Mesmer and Animal Magnetism: A Chapter in the History of Medicine

Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 - March 5, 1815) sometimes incorrectlyreferred to as Friedrich Anton Mesmer, was a German physician with an interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism, sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. The theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the century; it is now almost entirely forgotten. In 1843 the Scottish physician James Braid proposed the term hypnosis for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today this is the usual meaning of mesmerism.