Beschreibung:

MESMERISM]. Collection of 103 works in 70 volumes on mesmerism by various authors (includes a few by Mesmer when bound together or duplicated from lot 670). Various imprints, dates and formats. A rich collection of works on mesmerism, including both mesmerists and anti-mesmerists. For a more complete individual description of the works included, please consult the Haskell F. Norman Library of Science & Medicine private library catalogue (San Francisco, 1991), vol. II, pp. 872-907. The spread of mesmerism in France alarmed not only the traditional doctors but also the government, and a royal commission was ordered to investigate the claims of the mesmerists. Among the distinguished doctors and academicians on this commission were Bailly, Lavoisier, and Franklin. In 1784 they reported not only that Mesmer's fluid was ineffectual in its ability to cure disease, but denied its existence at all. The report badly damaged the movement and it later dissolved into various schisms and heresies. Mesmer finally left his followers to their quarrels and, after a period of traveling through England, Austria, Germany, and Italy, settled in Switzerland, where he spent most of the last thirty years of his life in relative seclusion. SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: MESMER. Lettre de M. Mesmer, M. le comte de C*** [drop title]. N.p., n.d. [1784]. 4 o. First quarto edition. Crabtree 82; Darnton, pp. 85-86; Norman M20. -- [Bound with:] Charles Louis Franois ANDRY (1741-1829) and Michel Augustin THOURET (1748-1810). Extrait des registres de la Socit Royale de Mdecine. Rapport sur les aimans prsents par M. l'Abb le Noble [drop title]. Paris: P.D. Pierres, 1783. 4 o. FIRST EDITION, in which the two found that magnets were particularly effective in treating nervous diseases. Crabtree 27 (with variant pagination); Norman M42. -- [Bound with:] Antoine COURT DE GBELIN (1725-1784). Lettre de l'auteur du Monde primitif, messieurs ses souscripteurs [drop title]. N.p.: Valleyre, 1783. 4 o. FIRST EDITION. Crabtree 29; Darnton, pp. 116-117; Wellcome II, p.399; Norman M65. -- [Bound with:] COURT DE GBELIN. "Extrait d'une lettre de M. Court de Gebelin M. h....n, en date du 20 Mar. 1784," manuscript extract in an unknown late 18th-century hand. Late 18th-century, 2 pages , Gbelin's account in defense of Mesmer, relating how he relapsed into illness several months after his mesmeric cure, and how he was relieved again of his sufferings by a visit to Mesmer. -- [Bound with:] Charles d'ESLON (1750-1786). Observations sur les deux rapports de MM. les commissaires nomms par sa Majest, pour l'examen du magntisme animal . "Philadelphie" and Paris: Clousier and les marchands de nouveauts, 1784. 4 o. FIRST EDITION. Crabtree 52; Wellcome II, p.530; Norman M81. -- [Bound with:] Expos des expriences qui ont t faites pour l'examen du magntisme animal . Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1784. 4 o. FIRST EDITION of the brief account of the experiments performed by the first commission appointed by the French government to investigate mesmerism. Crabtree 30; Norman M82. -- [Bound with:] Extrait des Registres de la Socit Royale de Mdicine. Sance de 24 aot 1784 [drop title]. Paris: Ph.-D. Pierres, 1784. 4 o. FIRST EDITION of a brief prcis of the findings of the second commission. Norman M83. -- [Bound with:] Jean Franois FOURNEL (1745-1820). Mmoire pour Me. Charles-Louis Varnier, Docteur-Regent de la Facult de Mdecine ... appellant un dcret de la Facult; contre les doyen & docteurs de ladite Facult, intims . Paris: Veuve Herissant, 1785. 4 o. FIRST EDITION of Fournel's appeal to the Parlement of Paris on behalf of Dr. Varnier, hwo had been expelled from the Facult de Mdecine for practicing animal magnetism. Crabtree 140; Norman M88. -- [Bound with:] Antoine Laurent de JUSSIEU (1748-1836). Rapport de l'un des commissaires chargs par le roi, de l'examen du magntisme animal . Paris: Veuve Herissant and Thophile Barrois, 1784. 4 o. FIRST EDITION. Jussieu was a member of the second commission