On Short and Interesting we read to you strange and curious things. In 1801, in Georgian-era England, a doctor called George Winter wrote about the quack medical fad of the day, ‘Animal Magnetism,’ what we today would call hypnotism. Doctor Winter was quick to deride medical hypnotism as junk science that couldn’t really cure disease. But frankly, the so-called “medical science” of 1801 was no great shakes either.

If you’re interested in reading this moldy old tome, you can find it on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/b21445667/page/n3/mode/2up.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandca ...