Report of the Commissioners on Animal Magnetism

First, set aside the idea of celestial influences.

The object of study was still very vast and needed to be simplified. Animal Magnetism A theory proposed by Franz Mesmer suggesting an invisible natural force (fluid) possessed by all living things that could be manipulated for healing. encompasses the whole of Nature; it is, they say, the means by which celestial bodies influence us. The Commissioners The group of scientists and doctors appointed by King Louis XVI to investigate Mesmer’s claims. believed they should first set aside this grand influence and consider only that part of the fluid spread across the earth—without worrying about where it comes from—and confirm the action it exerts upon us, around us, and before our eyes, before examining its relationship with the Universe.

The Magnetic fluid escapes all the senses.

    The surest way to confirm the existence of the animal magnetic fluid would be to make its presence sensible In 18th-century science, "sensible" meant "detectable by the human senses."; however, it did not take long for the Commissioners to recognize that this fluid escapes all the senses. It is not luminous and visible like electricity; its action does not manifest to the sight like the attraction of a magnet; it is without taste and without smell; it moves without noise, and surrounds or penetrates you without your sense of touch warning you of its presence.

It is by error that some believed sight or touch could signal its presence.

If it exists within us and around us, it does so in an absolutely imperceptible manner. Among those who practice Magnetism, there are those who claim that one can sometimes see it flowing from the tips of the fingers, which serve as its conductors, or who believe they feel its passage when a finger is moved before the face or over the hand. In the first case, the perceived emanation is merely that of transpiration Evaporation or sweat from the skin., which becomes entirely visible when magnified by a solar microscope A popular 18th-century instrument that used sunlight to project enlarged images of small objects or vapors onto a screen.; in the second case, the impression of cold or coolness that one feels—an impression all the more marked...