And thousands of physicians were professional practitioners of hypnosis.

The word “hypnosis” is a poor excuse for this all-embracing meta-science.

One surgeon alone (allowed to work in a charity hospital for eight months) “cured” the following syndromes without surgery …

nervous headache — 3 cured by 1 trance

tic douloureaux — 1 cured by 1 trance

nervousness and lameness from rheumatism of 2 1/2 years standing — 1 cured by chronic treatment

spasmodic colic — 1 cured by 1 trance

acute inflammation of the eye — 1 by repeated trances in 24 hours

chronic inflammation of the eye — 1 by chronic treatment

acute inflammation of testes — 1 by repeated trances in 36 hours

convulsions — 1 by 1 trance

lameness from rheumatism — 2 by chronic treatment

lumbago — 1 by general and local hypnosis for a week

sciatica — 1 by general and local hypnosis for a week

pain in the crural nerve — 1 by general and local hypnosis for a week

palsy in one arm — 1 by general and local hypnosis for a month

palsy of half the body — 1 by general and local hypnosis for 6 weeks

feeling of insects crawling over the body — 1 by 1 trance

But his main line of work was surgery, so in the same eight months of 1846 he performed 73 operations using hypnosis, including …

arm amputated (1), breast amputated (1), tumor extracted from the upper jaw (1), scirrhus testium extirpated (2), penis amputated (2), contracted knees straightened (3), contracted arms straightened (3), operations for cataract (3), large tumor in the groin cut off (1), operations for hydrocele (7), operations for dropsy (2), actual cautery applied to a sore (1), muriatic acid applied to a sore (2), unhealthy sores pared down (7), abscesses opened (5), sinus, six inches long, laid open (1), heel flayed (1), end of thumb cut off (1), teeth extracted (3), gum cut away (1), prepuce cut off (3), piles cut off (1), great toe nails cut out by the roots (5), seton introduced from ankle to knee (1), large tumor on leg removed (1), scrotal tumors, weighing from 8 pounds to 80 pounds, removed 17, painless (14)

This surgeon got his M.D. at the University of Edinburgh, but he was an untrained Mesmerist.

James Esdaile (1808-1859) had never studied hypnosis, Mesmerism, or animal magnetism.

He only read about them in a book.

Imagine the possibilities if holistic hypnotists (not mainstream ones) were the administrators and physicians of contemporary clinics and hospitals.