Report of the Commissioners on Animal Magnetism

of the Academy of Sciences: it is, he says, an error to believe that this type of proof is beyond reproach; nothing proves demonstratively that the Physician or Medicine cures the sick (d).

The Commissioners must limit themselves to physical proofs.

The treatment of diseases can therefore only provide results that are always uncertain and often deceptive; this uncertainty could only be cleared away, and every cause of illusion compensated for, by an infinite number of cures, and perhaps by the experience of several centuries. The objective and the importance of the Commission The Royal Commission of 1784 was tasked by King Louis XVI to investigate "Animal Magnetism," the healing system proposed by Franz Mesmer. demand more prompt methods. The Commissioners have had to limit themselves to purely physical proofs, that is to say, to the momentary effects of the fluid on the animal body, stripping these effects of all the illusions that might be mixed with them, and ensuring that they cannot be due to any other cause than Animal Magnetism.

Experiment of the Commissioners on various subjects.

They proposed to carry out experiments on isolated subjects who were willing to lend themselves to the various experiments that could be imagined; subjects who, some through their simplicity and others through their intelligence, would be capable of giving a faithful and exact account of what they had experienced. These experiments will not be presented here according to chronological order, but according to the order of the facts they are intended to clarify.

The Commissioners wish to perform the first experiment on themselves.

The Commissioners first resolved to carry out their first experiments on themselves, and to submit themselves to the action of Magnetism. They were very curious to recognize—

(d) Mr. Mesmer, Historical Summary, pages 35, 37. Original title: Précis historique.