Le Banquet de M. Mesmer
(Anonymous engraving from 18th Century France)
Fry Print Collection at the Yale Medical Historical Library.
Weinstein Medallions. A Historical Collection of the Rudolph Matas Library.
Franz Anton Mesmer (born Friedrich Anton Mesmer 1734–1815). Medal, bronze, 2 3/4 cm., Borrel 1856,
Insc. FRED. ANT. MESMER. - SOCIÉTÉ DU MESMÉRISME DE PARIS. [Image]
See: Hippolyte. Des hommes célèbres dans les sciences et les arts, et des médailles qui ... 1859, p.212-215
The Magnetism Caricature by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845)
Boilly created images of the Parisian Salon lifestyle. 1826 colored lithography (1826) showing a women being hypnotized.
Mesmerism was generally rejected by the medical establishment in Europe and United States until Charcot introduced it at the Salpêtrière in the 1870s. Nonetheless, a well organized and active mesmer society flourished in New Orleans from 1845 to 1861. ...
Tomlinson, W.K., Perrett, J.J. (1974) Mesmerism in New Orleans, 1845-1861. Am J Psychiatry. 131(12):1402-4. Reprinted: Am J Clin Hypn. 1975 Jul;18(1):1-5.
Baron Du Potet de Sennevoy (Jules Denis)
(1796-1881)
A leading exponent of animal magnetism in nineteenth-century France, familiar with the whole range of paranormal phenomena that later figured prominently in Spiritualism.
Du Potet began his experiments in 1821 and recorded his experiences in Le Propagateur du Magnétisme animal, a journal founded in 1827, and in the Journal de Magnétisme, which was founded in 1845 and continued until 1861 and was subsequently revived by Hector Durville.
He claimed to have discovered in animal magnetism "the magic of antiquity." Apports, fire resistance, levitation of the human body, and spirit communications were frequently observed and studied by him. On a visit to England he introduced Dr. John Elliotson, the first exponent of animal magnetism in Great Britain, to the phenomena. Over the years he wrote a number of books that kept the issue of animal magnetism alive in France.
Sources:
Cours de magnétisme animal. N.p., 1834. 1840.
--. Discours sur le magnétisme animal. N.p., 1833.
