On 28 August 2008 Chris Green wrote: >It's about the history of mesmerism in Victorian England. >Mesmerism had a long and interesting life well after the Franklin >commission (which, despite the claims of most history of >psych textbooks, convinced few that nothing was going on).
It is of more than a little interest to read the view of a perspicacious British author on Mesmerism, published in 1841. In *Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds* Charles Mackay says about the 1784 Franklin commission report: "For clearness of reasoning and strict impartiality it has never been surpassed." He goes on to say that the report "was the ruin of Mesmer's reputation in France... [...] But the seeds he had sown fructified of themselves, nourished and brought to maturity by the kindly warmth of popular credulity. Imitators sprung up in France, German, and England, more extravagant than their master, and claiming powers for the new science which its founder had never dreamt of." There's a lovely account of an invention by the American Douglas Perkins, practising in 1898 as a surgeon in London, called a "Metallic Tractor". This consisted of two pieces of metal strongly magnetised that he claimed to cure "gout, rheumatism, palsy, and, in fact, almost every disease the human frame was subject to, if externally applied to the afflicted part and moved about gently, touching the surface only". However he met his match in the Bath physician Dr Haygarth, who used an experiment to expose the fraud. He assembled five hospital patients suffering from chronic rheumatism or gout, and "with much solemnity" applied wooden Tractors (painted to resemble steel) as per instructions. Four of the five patients said their pains were immediately relieved. The gouty man felt his pains diminish rapidly - though after he went to bed nine hours later the pains began again. After Dr Haygarth published his results, according to Mackay, some friends of Perkins tried the Tractors on sheep, cows, and horses, alleging the animals received benefit from the metallic Tractors, but none from the wooden ones. But apparently no one believed them, "and Perkins made his exit from England, carrying with him about ten thousand pounds, to soothe his declining years in the good city of Pennsylvania". Reference: C. Mackay (1841), pp. 305-345. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
