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The cult of natural sciences in the 18th century had the contradictory effect of making many people easy prey of devotees of natural science who combined any kind of gadget with their magic. The century illusionists king was Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Mozarts friend, which once had the society of Paris at his feet. In his doctoral thesis he defended the astrologers notion that planets influence human beings, to which he added the principle of "magnetic therapy" through hands imposition.
In Paris, he founded the Magnetic Institute, with the support of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and among his clients were most eminent people of the time.
Magnetic baquets (tubs) stood out in his treatment. They contained a mixture of innocuous chemical substances: patients stood up around those tubs holding hands and in contact with an iron circle; the basis of curative principle was "animal magnetism". Other therapeutic measures consisted in hypnotic techniques, touching a stick to several parts of the body, and taking the person to a trance-like state during which cure was suggested.
Mesmer acquired enormous fame, despite furious opposition of medicine professors and the unfavorable report of a commission that included Benjamin Franklin among its members. The revolution made him leave France (some of his assistants were guillotined) but he continued to practice in Swiss, where he attracted countless disciples and followers.
The most picturesque devotee of natural science was the son of a saddler of Edinburgh, James Graham, who studied medicine. He went to Philadelphia, where he heard about Franklins discoveries in electricity. Back to London, he constructed his Temple of Health (1780), which contained orgiastic statues, lascivious paints, glass spheres, flame-throwing dragons and incense burners. Its principal attraction was the "celestial bed", raised over 40 glass columns and surrounded by electrical equipments, where impotent men looked for rejuvenation and sterile ones would be able to conceive.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
06 Dec 2007 -
Date of issue
Oct 2007
