James Braid witnesses Lafontaine's demonstration and begins studying hypnotism

Background. James Braid was a Scottish surgeon who had previously investigated animal magnetism. Prior to 1841, he was convinced by a four-part investigation published in The London Medical Gazette that there was no evidence of magnetic agency for such phenomena. He believed effects were due to excited imagination or mental impression, not magnetic manipulations, and had abandoned the subject as unworthy of further investigation.

Demonstration. Braid attended a public performance by the travelling French magnetic demonstrator Charles Lafontaine at the Manchester Athenæum on 13 November 1841. He observed a fact that arrested his attention: the inability of a patient to open his eyelids. This observation contradicted his previous beliefs, prompting him to institute experiments to determine the cause.

Investigation. Braid attended two more demonstrations, becoming convinced of the veracity of some effects by the third on 20 November 1841. He conducted experiments with self-hypnotization and performed his first act of hetero-hypnotization at his residence on 22 November 1841. He later demonstrated that effects could be replicated without physical contact between operator and subject.