About 1840, Quimby began to practice hypnotism, or mesmerism as it was called. Wallace drew a connection between his experiences with mesmerism and his later investigations into spiritualism. There are some similarities between both the theory and practice of Victorian Mesmerism and hypnotism. Interest in Mesmerism also contributed to early Spiritism. Early in his career, he experimented with hypnosis, then known as mesmerism. John Elliotson and his followers attributed the phenomena to mesmerism. She also became interested in science, mesmerism, and the occult. Mesmer left Paris and went back to Vienna to practise mesmerism. Atkinson was a zealous exponent of mesmerism. However, Lucy has fallen under Nadja's mesmerism. He had the mental powers of mesmerism, thought-casting, illusion-casting, and mental-probing. Agatha also has the abilities of mesmerism, thought-casting, and illusion-casting. In 1844 Martineau underwent a course of mesmerism, returning to health after a few months. The resemblance to the conventional techniques of Mesmerism is therefore minimal. There was national interest in mesmerism at this time.