sick man’s friends that the Doctor comes. His presence is often as good for them as for the patient, and they long for him yet more eagerly. How we have all watched after him! what an emotion the thrill of his carriage-wheels in the street, and at length at the door, has made us feel, how we hang upon his words, and what a comfort we get from a smile or two, if he can vouchsafe that sunshine to lighten our darkness! Who hasn’t seen the mother prying into his face, to know if there is hope for the sick infant that cannot speak, and that lies yonder, its little frame battling with fever? Ah, how she looks into his eyes! What thanks if there is light there; what grief and pain if he casts them down, and dares not say “hope!” Or it is the house-father who is stricken. The terrified wife looks on, while the Physician feels his patient’s wrist, smothering her agonies, as the children have been called upon to stay their plays and their talk. Over the patient in the fever, the wife expectant, the children unconscious, the Doctor stands as if he were Fate, the dispenser of life and death: he must let the patient off this time; the woman prays so for his respite: One can fancy how awful the responsibility must be to a conscientious man: how cruel the feeling that he has given the wrong remedy, or that it might have been possible to do better: how harassing the sympathy with survivors, if the case is unfortunate—how immense the delight of victory! From The
Zoist v 5 - 1847
Remarkable Cure of Intense Nervous Affections by Dr. Elliotson A young tradesman in my neighbourhood, whom I had never seen, came to consult me on the 25th of August, 1346. He had dark hair, and was pale and slim but possessed of remarkably firm muscles, and was so swift that he had beaten the most noted runners. He informed me that he had been ill more or less for four years; that the slightest circumstance cast him down or irritated him, according to its nature; that he felt some times as if he should go out of his mind, and sometimes as if he were about to die; that he slept well, but was tired be fore going to sleep and awoke in the morning tired, though he had no muscular weakness; he frequently experienced a heaviness of his eyes; sometimes numbness and tingling all over him; sometimes violent itching of his arms; his hands were cold and shrivelled; the bowels were often torpid, and at those times he was always worse; that the liver secreted too sparingly; and that he was better in the country. His mother was nervous. I prescribed in the best way I could for him. In about ten days he called upon me one evening, with his symptoms very intense, and suffering a head-ache so severe as almost to drive him mad. This lasted till the next morning; and when he called again in two days, he was in the same state as when I first saw him. On the evening of this day I left London for Switzerland, and did not see him again till the beginning of November. After being under my treatment for above two months he was no better. I had not mentioned mesmerism to him, although I believed from the first it would he the best thing for his case; because I have been compelled for a long while never to name this subject before enquiries are made to me. I found a large number of medical men, physicians and general practitioners equally, who were perfectly ignorant of it, who had done their patients no good, and had no hope of doing them good, stare at me with a far more sagacious look than I could give, and assure me they considered it nonsense and would not consent to its use: and I found large numbers of patients refuse to hear of it, because they knew it was nonsense, dangerous, or satanic. I give my opinion honestly when it is asked, but I will never run the risk of finding persons unreasonable and ridiculous, and of being thwarted in an attempt to do my duty by them. This patient and his wife had heard of mesmerism, and now, as he was no better, enquired what I thought of it in his case. I immediately informed them that it ought to be tried, and was very likely to be of essential service. I shewed his wife how to make very slow passes from opposite his forehead to opposite his stomach with one hand, held at the distance of a few inches from his face, both parties looking at each other in perfect silence and all in the room being perfectly still, for at least half an hour and at least once a day. I told her she might change her hand when it was tired, and that she must either stand before or at one side of her husband, or sit a good deal higher than he was, or her hand would soon tire; that, if he should ever go to sleep, she had better continue the passes till the sleep was deep, and then contentedly allow it to expend itself, as it was sure to do sooner or later. At the same time I begged him to omit all medicine, and live just as had always been his habit. This was done: and he obtained a complete recovery; was able to go through parts of his business in his cellar without inconvenience, that he formerly could not interfere in without suffering in his head: and is at present, and has been for months, in full health, strength, and spirits. As with Miss Bernal, whose cure is related by herself in the last number of The Zoist, I one day requested him to draw up his case for the present number, and I now transmit his account without the alteration of a syllable, together with a note to myself which ac companied it the very day after my request. Healing
of Breast Cancer without Drugs or Surgery by
John Elliotson
written by W. C. Engledue, M.D. Southsen, October 30th, 1848 I CONSIDER the following paper to contain the account of one of the most important and instructive cases in the annals of surgery. When Mr. Ward, of Wellow, removed the poor man's leg without his being conscious of pain, under the mesmeric superintendence of my friend, Mr. Topham, all those persons who were engaged in mesmeric investigation considered the case to be the most important which had been presented to the medical profession. And so it was. Here was a man placed in a state of insensibility by a few passes of the hand, and during the continuance of this state a fourth part of his body removed by the knife of the surgeon. This was in November, 1842. Since that period the world has become so familiar with the performance of surgical operations without pain by means of ether and chloroform, that the proceedings of those who have operated on persons under the influence of mesmerism have not attracted so much notice as they deserved. Nevertheless, the number of operations performed in this state amount, I believe, to nearly four hundred. Great as this boon to suffering humanity must be considered, and important as every one must admit the facts to be, there is yet another portion of the subject demanding our attention, viz., the alleviation and cure of disease. It is quite impossible to obtain a return of the number of cases of prolonged suffering which medicines had failed to alleviate, but which have been speedily and effectually cured by means of mesmerism…. The sudden removal of a diseased mass is a very simple affair, and the production of the state of insensibility in the mesmeric state is one of the most common phenomena presented to the physiologist. But the removal of a diseased growth, a malignant tumor, not suddenly with the knife of the surgeon, but with the aid of mesmerism, so acting on the inherent powers of the constitution as to produce a steady and progressive absorption, – this is a phenomenon which has not been witnessed on any former occasion, and certainly demands the most serious consideration of the medical profession. Can any surgeon refer to a single example of tumor of the breast like the one under consideration, which steadily progressed, either with or without medicine, toward a perfect cure? Here was a tumor, carefully examined and unanimously doomed to extirpation by several practical surgeons, and the fact of their doing so, clearly proved that they knew of no other plan by which the diseased mass could be removed. Nevertheless this tumor underwent such changes, day after day, and month after month, just in the proportion that the efforts of the mesmeriser were continued, and finally, became absorbed, – and not only so, but the constitutional symptoms, which were of an aggravated character, yielded, – the darting pains ceased, sleep returned, the sallow complexion vanished, the swollen arm returned to a natural size, and the situation of the patient became in every respect more and more satisfactory. On one occasion, during the absence of Dr. Elliotson on the continent, the treatment was nearly discontinued for two months, – what was the result? “On my return at the end of October,” he says, “I found a very painful and bleeding sore, and, what was worse, the darting pain had returned, and the diseased mass had grown firmly to the ribs.” After two years exertion, here was enough to discourage any one not endowed with the same powers of perseverance – the same determination to prosecute a new and important truth – the same benevolent desire to alleviate the sufferings of a fellow-creature, which, fortunately for Miss Barber, her friend, Dr. Elliotson, possessed. Again she was mesmerised daily, and again “the mass began to diminish.” During the year 1847, the disease “steadily gave way.” “The mass had become not only much less but detached from the ribs and moveable again.” And now, September, 1848, the report is, “The cancerous mass is now completely dissipated; the breast is perfectly flat, and all the skin thicker and firmer than before the disease existed. Not the smallest lump is to be found, nor is there the slightest tenderness of the bosom or the arm-pit.” I ask whether there is not here a manifestation of cause and effect? Have we not the same evidence here that we have when a beneficial effect follows the exhibition of a drug? To what other conclusion can we come, than that this growth was removed by the aid of mesmerism? I trust that the publication of this pamphlet will stimulate my professional brethren to test the power of mesmerism over other cases of this formidable disease…. Let the investigation be conducted in a fair and impartial spirit. Let each individual remember that he has to assist in the discovery of truth. He has not to engage in any party investigation, but simply to collect and test the value of facts, and then to record his experience in the simple language of sincerity, which is invariably estimated at its true value by all those worthy of consideration, and thus to aid and assist in the grandest of all occupations – the promotion of true science and the alleviation of the miseries of his fellow creatures. |
The Great Physician
Love Heals
“Even as there is only one nature, one life, one health,
there is, only one disease, one remedy, one healing.”
Mesmer
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