The first allusion to the application of the magnet as a cure for
disease is found in the works of Aetius, who wrote in the early part
of the sixth century. He mentions that holding a magnet in the hand is
said to give relief in gout. He does not profess to have tested this
treatment himself. Writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
recommend it strongly for toothache, headache, convulsions, and
nerve disorders. About the end of the seventeenth century magnetic
tooth-picks and earpicks were sold. To these were attributed the
virtues of preventing and healing pains in those organs.
Paracelsus originated the theory of animal magnetism. The mysterious
properties possessed by the loadstone and transferable from that body
to iron, were according to Paracelsus an influence drawn directly from
the stars and possessed by all animate beings. It was a fluid which
he called Magnale. By it he explained the movements of certain plants
which follow the course of the sun, and it was on the basis of this
hypothesis that he composed his sympathetic ointment and explained the
action of talismans. Paracelsus applied the magnet in epilepsy, and
also prepared a magisterium magnetis.
Glauber professed to have a secret magnet which would draw only the
essence or tincture from iron, leaving the gross body behind. With
this he made a tincture of Mars and Venus, thus “robbing the dragon of
the golden fleece which it guards.” This is understood to mean that he
dissolved iron and copper in aqua fortis. And as Jason restored his
aged father to youth again, so would this tincture prove a wonderful
restorative. He commenced to test it on one occasion and very soon
black curly hair began to grow on his bald head. But he had not enough
of the tincture to permit him to carry on the experiment, and though he
had a great longing to make some more, he apparently put off doing so
until it was too late.
Van Helmont, Fludd, and other physicians of mystic instincts, were
among the protagonists of animal magnetism, and physicians administered
pulverised magnet in salves, plasters, pills and potions. But in 1660
Dr. Gilbert, of Colchester, noted that, when powdered, the loadstone
no longer possessed magnetic properties. Ultimately, therefore, it was
understood that the powder of magnet was not capable of producing any
other effects than any other ferruginous substance. But the belief in
magnets applied to the body was by no means dissipated. The theory was
exploited by various practitioners, but notably towards the latter part
of the eighteenth century, when the Viennese doctor, F. A. Mesmer,
excited such a vogue in Paris that the Court, the Government, the
Academy of Sciences, and aristocratic society generally were ranged in
pro-and anti-Mesmer sections. Franklin stated that at one time Mesmer
was taking more money in fees than all the regular physicians of Paris
put together. And yet Mesmer’s explanations of the phenomena attending
his performances were only an amplification of the doctrines which
Paracelsus had first imagined.
The excitement did not spread to England to any great extent, but
about the same time an American named Perkins created a great deal of
stir with his metallic tractors, which sent the nation tractor-mad for
the time. Dr. Haygarth, of Bath, contributed to the failure of this
delusion by a series of experiments on patients with pieces of wood
painted to resemble the tractors from which equally wonderful relief
was felt, proving that the cures such as they were, could only have
been the consequence of faith.