A mesmeric physician taking advantage of his female patient. Colour lithograph, 1852. Printed: British College of Health, London.

The word mesmerism  took its root from the name of Franz Anton Mesmer, who was a German physician and astrologist, who discovered what he called magnétisme animal  ( animal magnetism) and which others often called mesmerism.

Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism, sometimes later referred to as mesmerism.

The theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the century.

In 1843 the Scottish physician James Braid proposed the term hypnosis for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today this is the usual meaning of mesmerism.

L0034922 Credit: Wellcome Library, London.