Donato — La Chirurgia senza Anestesia e le Applicazioni Terapeutiche/en
Donato did not limit his work to theatrical demonstrations. The journal «Le Magnétisme» documents his vision of therapeutic applications — particularly surgery without chemical anesthesia, which Donato considered not only possible but superior to chloroform in certain cases.
Source: Le Magnétisme fasc. 51-154 — Drive ISI-CNV
The declaration on surgery
From the journal:
- «Ce qui est désormais acquis comme praticable sur tous les sujets, c'est de vaincre leurs répugnances naturelles et de les forcer ainsi à accomplir des opérations chirurgicales sans recourir aux anesthésiques habituels : chloroforme, protoxyde d'azote, etc., etc., qui offrent, en certains cas, beaucoup d'inconvénients et même de dangers.»
Donato was precise about the limitations of chloroform: it had «inconvénients» and in certain cases real «dangers». Fascination as an alternative was not utopia — it was already being practiced. Donato cites the historical precedent of Baron Du Potet and Dr. Cloquet, who had performed operations on subjects prepared by magnetizers:
- «Le docteur Cloquet et d'autres chirurgiens ont fait, il est vrai, des opérations, mais c'était sur des sujets mis en l'état spécial par des magnétiseurs de profession, franchement avoués, tels que le vaillant et défunt maître et ami, le baron du Potet.»
Magnetic anesthesia in history
The first documented surgical operation in a magnetic state was performed by surgeon Jules Cloquet in 1829 in Paris: removal of a breast tumor on a patient in a state of magnetic sleep, without any sign of pain during the operation. The patient conversed calmly throughout the process.
The reaction of the Academy of Medicine was rejection: «impossible, the patient was simulating». Cloquet was a leading surgeon, not a charlatan. Donato, 50 years later, was still fighting the same prejudice.
The parallel with Luys
Luys had demonstrated the same thing at the Charité in 1889: the painless childbirth of Ernestine B. (May 1, 1889) — first in a state of fascination with a rotating mirror, then no screams, no pain, a baby of 3,800 kg, mother unaware upon awakening.
Luys had already achieved the same result with three other women. Fascinatory anesthesia was not only possible but systematizable.
Suggestion as a pharmacological substitute
Donato's vision went beyond surgery:
- «Il va plus, c'est que par la suggestion, nous pouvons quelquefois remplacer les médicaments et, par le seul effet de cette suggestion, faire accomplir l'opération physico-chimique qu'aurait produite le médicament lui-même dans le corps de l'homme.»
Suggestion as a pharmacological substitute: not just «feeling less pain» but producing the same physical-chemical effects of the drug through suggestion alone. This statement — revolutionary for 1880 — has found partial confirmation in modern research on the placebo effect and modulation of the immune system through mental states (psychoneuroimmunology).
The case of the extracted tooth: the suggestion of pain
As the extreme opposite, from the same journal:
- «Il s'est produit ce fait remarquable d'un jeune homme à qui M. Donato faisait accroire qu'il souffrait d'une dent mauvaise, et qui, au paroxysme de la douleur, s'est réellement arraché cette dent lui-même, au grand effroi du public.»
If suggestion can produce physical pain so real as to drive self-mutilation, the same suggestion can obviously eliminate real pain. Magnetic anesthesia is not «not feeling» but «receiving the suggestion that there is no pain».
The vision of a future science
Donato concluded with a prophecy:
- «De ces faits [...] pourra jaillir et jaillira certainement plus tard une science bien plus belle que toutes celles qu'on connaît actuellement.»
In 2026, psychoneuroimmunology, the neurobiology of stress, polyvagal theory, research on placebo and nocebo effects are realizing this prediction. The Paret Method fits into this line: fascination as a tool for accessing physiological states normally inaccessible to conscious will.
Documented anecdotes
In an interview from November 1885 with editor Willox (Union Républicaine de la Sarthe), Donato indicated among the practical applications of magnetism the desensitization that allows «d'accomplir des opérations chirurgicales sans recourir aux anesthésiques habituels: chloroforme, protoxyde d'azote», substances then not without dangers. He added that with suggestion one could sometimes replace the effect of the drug, or overcome the patient's aversion to taking it. Already in 1878, in a Nice newspaper, he had formulated the program: «Je voudrais qu'on mariât le magnétisme et la thérapeutique… médecins et magnétiseurs, aidons-nous… au lieu de nous entre-déchirer» — a call for integration years ahead of the doctors who would later claim those applications.
- Source of anecdotes: G. Moréty, Le Magnétisme Triomphant 1886, chaps. Applications (Drive ISI-CNV).
Sources
- Le Magnétisme fasc. 51-154 — Drive ISI-CNV
- Luys — Applicazioni Terapeutiche della Fascinazione alla Charité — painless childbirth, 12 clinical cases
- Di Pisa — Applicazioni Terapeutiche del Metodo — Italian continuation
See also
- Prof. Jules Bernard Luys — La Fascinazione Terapeutica alla Charité
- Prof. Erminio Di Pisa — Ipnosi con lo Sguardo
- Donato — Fenomeni Straordinari e Applicazioni Avanzate (dalla Rivista)
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