Report of the Commissioners on Animal Magnetism

A surgeon advised her to use "Painter's water" Likely a reference to Eau de la Maréchale or a similar proprietary 18th-century topical remedy containing lead or other minerals, used for skin conditions and swellings. as an excellent resolvent Original: "fondant." A medicinal substance believed to dissolve tumors or obstructions in the body.; warning her that if this remedy did not succeed within a month, the glands would have to be surgically removed. The young lady, frightened, consulted Mr. Sallin, who judged that the glands were capable of resolution Meaning they could shrink naturally without surgery.; Mr. Bouvart, consulted next, reached the same judgment. Before starting the treatments, she was advised to seek distraction; fifteen days later, while at the Opera, she was seized by a violent cough and such abundant expectoration that she had to be taken home. Within four hours, she coughed up about three pints of a mucous fluid; an hour later, Mr. Sallin examined her breast and found no trace of the glands remaining. Mr. Bouvart, called the following day, confirmed the happy effect of this natural crisis As noted on the previous page, a "crisis" was a sudden change in a disease leading to recovery, believed by 18th-century doctors to be the body's way of purging "bad humors.". If Mademoiselle G*** had taken the "Painter's water," the Painter would have received the credit for the cure.

The constant observation of all centuries proves, and physicians acknowledge, that Nature alone and without any treatment cures a great number of patients. If Magnetism were without any real effect, patients subjected to its procedures would be effectively abandoned to Nature. It would be absurd to choose, as a way to establish the existence of this "magnetic fluid," a method which, by attributing to it all the cures of Nature, would tend to prove that it has a useful and curative action even when it might have none at all.

The Commissioners The members of the Royal Commission appointed by Louis XVI to investigate Mesmer’s claims, including Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier. agree with Mr. Mesmer Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), the doctor who proposed the theory of "Animal Magnetism." in this regard. He rejected the curing of diseases as a valid proof when this method of proving Magnetism was proposed to him by a Member...