Mesmer

Mesmer, FRIEDRICH ANTON or FRANZ, the founder of the doctrine of Animal Magnetism (q.v.), was born near Constance, 23d May 1734. He was bred for the priesthood at Dillingen and Ingolstadt, but took up the study of medicine at Vienna, and took his doctor's degree in 1766 with a treatise De planetarum influxu. About 1772 he began with a Jesuit, Hell, to investigate the curative powers of the magnet, and was led to adopt the opinion that there exists a power, similar to magnetism, which exercises an extraordinary influence on the human body. This he called animal magnetism, and published an account of his discovery, and of its medicinal value, in 1775. In 1778 he went to Paris, where he created a great sensation. His system obtained the support of members of the medical profession, as well as of others; but he refused an offer of an annual pension of 20,000 livres (about £800) to reveal his secret; and this, combined with other circumstances, gave rise to suspicion, and induced the government in 1785 to appoint a commission, composed of physicians and scientists (Baillie, Franklin, Lavoisier, &c.), whose report was unfavourable to him. He now fell into disrepute, and, after a visit to England, retired to Meersburg, in Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life in complete obscurity. He died 5th March 1815. See his Life by J. Kerner (Frankf. 1856), and P. Anderson Graham's Mesmer the Magnetiser (1890).