author of The Mesmeric Mania of 1851, With a Physiological Explanation of the Phenomena Produced (1851), who revived Bramwell's interest in hypnotism. On 28 March 1890 Bramwell gave a public demonstration in Leeds of the use of hypnotism for dental and surgical anæsthesia. He travelled widely in Europe and visited most of the important centres of hypnotism. He also directly observed the work of Hippolyte Bernheim (1840–1919) in Nancy, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) at the Salpêtrière in Paris, Frederik Willem van Eeden (1860–1932) and Albert Willem van Renterghem (1846–1939) in Amsterdam, Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904) in Nancy and Otto Georg Wetterstrand (1845–1907) in Stockholm, at their respective clinics. Bramwell, who had visited Charcot, the famous French neurologist, founder of the "Hysteria School" at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, characterised Charcot and his work as a throwback to mesmerism. Around 1885 an associate of Charcot, Albert Pitres, another famous French neurologist at the Salpêtrière hospital, in a throwback to phreno-mesmerism, went even further, claiming that he had discovered zones hypnogènes, or "hypnogenetic zones" which, he said, when stimulated threw people into the hypnotic state, and zones hypnofrénatrices or "hypno-arresting zones", which, when stimulated, abruptly threw people out of that same hypnotic state (Pitres, 1891, passim). Bramwell also visited Nancy on two occasions. From his observations and discussions there he felt that Hippolyte Bernheim and Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault had done little except reproduce Braid's earliest findings. Bramwell was also certain that they knew nothing about Braid's later developments of his theories and practices, his amended terminology and his mature understanding of the applications of hypnotic suggestion. In Bramwell's view, the theoretical position that Braid held at the end of his life (viz., 1860) was considerably more advanced than anything that was promoted by the "Suggestion School" in Nancy thirty-five years later. Along with other members of the Society for Psychical Research, such as Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900), William James (1842–1910), Frederic Myers (1843–1901), Charles Lloyd Tuckey (1854–1925), Eleanor Sidgwick (1845–1936), Edmund Gurney (1847–1888) and Arthur Myers (1851–1894) — Gurney and the two Myers brothers had visited both the Salpêtrière and Nancy in 1885 — Bramwell made a thorough scientific investigation of hypnotism and hypnotic phenomena and, through his lectures, public demonstrations, research and publications did much to increase knowledge of the potential of hypnotism, especially as an effective form of medical intervention. Promoter and defender of the heritage of James Braid A talented specialist medical hypnotist