Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism
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The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism were two French Royal Commissions appointed by Louis XVI in 1784 to study German doctor Franz Mesmer's magnetic fluid theory to try to establish it by scientific evidence.[1]
Charles d'Eslon
Charles d’Eslon (1750-1786) [1], was a docteur-régent of the Paris Faculty of Medicine, and one-time personal physician to the Comte d’Artoir, later King Charles X.
d'Eslon was a former patient, a former pupil, and a former associate of Mesmer.
Eighteen months before the Commission, d'Eslon had (acrimoniously) parted ways with Mesmer; and, following his break with Mesmer, d’Eslon not only launched his own clinical operation, but also began teaching his own (i.e., rather than Mesmer's) theories and practices.[2][3][4][5]
Two Commissions
The commission of the Academy of Sciences included Majault, Benjamin Franklin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Sallin, Jean Darcet, de Borey, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Antoine Lavoisier. The Commission of the Royal Society of Medicine was composed of Poissonnier, Caille, Mauduyt de la Varenne, Andry, and Antoine Laurent de Jussieu.
Whilst the commission agreed that the cures claimed by Mesmer were indeed cures, it also concluded there was no evidence of the existence of his "magnetic fluid", and that its effects derived from either the imaginations of its subjects or charlatanry.
Considered to be a "classic" example of a controlled trial
As a consequence of the studies of Gould (1989) and Kihlstrom (2002), which drew attention to the Commission's examination as a very early example of a controlled trial, a number of other scientists, in other scientific domains — such as, for example, Green (2002), Best, Neuhauser, and Slavin (2003), Herr (2005), and Lanska & Lanska (2007) — have also identified the Commission's examination as a previously unrecognized "classic" example of a controlled trial.[6]
See also
Footnotes
References
- Best, M., Neuhauser, D., and Slavin, L., "Evaluating Mesmerism, Paris, 1784: The Controversy over the Blinded Placebo Controlled Trials has not Stopped", BMJ Quality & Safety, 12(3) (June 2003), pp.232-233.
- Brown, M.W. (1933), "Charles Deslon, Disciple of Mesmer", Medical Journal and Record, Vol.138, no.11, pp.232-233.
- Crabtree, A. (1993). From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Herr, H.W., "Franklin, Lavoisier, and Mesmer: Origin of the Controlled Clinical Trial", Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, Vol.23, No.5, (September 2005), pp.346-351.
- Gauld, A., A History of Hypnotism, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
- Gould, Stephen J., "The Chain of Reason vs. The Chain of Thumbs", Natural History, Vol.89, No.7, (July 1989), pp.12, 14, 16-18, 20-21.
- Green, S.A., The Origins of Modern Clinical Research", Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Vol.405, (December 2002), pp.311-319, 325.
- Kihlstrom, J. F., "Mesmer, the Franklin Commission, and Hypnosis: A Counterfactual Essay", International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol.50, No.4, (October 2002), pp.407-419. doi:10.1080/00207140208410114
- Lanska, D.J., & Lanska, J.T. (2007). "Franz Anton Mesmer and the Rise and Fall of Animal Magnetism: Dramatic Cures, Controversy, and Ultimately a Triumph for the Scientific Method", pp.301-320 in H. Whitaker, C.U.M. Smith, and Stanley Finger (Eds), Brain, Mind and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience, Boston, MA: Springer.
- Lopez, C. A. (1993). "Franklin and Mesmer: An encounter". The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 66 (4): 325–31. PMC 2588895. PMID 8209564.
- Pattie, F.A. (1994). Mesmer and Animal Magnetism: A Chapter in the History of Medicine, Hamilton, NY: Edmonston Publishing.