Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism

The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism involved two entirely separate and independent French Royal Commissions, each appointed by Louis XVI in 1784, that were conducted simultaneously by a committee composed of four physicians from the Paris Faculty of Medicine (Faculté de médecine de Paris) and five scientists from the Royal Academy of Sciences (Académie des sciences) (i.e., the "Franklin Commission", named for Benjamin Franklin), and a second committee composed of five physicians from the Royal Society of Medicine (Société Royale de Médecine) (i.e., the "Society Commission").

Each Commission took five months to complete its investigations. The "Franklin" Report was presented to the King on 11 August 1784 – and was immediately published and very widely circulated throughout France and neighbouring countries – and the "Society" Report was presented to the King five days later on 16 August 1784.

The "Franklin Commission's" investigations are notable as a very early "classic" example of a systematic controlled trial, which not only applied "sham" and "genuine" procedures to patients with "sham" and "genuine" disorders, but, significantly, was the first to use the "blindfolding" of both the investigators and their subjects.^[1]^[2]^[3]

"The report of the ["Franklin"] Royal Commission of 1784 . . . is a masterpiece of its genre, and enduring testimony to the power and beauty of reason. . . . Never in history has such an extraordinary and luminous group [as the "Franklin Commission"] been gathered together in the service of rational inquiry by the methods of experimental science. For this reason alone the [Report of the "Franklin Commission"] . . . is a key document in the history of human reason. It should be rescued from obscurity, translated into all languages, and reprinted by organizations dedicated to the unmasking of quackery and the defense of rational thought." – Stephen Jay Gould (1989).^[4]

Both sets of Commissioners were specifically charged with investigating the claims made by Charles d’Eslon for the existence of a substantial (rather than metaphorical) "animal magnetism", "le magnétisme animal", and of a similarly (non-metaphorical) physical "magnetic fluid", "le fluide magnétique". Further, having completed their investigations into the claims of d'Eslon^[5] – that is, they did not examine Franz Mesmer, Mesmer's theories, Mesmer's principles, Mesmer's practices, Mesmer's techniques, Mesmer's apparatus, Mesmer's claims, Mesmer's "cures" or, even, "mesmerism"^[6] itself – they were each required to make "a separate and distinct report".^[7]

"Before the ["Franklin" Commission's] investigations began, [Antoine Lavoisier] had studied the writings of d'Eslon and [had] drawn up a plan for the conduct of the inquiry. He decided that the commissioners should not study any of the alleged cures, but [that] they should determine whether animal magnetism existed by trying to magnetize a person without his knowledge or making him think that he had been magnetized when in fact he had not. This plan was adopted by the commissioners, and the results came out as Lavoisier had predicted." – Frank A. Pattie (1994).^[8]

From their investigations both Commissions concluded (a) that there was no evidence of any kind to support d'Eslon's claim for the substantial physical existence of either his supposed "animal magnetism" or his supposed "magnetic fluid", and (b) that all of the effects that they had observed could be attributed to a physiological (rather than metaphysical) agency. Whilst each Commission implicitly accepted that there was no collusion, pretence, or extensive subject training involved on the part of d'Eslon, they both (independently) concluded that all of the phenomena they had observed during each of their investigations could be directly attributed to "contact",^[9]^[10] "imagination",^[11] and/or "imitation".^[12]

"For clearness of reasoning and strict impartiality [the "Franklin" Commissioners' report] has never been surpassed. After detailing the various experiments made, and their results, they came to the conclusion that the only proof advanced in support of Animal Magnetism was the effects it produced on the human body – that those effects could be produced without passes or other magnetic manipulations – that all these manipulations, and passes, and ceremonies never produce any effect at all if employed without the patient's knowledge; and that therefore imagination did, and animal magnetism did not, account for the phenomena." – Charles Mackay (1841, emphasis added to original).^[13]

^ According to Devereaux, et al. (2002, p. 4):
"Blinding (or masking) in [randomised controlled trials] is the process of withholding information about treatment allocation from those who could potentially be influenced by this information. Blinding has long been considered an important safeguard against bias. Benjamin Franklin, in 1784, was probably the first to use blinding in scientific experimentation. Louis XVI commissioned Franklin to evaluate mesmerism, the most popular unconventional "healing fluid" of the eighteenth century. By applying [an actual] blindfold to participants, Franklin removed their knowledge of when mesmerism was and was not being applied. Blinding eliminated the intervention's effects and established mesmerism as a sham. From this work, the scientific community recognised the power of blinding to enhance objectivity and it quickly became, and remains, a commonly used strategy in scientific research."
^ Jensen, et al. (2016), pp. 2–5.
^ Zabell (2016), p. 32.
^ Gould (1989), p. 16.
^ "The commissioners' reports of 1784 were based upon d'Eslon's clinic and patients and not Mesmer's; thus, mesmerism was studied without studying Mesmer." (Gravitz, 1994, p. 50.)
^ The term "Mesmerism" was introduced by Karl Christian Wolfart (1778-1832) [de] in his Mesmerismus (1814), which he wrote after a month-long visit with Mesmer, in Meersburg, in September 1812. According to Buranelli (1975, p. 201), Wolfart's work included "some of the best eye-witness notes we have on Mesmer"; and, also Buranelli (ibid.) notes that Wolfart "took the final Mesmer manuscript away with him to be [subsequently] published under the title Mesmerismus". For more on Wolfart's Mesmerismus and its contents, see, for instance, Gauld (1992), pp. 86–94; Crabtree (1993), pp. 114–116; and Pattie (1994), pp. 248–270.
^ Duveen & Klickstein (1955), p. 287.
^ Pattie, 1994, p. 145.
^ Note that the contemporary English translation (Godwin, 1785, passim), consistently rendered the "Franklin Commission's" technical term "attouchement" as "compression" -- which, given that the (contemporary) translator(s), most likely, had some direct understanding of d'Eslon's techniques, strongly suggests that d'Eslon's degree of "contact" was of a far greater intensity than just a superficial stroking.
^ In his summary of the "Society Commission's" report (i.e., Poissonnier, et al., 1784), Pattie (1994, pp. 156–158) notes that the report's references to the issue of d'Eslon's "contact", and its mention of "a lengthy application of the hands, the heat produced by this application, and the irritation excited by friction" (i.e., "sont une longue application des mains, la chaleur produite par cette application, l’irritation excitée par le frottement", Poissonnier, et al. p. 15) seems to indicate that "d'Eslon used actual contact and pressure of the hands more than Mesmer did" (Pattie, 1994, p. 156).
^ That is, the "response expectancy" of Kirsch (1997), and certain aspects of the "role enactment theory of "hypnotism"" postulated by Theodore Sarbin and William Coe in the mid-1960s (i.e., Coe & Sarbin, 1966).
^ That is, the "imitation" that is universally observed in the circumstances of "behavioral contagion" such as, for example, "the "contagious" yawning reflex of individuals exposed to the yawning of others".
^ Mackay (1841), p. 323.

[1] According to Devereaux, et al. (2002, p. 4):
"Blinding (or masking) in [randomised controlled trials] is the process of withholding information about treatment allocation from those who could potentially be influenced by this information. Blinding has long been considered an important safeguard against bias. Benjamin Franklin, in 1784, was probably the first to use blinding in scientific experimentation. Louis XVI commissioned Franklin to evaluate mesmerism, the most popular unconventional "healing fluid" of the eighteenth century. By applying [an actual] blindfold to participants, Franklin removed their knowledge of when mesmerism was and was not being applied. Blinding eliminated the intervention's effects and established mesmerism as a sham. From this work, the scientific community recognised the power of blinding to enhance objectivity and it quickly became, and remains, a commonly used strategy in scientific research."

[2] Jensen, et al. (2016), pp. 2–5.

[3] Zabell (2016), p. 32.

[4] Gould (1989), p. 16.

[5] "The commissioners' reports of 1784 were based upon d'Eslon's clinic and patients and not Mesmer's; thus, mesmerism was studied without studying Mesmer." (Gravitz, 1994, p. 50.)

[6] The term "Mesmerism" was introduced by Karl Christian Wolfart (1778-1832) [de] in his Mesmerismus (1814), which he wrote after a month-long visit with Mesmer, in Meersburg, in September 1812. According to Buranelli (1975, p. 201), Wolfart's work included "some of the best eye-witness notes we have on Mesmer"; and, also Buranelli (ibid.) notes that Wolfart "took the final Mesmer manuscript away with him to be [subsequently] published under the title Mesmerismus". For more on Wolfart's Mesmerismus and its contents, see, for instance, Gauld (1992), pp. 86–94; Crabtree (1993), pp. 114–116; and Pattie (1994), pp. 248–270.

[7] Duveen & Klickstein (1955), p. 287.

[8] Pattie, 1994, p. 145.

[9] Note that the contemporary English translation (Godwin, 1785, passim), consistently rendered the "Franklin Commission's" technical term "attouchement" as "compression" -- which, given that the (contemporary) translator(s), most likely, had some direct understanding of d'Eslon's techniques, strongly suggests that d'Eslon's degree of "contact" was of a far greater intensity than just a superficial stroking.

[10] In his summary of the "Society Commission's" report (i.e., Poissonnier, et al., 1784), Pattie (1994, pp. 156–158) notes that the report's references to the issue of d'Eslon's "contact", and its mention of "a lengthy application of the hands, the heat produced by this application, and the irritation excited by friction" (i.e., "sont une longue application des mains, la chaleur produite par cette application, l’irritation excitée par le frottement", Poissonnier, et al. p. 15) seems to indicate that "d'Eslon used actual contact and pressure of the hands more than Mesmer did" (Pattie, 1994, p. 156).

[11] That is, the "response expectancy" of Kirsch (1997), and certain aspects of the "role enactment theory of "hypnotism"" postulated by Theodore Sarbin and William Coe in the mid-1960s (i.e., Coe & Sarbin, 1966).

[12] That is, the "imitation" that is universally observed in the circumstances of "behavioral contagion" such as, for example, "the "contagious" yawning reflex of individuals exposed to the yawning of others".

[13] Mackay (1841), p. 323.

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