Franz Anton Mesmer was born May 23, 1734 in Iznang, Germany, near Lake Constance.  He received his MD from the University of Vienna in 1766.  His dissertation concerned the idea that the planets influenced the health of those of us on earth.  He suggested that their gravitational forces could change the distribution of our animal spirits.  Later, he changed his theory to emphasize magnetism rather than gravity -- hence the term “animal magnetism.”  It would soon, however, come to be known as mesmerism.

He was, in fact, able to put people into trance states, even convulsions, by waving magnetized bars over them.  His dramatic performances were quite popular for a while, although he believed that anyone could achieve the same results.  In point of fact, some of his patients did in fact get relief from their symptoms -- a point that would later be investigated by others.

When accused of fraud by other physicians in Vienna, he went to Paris.  In 1784, the King of France, Louis XVI, appointed a commission including Benjamin Franklin to look into Mesmer and his practices.  They concluded that his results were due to nothing more than suggestion.

Despite condemnation by many of the educated elite, mesmerism  became a popular fad in the salons of Europe.  In order to serve the many poor people who came to him for help, he designed a sort of bathtub in which they could sit while holding the magnetic rods themselves.  He eventually created an organization to train other mesmerists.

Mesmer died March 5, 1815 in Meersburg, also near Lake Constance, Germany.

An English physician, James Braid (1795-1860), a much more careful researcher of Mesmer’s phenomenon, termed it hypnotism.  Disassociated from Mesmer, hypnotism would go on to have a long, if controversial, life into the twentieth century.