John Elliotson (29 October 1791 – 29 July 1868), M.D. (Edinburgh, 1810), M.D.(Oxford, 1821), F.R.C.P.(London, 1822), F.R.S. (1829), professor of the principles and practice of medicine at University College London (1832), senior physician to University College Hospital (1834) — and, in concert with William Collins Engledue M.D., the co-editor of The Zoist. Elliotson was an author and teacher whose clinical practice and publications were noted by contemporaries. He was always at the 'leading edge' of his profession: he was one of the first in Britain to use and promote the stethoscope, and one of the first to use acupuncture.
Education The son of the prosperous London chemist and apothecary John Elliotson and Elizabeth Elliotson, he was born in Southwark on 29 October 1791. He was a private pupil of the rector of St Saviours, Southwark, and went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, from 1805 to 1810 — where he was influenced by Thomas Brown, M.D. (1778–1820) — and then at Jesus College, Cambridge, from 1810 to 1821), from both of which institutions he took the degree of M.D., and subsequently in London at St Thomas' and Guy's hospitals. In 1831 he was elected professor of the principles and practice of physic in London University (now University College London), and in 1834 he became physician to University College Hospital.
Physical characteristics Barely 5 ft (152 cm) tall, with dark complexion and a very large head, he was also lame (following an 1828 carriage accident). His appearance presented a strong contrast to his 'intramural enemy' Robert Liston (1794-1847), F.R.C.S. (Edinburgh, 1818), F.R.S. (1841), the University College's Professor of Clinical Surgery, one of the fastest surgeons of all time (on one occasion Liston amputated a leg, mid-thigh, in 25 seconds), who was pale skinned, and at least 6 ft 2in (188 cm) tall. Liston was fiercely opposed to Elliotson's 'contamination' of the hospital with his demonstrations of 'higher states' of mesmerism (i.e., rather than its 'medical' applications). Despite his unusual physical characteristics, Elliotson was greatly admired as a lecturer, both for the structured clarity of his lectures, and the theatrical liveliness of their delivery. Once he began lecturing at the University College, his widely respected lectures were extensively reported in the medical press; and he published a number of collections of his lectures over the years. At his peak, he was the first President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society (in 1833), a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society, he had one of the largest private practices in London and, at his peak, was one of the pre-eminent physicians in the entire British Empire.
Phrenology and mesmerism He became interested in phrenology, and was founder and first President of the London Phrenological Society (in 1823). His interest in mesmerism had been aroused initially by the demonstrations conducted by Richard Chenevix in 1829, and re-awakened by Dupotet de Sennevoy's demonstrations in 1837.
The Okey sisters This prompted Elliotson to begin experimenting with the Okey sisters, Elizabeth (17) and Jane (15), who had been admitted to his hospital, in April 1837, for treatment of their epilepsy. Their surname was often given as O'Key and it was and is widely assumed they were Irish but in fact they came from an old English family (Okey comes from the oak tree). Elliotson soon began using them as subjects – in 1837 he inserted "a large seton needle with a skein of silk into it", entirely painlessly, and without her even being aware that such a penetration had taken place, into the neck of Elizabeth Okey (the older sister) whilst she was mesmerized — within the confines of the hospital, in public demonstrations of the so-called 'higher states' of mesmerism: clairvoyance, transposition of the senses (seeing with the fingers, etc.), thought transmission, physical rapport or "community of sensation", psychical rapport, etc. Convinced that the elder sister, Elizabeth, had a talent for medical clairvoyance (able to see into the body, diagnose illness, prescribe treatment, and deliver a prognosis), Elliotson took her down into the wards in the dead of night and had her both diagnose and prescribe treatments.
Thomas Wakley In August 1838, Thomas Wakley conducted a series of experiments on the sisters in front of several witnesses. His tests focussed on whether the girls could tell 'mesmerised' from 'unmesmerised' water. When they failed to do this consistently, he denounced them as frauds and proclaimed mesmerism a complete fallacy. In fact, the experiments did not prove the girls were faking nor did they show that mesmerism was false. By the end of 1838, however, Elliotson was forced to resign from the hospital. The Council of the University College, after months of deliberation, passed a resolution on 27 December 1838, "That the Hospital Committee be instructed to take such steps as they shall deem most advisable, to prevent the practice of Mesmerism or Animal Magnetism within the Hospital"; and Elliotson, on reading the contents of the resolution, resigned all of his appointments forthwith. Wakley did all that he could, as editor of The Lancet, and as an individual, to oppose Elliotson, and to place all of his endeavours and enterprises in the worst possible light; for example, in addition to an extensive range of articles in The Lancet, over a number of years, there is also an anti-Elliotson (pseudonymous) work attributed to Wakley, Undeniable facts concerning the strange practices of Dr. Elliotson, ... with his female patients; and his medical experiments upon the bodies of ... E. & J. Okey, etc. (1842) which is held by the British Library, and another, most likely written by either Wakley or one of his associates, held in the collection of the Wellcome Library (see right).
The Zoist
Elliotson and William Collins Engledue were the co-editors of The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism, and Their Applications to Human Welfare, an influential British journal, devoted to the promotion of the theories and practices (and the collection and dissemination of reports of the applications) of mesmerism and phrenology, and the enterprise of "connecting and harmonizing practical science with little understood laws governing the mental structure of man", that was published quarterly, without a break, for fifteen years: from March 1843 until January 1856.
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