Animal magnetism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was the name given by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century to what he believed to be an invisible natural force (Lebensmagnetismus) possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. He believed that the force could have physical effects, including healing, and he tried persistently but without success to achieve scientific recognition of his ideas.[1] The vitalist theory attracted numerous followers in Europe and the United States and was popular into the 19th century. Practitioners were often known as magnetizers rather than mesmerists. It was an important specialty in medicine for about 75 years from its beginnings in 1779, and continued to have some influence for another 50 years. Hundreds of books were written on the subject between 1766 and 1925, but it is almost entirely forgotten today.[2] Mesmerism is still practised as a form of alternative medicine in some countries, but magnetic practices are not recognized as part of medical science. Contents Etymology and definitions "Magnetizer" "Mesmerism" Royal Commission Royal Academy investigation Mesmerism and hypnotism Vital fluid and animal magnetism Social skepticism in the Romantic Era Political influence Mesmerism and spiritual healing practices Contemporary development Professional magnetizers See also Notes References Further reading Etymology and definitions "Magnetizer" The terms "magnetizer" and "mesmerizer" have been applied to people who study and practice animal magnetism.[3] These terms have been distinguished from "mesmerist" and "magnetist", which are regarded as denoting those who study animal magnetism without being practitioners;[4] and from "hypnotist", someone who practises hypnosis.[4] The etymology of the word magnetizer comes from the French "magnetiseur" ("practicing the methods of mesmerism"),[3] which in turn is derived from the French verb magnetiser.[5] The term refers to an individual who has the power to manipulate the "magnetic fluid"[6] with effects upon other people present that were regarded as analogous to magnetic effects.[7] This sense of the term is found, for example, in the expression of Antoine Joseph Gorsas: "The magnetizer is the imam of vital energy".[8] "Mesmerism" A tendency emerged amongst British magnetizers to call their clinical techniques "mesmerism"; they wanted to distance themselves from the theoretical orientation of animal magnetism that was based on the concept of "magnetic fluid". At the time, some magnetizers attempted to channel what they thought was a magnetic "fluid", and sometimes they attempted this with a "laying on of hands". Reported effects included various feelings: intense heat, trembling, trances, and seizures.[9] Many practitioners took a scientific approach, such as Joseph Philippe François Deleuze (1753–1835), a French physician, anatomist, gynecologist, and physicist. One of his pupils was Théodore Léger (1799–1853), who wrote that the label "mesmerism" was "most improper".[10] (Léger moved to Texas around 1836). Noting that, by 1846, the term "galvanism" had been replaced by "electricity", Léger wrote that year:[10] Mesmerism, of all the names proposed [to replace the term animal magnetism], is decidedly the most improper; for, in the first place, no true science has ever been designated by the name of a man, whatever be the claims he could urge in his favor; and secondly, what are the claims of Mesmer for such an honor? He is not the inventor of the practical part of the science, since we can trace the practice of it through the most remote ages; and in that respect, the part which he introduced has been completely abandoned. He proposed for it a theory which is now [viz., 1846] exploded, and which, on account of his errors, has been fatal to our progress. He never spoke of the phenomena which have rehabilitated our cause among scientific men; and since nothing remains to be attributed to Mesmer, either in the practice and theory, or the discoveries that constitute our science, why should it be called mesmerism? Royal Commission In 1784 a French Royal Commission appointed by Louis XVI studied Mesmer's magnetic fluid theory to try to establish it by scientific evidence. The commission included Majault, Benjamin Franklin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Sallin, Jean Darcet, de Borey, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Antoine Lavoisier, Poissonnier, Caille, Mauduyt de la Varenne, Andry, and de Jussieu. Whilst the commission agreed that the cures claimed by Mesmer were indeed cures, it also concluded there was no evidence of the existence of his "magnetic fluid", and that its effects derived from either the imaginations of its subjects or charlatanry. Royal Academy investigation A second investigating committee, appointed by a majority vote in 1826 in The Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, studied the effects and clinical potentials of the mesmeric procedure - without trying to establish the physical nature of any magnetic fluidum. The report says: what we have seen in the course of our experiments bears no sort of resemblance to what the Report of 1784 relates with regard to the magnetizers of that period. We neither admit nor reject the existence of the fluid, because we have not verified the fact ; we do not speak of the baquet ... nor of the assemblage of a great number of people together, who were magnetized in the presence of a crowd of witnesses ; because all our experiments were made in the most complete stillness ... and always upon a single person at a time. We do not speak of ... the crisis[11] Among the conclusions were: Magnetism has taken effect upon persons of different sexes and ages. ... In general, magnetism does not act upon persons in a sound state of health. ... Neither does it act upon all sick persons. ... we may conclude with certainty that this state exists, when it gives rise to the development of new faculties, which have been designated by the names of clairvoyance; intuition; internal prevision; or when it produces great changes in the physical economy, such as insensibility; a sudden and considerable increase of strength; and when these effects cannot be referred to any other cause. ... We can not only act upon the magnetized person, but even place him in a complete state of somnambulism, and bring him out of it without his knowledge, out of his sight, at a certain distance, and with doors intervening. ... The greater number of the somnambulists whom we have seen, were completely insensible ... we might pinch their skin, so as to leave a mark, prick them with pins under the nails, &c. without producing any pain, without even their perceiving it. Finally, we saw one who was insensible to one of the most painful operations in surgery, and who did not manifest the slightest emotion in her countenance, her pulse, or her respiration. ... Magnetism is as intense, and as speedily felt, at a distance of six feet as of six inches; and the phenomena developed are the same in both cases. ...Magnetism ought to be allowed a place within the circle of medical sciences...[12] Mesmerism and hypnotism Abbé Faria was one of the disciples of Franz Anton Mesmer who continued with Mesmer's work following the conclusions of the Royal Commission. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria is said to have introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris[13] and to have conducted experiments to prove that "no special force was necessary for the production of the mesmeric phenomena such as the trance, but that the determining cause lay within the subject himself"—in other words, that it worked purely by the power of suggestion.[14] Hypnotism, a designation coined by the Scottish surgeon, James Braid,[15] originates in Braid's response to an 1841 exhibition of "animal magnetism", by Baquet. Interior view: Drawing room scene with many people sitting and Charles Lafontaine, in Manchester.[16] Writing in 1851, Braid was adamant that, standing around a large table; a man in the absence of the sorts of "higher phenomena" reportedly produced by the on a crutch has an iron band mesmerists, wrapped around his ankle; others in the group are holding bands and in contra-distinction to the Transcendental [i.e., similarly; to the left, a man has metaphysical] Mesmerism of the Mesmerists … [allegedly] hypnotized a woman. (1780) induced through the transmission of an occult influence from [the body of the operator to that of the subject,] Hypnotism, [by which] I mean a peculiar condition of the nervous system, into which it can be thrown by artificial contrivance … [a theoretical position that is entirely] consistent with generally admitted principles in physiological and psychological science [would] therefore [be most aptly] designated Rational Mesmerism.[17] Vital fluid and animal magnetism A 1791 London publication explains Mesmer's theory of the vital fluid : Modern philosophy has admitted a plenum or universal principle of fluid matter, which occupies all space; and that as all bodies moving in the world, abound with pores, this fluid matter introduces itself through the interstices and returns backwards and forwards, flowing through one body by the currents which issue therefrom to another, as in a magnet, which produces that phenomenon which we call Animal Magnetism. This fluid Advertisement poster of 1857: consists of fire, air and spirit, and like all other fluids tends to an Instant sleep. Miscellaneous effects equilibrium, therefore it is easy to conceive how the efforts of paralysis, partial and complete which the