The Mesmerist

by Wendy Moore 452pp, W&N, £18.99, ebook £9.99

In a 19th-century “free” hospital, you would be tied down during surgery to prevent you clawing at yourself when the pain became maddening; more likely than not, you would die. Two young turks – John Elliotson, a doctor, and Thomas Wakley, who founded The

Lancet – campaigned for reform. Then Elliotson, as Moore’s engrossing study describes, became passionate about hypnosis, under which (he tried to prove) a patient could have surgery without pain. His demonstrations became as fashionable as any theatre – but was it fraud? Miranda Seymour