动物磁性说

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 had an important influence 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 no longer practiced today except as a form of alternative medicine in some places. This theory also had a strong influence on the development of Kardecism.

Etymology and definitions

Magnetizer

The terms magnetizer and mesmerizer have been applied to people who study and practice animal magnetism. These terms have been distinguished from mesmerist and magnetist, which are regarded as denoting those who study animal magnetism without being practitioners; and from hypnotist, someone who practises hypnosis.

The etymology of the word magnetizer comes from the French magnétiseur ('practicing the methods of mesmerism'), which in turn is derived from the French verb magnétiser.

Royal commission

In 1784 two French royal commissions appointed by Louis XVI studied Mesmer's magnetic fluid theory to try to establish it by scientific evidence. The commission of the Academy of Sciences included Majault, Benjamin Franklin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Sallin, Jean Darcet, de Borey, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, and Antoine Lavoisier. The commission of the Royal Society of Medicine was composed of Poissonnier, Caille, Mauduyt de la Varenne, Andry, and Antoine Laurent de Jussieu.

Royal Academy investigation

A generation later, another 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...

Mesmerism and hypnotism

Faria and "oriental hypnosis"

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 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.

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.

Skepticism in the Romantic Era

The study of animal magnetism spurred the creation of the Societies of Harmony in France, where members paid to join and learn the practice of magnetism. Doctor John Bell was a member of the Philosophical Harmonic Society of Paris, and was certified by the society to lecture and teach on animal magnetism in England.

Political influence

The French Revolution catalyzed existing internal political friction in Britain in the 1790s; a few political radicals used animal magnetism as more than just a moral threat but also a political threat. Major politicians and people in power were accused by radicals of practising animal magnetism on the general population.

In his article "Under the Influence: Mesmerism in England", Roy Porter notes that James Tilly Matthews suggested that the French were infiltrating England via animal magnetism.

Mesmerism and spiritual healing practices

During the Romantic period, mesmerism produced enthusiasm and inspired horror in the spiritual and religious context. Though discredited as a medical practice, mesmerism created a venue for spiritual healing. Some animal magnetists advertised their practices by stressing the "spiritual rather than physical benefits to be gained from animal magnetism" and were able to gather a good clientele from among the spiritually inspired population.

Mesmerism has been used in parts of the world as an attempt to treat illness in humans, as well as disease in domestic, farm, circus, and zoo animals.

Professional magnetizers

In the Classical era of animal magnetism, the late 17th century to the mid-19th century, there were professional magnetizers, whose techniques were described by authors of the time as particularly effective. Their method was to spend prolonged periods "magnetizing" their customers directly or through "mesmeric magnets". It was observed that in some conditions, certain mesmerizers were more likely to achieve the result than others, regardless of their degree of knowledge.

In literature

Ursule Mirouët, an 1841 novel by Honoré de Balzac, features a character who converts to Christianity in part because of an experience with animal magnetism.

Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 short story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is based on the premise that a person could be mesmerised at the moment of death. Poe published the work without explicitly stating that it was fictional, leading some readers to believe it was a true account. In another Poe work, "Some Words with a Mummy", characters are stated to detail facts of phrenology and animal magnetism to an ancient mummy who was revitalized.