The Attraction Of Magnetic Medicines - neat history of medicine article

[astro]

Neat historical article I ran across. The illustrations are great!

THE ATTRACTION OF MAGNETIC MEDICINES

Many Centuries later, the magical powers of magnetism were exploited by medicine makers of the nineteenth century. Dr. Edward B. Foote M.D. in his book Plain Home Talk And Medical Common Sense says, “Happily for suffering humanity … the therapeutic value of the electrical discoveries of Galvani, Faraday, Cross and others have been tested in the universities and hospitals in England, France and Germany. Galvanism, electro-magnetism and other forms of electricity, are now extensively employed in the best institutions of the old world…with the most flattering results.” He sites another author as saying " Water is valuable as a medical agent, but its efficiency consists, not in the element itself, but in its subservience as a handmaid of electricity. Electricity is the queen of medicine: water merely a pool in which she bathes her feet."

Dr. Foot gives the history of the discovery. "Dr. Frederic Anthony Mesmer was the first one, I believe in the Christian world to recognize the effects of animal magnetism, and employ this agent in the cure of disease. He promulgated his theory in Paris in 1778.

Of his own electro-magnetic device he asserts, " The reputation of electricity has suffered by its bungling application in the hands of inexperienced operators. He explains the qualification essential for a "eminently successful electrical operator is a god-given gift. It is the possession at all times of a good supply of animal magnetism. To be a first-rate operator, a physician must be a battery in himself. "