Frederick Anthony Mesmer, to whose name the above _ism_ is affixed, was
born in Werseburg, in 1734. He neither discovered, developed, nor
understood anything of the art which has immortalized him. He was a
designing, audacious man. If Gassner, Prince Hohenloe, and Greatrakes were
falsely accused of dealing with the devil, Mesmer was truly leagued with a
Father Hell. Father Hell was professor of astronomy at Vienna, where
Mesmer obtained a medical diploma, and where he was connected at first
with Maximilian Hell in magnetic instruments. Having a falling out with
the latter, Mesmer resorted to the arts of his great predecessor,
Greatrakes, but professed to cure, without the help of God or man, all
curable diseases. He produced marvellous effects (but only temporary,
however) in both Vienna and Paris, to which latter place he repaired to
practise animal magnetism.
Among the little episodes relative to his treatment is one of Madame
Campan, a lady of the royal household, author of "Memoires de Marie
Antoinette." The husband of this celebrated lady sent for Dr. Mesmer--for
all Paris was running mad after him--to cure him of lung fever. He came
with great pomp, and having timed the pulse, and made certain inquiries
respecting the case, he gravely informed the husband and wife that it was
not in the way of magnetism, and the only mode of cure lay in the
following: "You must lay by his side"--for he was confined to his
bed--"one of three things, an old empty bottle, a black hen, or a young
woman of brown complexion."
[Illustration: "A BOTTLE, A HEN, OR A WOMAN."]
"'Sir,' exclaimed the wife, 'let us try the empty bottle first.'
"The bottle was tried, with what result is easily imagined. Monsieur
Campan grew worse. Improving the opportunity of the lady's absence, Mesmer
bled and blistered the patient, who recovered.
"Imagine the lady's astonishment when Mesmer asked for and actually
obtained a written certificate of cure by magnetism" (Mesmerism).
This is more easily believed when one learns that Mesmer obtained his
degree on an address, or thesis, relating to "planetary influence on the
human body," and that afterwards, in answer to the inquiry by a learned
Paris physician, who asked him why he ordered his patients to bathe in the
Seine, instead of spring water, as the waters of the Seine were always
dirty, Mesmer replied,--
"Why, my dear doctor, the cause of the water which is exposed to the sun's
rays being superior to all other water is, that it is magnetized by the
sun. I myself magnetized the sun some twenty years ago."
All that sort of fellows have ever a short course. Mesmer reached his
zenith in Paris about the year 1784, when, for one year's practice, he
received the enormous sum of four hundred thousand francs. The government,
at the instigation of Count Maurepas, had previously offered him an
annuity of twenty thousand francs, with ten thousand francs additional, to
support a college hospital, if he would remain and practise only in
France. "One unpleasant condition was attached to this offer, which
prevented its acceptance; viz., three nominees of the crown were to watch
the proceedings."
The government appointed a commission, consisting of Dr. Guillotin, and
three other physicians, and five members of the Academy,--Franklin,
Bailly, Borey, Leroi, and Lavoisier,--to examine the means employed by
Mesmer. The result of the investigation--the discovery of his battery,
which he termed the _baquet_, around which his patients assembled, and his
windy pretensions to the self-possession of some animal magnetism beyond
even his disciples, Bergasse and Deslon--was unfavorable to the truth of
animal magnetism and morality, and the enthusiasm in his favor rapidly
subsided. Mesmer soon found it convenient to repair to London. Here he
made no great impression; his day had gone by.
He died in his native town, in all but penury and obscurity, in 1815.
Clairvoyance now made its appearance, which was but a different phase of
magnetism, and Mesmerism was soon but indifferently practised in France.
In England the faculty entirely ignored it.