Wood engraving showing a mesmerist using animal magnetism on a woman who responds with convulsions, 1845.
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…
Mesmerist using animal magnetism on a woman who responds with convulsions.
Date
1845
Image Size
989 x 1024