MESMER, FRIEDRICH (or FRANZ) ANTON '815), Austrian doctor, from whose name the word "Mesmerism" was coined (see HYPNOTISM), was born at Weil, near Constance, on May 23, 1733. He studied medicine at Vienna. Interested in astrology, he imagined that the stars exerted an influence on beings living on the earth. He identified the supposed force first with electricity, and then with magnetism; and it was but a short step to suppose that stroking diseased bodies with magnets might effect a cure. He published his first work (De planetarum influxu) in 1766. Ten years later, on meeting with J. J. Gassner in Switzer land, he observed that the priest effected cures by manipulation alone. This led Mesmer to discard the magnets, and to suppose that some kind of occult force resided in himself by which he could influence others. He held that this force permeated the universe, and more especially affected the nervous systems of men. He began to hold seances in Vienna, but the police inter fered and ordered him to leave the city within 48 hours. He then
went to Spa. He removed to Paris in 1778, and in a short time Mesmer's consultations became the fashion. The medical faculty of Paris stigmatized him as a charlatan ; still the people crowded to him. The government appointed a commission of physicians and members of the academy of sciences to investigate the phe nomena observed in the seances. Franklin and Baillie were mem bers of this commission, and drew up an elaborate report admit ting many of the facts, but contesting Mesmer's theory that there was an agent called animal magnetism, and attributing the effects to physiological causes. Mesmer himself was undoubtedly a mys tic; and, although the excitement of the time led him to indulge in mummery, he was honest in his beliefs. However he was denounced as an imposter. He left Paris and died at Meersburg in Switzerland on March 5, 1815. The most distinguished of his disciples was the marquis de Puysegur.