Mesmer, Franz Anton | Synthesizing the controversial ideas of "animal magnetism"

From the Library of Jay Michael Haft

Mesmer, Franz Anton

Memoire sur la decouverte du magnetisme animal. Geneva and Paris: P. Fr. Didot le jeune, 1779

8vo (180 x 120 mm). A splendid uncut copy with deckle edges and half title. Contemporary marbled wrapper. Cloth box.

A truly unsophisticated example of the first edition of Mesmer's attempt to systematize his controversial ideas of "animal magnetism."

"This property of the human body which renders it susceptible of the influence of heavenly bodies, and of the reciprocal action of those which environ it, manifests its analogy with the magnet, and this has decided me to adopt the term of animal magnetism..."

While Mesmer never established the scientific basis of his experiments, his work has had a long and significant influence and caused a furor in France for "natural medicine." "Since his time the investigation of how to release subconscious states through auto- and hetero-suggestion has continued, and the whole field of extra-sensory perception and spiritualism has affinity with mesmerism" (PMM). Indeed, Charles Dickens (see lots 1017 and 1020) became obsessed with mesmerism. In 1838, Dickens attended several lectures on the subject, including some by John Elliotson, who was appointed professor of the principles and practice of medicine at University College London, senior physician to University College Hospital, and is remembered as one of the medical practitioners in the United Kingdom to first promote the use of stethoscope (see lot 1006).

Eventually, Elliotson taught Dickens the techniques of mesmerism, and it became apparent to him that the author was a quick study and skilled practitioner of the art. Dickens mesmerized family and friends for entertainment, but also to alleviate minor illnesses. In 1844, however, he took on a more serious case. Madame de la Rue was affected by extreme anxiety, which caused her to suffer facial tics and spasms. Dickens treated her with regularity over the course of several months, and her symptoms steadily abated over this period. Then, in 1849, John Leech, the illustrator for A Christmas Carol, was involved in an accident that left him with concussion-like symptoms, the remedy for which eluded his physicians. It was ultimately Dickens and his mesmeric skills that offered Leech relief. 

REFERENCE:

Garrison-Morton 4992.1; Grolier/Medicine 47; Heirs of Hippocrates 1013; Hunter & Macalpine 480-82; Norman M4; PMM 225