Franz Anton Mesmer, attributed numerous diseases to an impalpable fluid penetrating the entire universe.
Holder of three doctorates
Franz Anton Mesmer, earned three doctorates from the University of Vienna.
He received one doctorate in Philosophy, second in Law and third in Medicine in 1776.
Mesmer devised a complicated therapy for his patients that involved striking the diseased parts of the body with his hands or a magic wand, tubs of water with iron rods focused on a patient’s symptoms, and a ‘crisis room’ with mattresses. Mesmer’s cures were effective during a kind of seizure. Mesmer specialized in what we now call ‘functional’ illness, those that come from purely psychological causes. He attempted to convince the medical establishment, first in Vienna and later in Paris, that his cures were genuine and real.
By 1812, the King of Prussia and the German Academy offered him money and honors, but Mesmer refused to travel again. He also wished to devote himself exclusively to the practice of his method, so that humanity "may no longer be exposed to the incalculable hazards of use of drugs and their application."
On March 15, 1815, Mesmer quietly abandoned the world after listening to a musical piece composed by his best friend Leopard Mozart. The Royal Society of Paris and the German Government posthumously offered prizes for the best treatise on Mesmerism, and a number of students furthered his experiments. He was undoubtedly honored in the 19th century but largely unnoticed except by the intuitive few in the 20th. Moreover, Mesmer has left a clear delineation of the basis of mortal and physiological health. If there is a turning from pathological conceptions of medicine towards an understanding and practice founded in vitality and harmony, then a grateful humanity will be ready to appreciate Mesmer.
Mesmer’s permanent achievements in medicine, social work and elevations of the human spirit were reviewed by Nora Wydenbruck. She concludes as under :
"Seen from the vantage point of history, when the tangled of human destiny appear co-ordinated in the pattern of the whole great web, Mesmer’s life seems like a strand of shining gold."
