Robert Hanham Collyer

Robert Hanham Collyer
Robert Hanham Collyer
Born	1814 St Helier, Jersey
Died	c. 1891 New Orleans, US
Occupation(s)	Physician, phrenologist, mesmerist, lecturer, author, inventor
Years active	19th-century

Robert Hanham Collyer (1814 – c. 1891) was a British physician, phrenologist, mesmerist, lecturer, author, and inventor mostly active on the east coast of America and Canada during the 19th-century.

Collyer was known for his showmanship and became a popular traveling lecturer. In 1839, he discovered, conceived, and promoted the practice of "phreno-magnetism", but relinquished his claims as mistaken by mid-1843.

He was also involved in a number of scandals and rivalries, including a claim that he originated inhalation anesthesia for surgery before William T. G. Morton, who is generally credited with the discovery.