ABSTRACT
The practice of hypnosis developed out of mesmerism in the 1840s with the work of James Braid, a Scottish surgeon, who was keen to challenge certain aspects of mesmerism. The mesmerist craze derived from "animal mesmerism" created by the Austrian physician, Franz Anton Mesmer. The change brought about by hypnosis in an adult or child, one which strips the accumulated effects of education and of mental maturation, is accompanied by certain physical effects. There may be a contraction of the blood vessels of the skin and a change in the depth and rate of breathing. Hypnosis is commonly associated with dramatic and theatrical demonstrations of induced anaesthesia. Although pain is an unpleasant sensation the reaction to it is determined by its significance. The greatest number of successful applications of hypnosis would seem to be in those patients who came to the hospital, often for the first time, with an injury for which they felt immediate treatment was imperative.
