Mesmerism

Book excerpt: 2019 Reprint of 1948 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer [1734-1815] was a German doctor who theorized the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; what he called animal magnetism, later also referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850 and continued to have some influence thereafter. 1843 the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term hypnosis for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis". This publication is a reprint of the first English translation in 1948 of Mesmer's historic Memoire sur la Decouverte du Magnetisme Animal to appear in English. It was originally published in French in 1779.