author
France. Commissaires chargés par le roi de l'examen du magnétisme animal
A vivid report from the royal investigation that famously tested mesmerism in Enlightenment-era Paris. Written in 1784 by the commission appointed by Louis XVI, it blends scientific curiosity, skepticism, and drama from one of the era’s most talked-about controversies.
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Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and other commissioners, charged by the King of France, with the examination of the animal magnetism, as now practised at Paris
by France. Commissaires chargés par le roi de l'examen du magnétisme animal
About the author
This work is credited to the French royal commission appointed in 1784 to examine animal magnetism, the healing theory promoted by Franz Mesmer and practiced in Paris by Charles d’Eslon. Catalog records for the book name the corporate author as the commission itself, and also associate major members including Jean-Sylvain Bailly, Benjamin Franklin, and Antoine Lavoisier.
The commission brought together physicians from the Faculty of Medicine in Paris and members of the Académie royale des sciences. Their report became one of the best-known documents in the history of scientific inquiry because it argued that the claimed effects of animal magnetism did not come from a physical magnetic fluid, but from imagination and suggestion.
Because this is a collective authorship rather than a single writer, the most recognizable figure linked to the text is often Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the French astronomer and public figure commonly associated with the report. The commission’s work remains a landmark in the early history of controlled investigation and the study of belief, expectation, and healing.