Mesmer’s popularity began to bloom and with it came eccentric new ideas for treating patients. He even invented his own musical instrument, a bizarre glass instrument referred to as a “glass armonica,” which he believed could affect the magnetic fluid of the human body. In some instances, he would tightly press his patients’ knees together in between his own, in some patients he would perform arcane movements in the air with his hands or with metal implements, in some cases he would run his hands along his patients’ limbs, hoping to stimulate a desired movement in animal magnetism. ( 5)īelieving himself to have discovered something revolutionary, Mesmer began introducing magnetic therapies to the Viennese public. He reported her as suffering from nausea, convulsions, rage, hysteria, and a number of other symptoms culminating in what he termed a “convulsive malady.” Mesmer attempted treating his theorized source of Oesterline’s illness: a blockage of that mysterious fluid which regulates “animal magnetism.” Using magnetic rods and various forms of stimulation and touch, Mesmer seemed to have cured Franziska Oesterline of her malady. Read More Weird History: The Pied Piper Story: What Really Happened to the Children of Hamelin? What did Franz Mesmer Do?Ī young woman by the name of Franziska Oesterline presented herself to Mesmer. ( 3)ĭissatisfied by the results affected by medical procedures during his time and inspired by the reported success of Jesuit priest Maximilian Hell in the area of magnet therapy, Mesmer returned to the theories he espoused in his doctoral thesis. ( 4) During this time he even became acquainted with a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, patronizing the up and coming composer who was just twelve at the time. He established his medical practice in Vienna and began hosting important Viennese social movers at his expansive mansion and gardens. We know that Newton’s work was widely popular and influential within eighteenth century scientific circles and that Mesmer was heavily influenced by it.Īfter completing his doctoral thesis, Mesmer married a wealthy Viennese widow and began interacting with the Viennese social scene. It was, in the eighteenth century, not altogether strange to refer to energy or electricity as a “fluid.” It is likely, in fact, that Mesmer’s “fluid” originated from a reading of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, which described electricity, a concept not yet understood, in terms resembling liquid. He would initially dub this theory “animal gravitation.” Eventually, he would rename this concept as “animal magnetism.” ( 2) From the Museum of the French Revolution, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Mesmer would suggest that the planets’ gravitational influence was affected upon a mysterious fluid energy running through the human body. Borrowing heavily from the works of Sir Isaac Newton and the physician Richard Mead, Mesmer’s thesis explored the hypothesis that the movements of the heavenly bodies have an effect on the physical health of living creatures. This thesis is where Franz Mesmer’s unique eccentricities began to show. After briefly pursuing a law degree, Mesmer submitted a doctoral thesis at the age of thirty-two. Instead, Mesmer began to turn his eye towards the medical field. He was educated in Latin at a young age and spent his adolescence in a series of Jesuit schools, presumably in preparation for Catholic priesthood. Franz Anton Mesmer was born in Southern Germany in 1734. Mesmerism derives from the name of an eighteenth century scientist. The bizarre saga through which the phrase “animal magnetism” was coined also originated the term “mesmerism,” which is synonymous today with hypnotism. For its advocates, animal magnetism seemed like the solution for a host of diseases, deficiencies, and sources of human suffering. There was a time, in fact, when it was thought, albeit by a small group of believers, that animal magnetism would completely change the human experience. However, animal magnetism once held a very different definition. Colloquially, this is what animal magnetism means. The phrase “animal magnetism” evokes mental images of emanating sensuality, of raw primal attraction.
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