James Braid

James Braid (born 1795, Rylawhouse, Fifeshire, Scot.—died March 25, 1860, Manchester, Eng.) was a British surgeon and a pioneer investigator of hypnosis who did much to divorce that phenomenon from prevailing theories of animal magnetism. In 1841, when well established in a surgical practice at Manchester, Braid developed a keen interest in mesmerism, as hypnotism was then called. Proceeding with experiments, he disavowed the popular notion that the ability to induce hypnosis is connected with...