CHAPTER V
ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which
defile a man. — Jesus.
MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought
into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775.
According to the American Cyclopædia, he regarded this
Earliest investigations
so-called force, which he said could be
exerted by one living organism over another, as
a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were
as follows:
“There exists a mutual influence between the celestial bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminating itself through the substance of the nerves.”
In 1784, the French government ordered the medical faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to report upon it. Under this order a commission was appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the commissioners. This commission reported to the government as follows:
“In regard to the existence and utility of animal magnetism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic
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