Detail from a coloured etching after C-L. Desrais depicting people gathered around the "baquet" at one of Franz Mesmer's group animal magnetism sessions .
Featured on PDR in the essay Mesmerising Science: The Franklin Commission and the Modern Clinical Trial
Benjamin Franklin, magnetic trees, and erotically-charged séances — Urte Laukaityte on how a craze for sessions of “animal magnetism” in late 18th-century Paris led to the randomised placebo-controlled and double-blind clinical trials we know and love today.
Also appearing in the essay…
Animal Magnetism (Detail)
Artist
Date
ca. 1780
Image Size
1000 x 864