Report of the Commissioners on Animal Magnetism

...nervous ailments, was several times on the verge of falling asleep while she was being magnetized. Magnetized for one hour and nineteen minutes without interruption, and most often by the application of hands, she experienced only agitation and discomfort. These two patients only came to the tub baquet: a wooden tub filled with water and iron filings, used as a centerpiece for Mesmeric treatments once. Mr. R**, suffering from a residual congestion in the liver following a severe, poorly cured obstruction In 18th-century medicine, an "obstruction" referred to a blockage in the vessels or organs, often thought to cause chronic illness, came three times and felt nothing. Madame de B**, severely afflicted with obstructions, came constantly with the Commissioners; she felt nothing; and it must be observed that she submitted to Magnetism with perfect tranquility, which stemmed from great incredulity original: "incrédulité"; her skepticism likely prevented any placebo effect.

Various patients were tested on other occasions, but not around the tub. One of the Commissioners, during an attack of migraine, was magnetized by Mr. Deslon for half an hour; one of the symptoms of this migraine is an excessive coldness in the feet. Mr. Deslon approached his foot to that of the patient; the foot was not warmed at all, the migraine lasted its usual duration; and the patient, having returned to the fireside, obtained the salutary effects that heat consistently provided him, without having experienced, either during the day or the following night, any effect of Magnetism.

Mr. Franklin, although his ailments Benjamin Franklin was suffering from gout and kidney stones at the time, which limited his mobility prevented him from traveling to Paris and attending the experiments performed there, was himself magnetized by Mr. Deslon, who went to his home in Passy. The assembly was numerous; all those who were present were...