Elliotson , John , 1791-1868 , physician

Born, London, 1791; educated, private pupil of the rector of St Saviour's, Southwark, Edinburgh, Jesus College, Cambridge; pupil, St Thomas's and Guy's Hospital; assistant, Guy's Hospital, for five years; graduated, MD, 1821; Professor of the Practice of Medicine, University of London, 1831; helped establish University College Hospital; Lumleian lecturer, 1829; Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of London, 1831; first physician in Britain to use the stethoscope; founder and first president of the Phrenological Society; President, Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, [1837]; studied mesmerism, and held séances; the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London banned mesmerism and his interest compelled to resign his professorship, 1838, and membership of the Society; Harveian orator, 1846; established a mesmeric hospital, 1849; founded his own journal, The Zoist, to publish reports of mesmeric phenomena; died, 1868.

Publications include: Dissertatio ... de inflammatione communi, etc. (Edinburgh 1810); Numerous cases illustrative of the efficacy of ... Prussic Acid in affections of the Stomach; with a report upon its powers in Pectoral and other Diseases in which it has been already recommended; and some facts respecting ... the use of Opium in Diabetes (London, 1820); The introductory lecture of a course upon state- medicine. delivered in Mr Grainger's theatre, Southwark, on Thursday, November the first (Printed by T Bensley, London, 1821); The Institutions of Physiology ... Translated from the Latin of the third and last edition, and supplied with numerous and extensive notes, by John Elliotson ... Second edition Fourth edition by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (Longman & Co, London, 1828); On the recent improvements in the art of distinguishing the diseases of the Heart, being the Lumleyan lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, in the year 1829 (London, 1830); Address delivered at the opening of the Medical Session in the University of London, Oct. 1st 1832 (London, 1832); The Principles and practice of Medicine: ... in a course of Lectures, delivered at University College, London (London, 1839); Lectures on the theory and practice of Medicine, delivered in University College, London Edited by J C Cooke, and T G Thompson (London, 1839); Numerous cases of surgical operations without pain in the mesmeric state; with remarks upon the opposition of many members of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and others (London, 1843); The Harveian oration, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, London, June 27th, 1846 (H Baillière, London, 1846); Mesmerism in India, and its Practical Application in Surgery and Medicine (Esdaile, 1846/1977); Cure of a true cancer of the female breast with mesmerism Extracted from the last number of "The Zoist" (No. XXIII.) (London, 1848); The Zoist: a journal of cerebral physiology and mesmerism Editor 13 volumes (London, 1843-1856); John Elliotson on mesmerism edited by Fred Kaplan (Da Capo Press, New York, 1982).