La médecine au risque de ses publics: les Archives du magnétisme et du somnambulisme (Strasbourg, 1787-1788)

Abstract

Mesmerism was built in newspapers and in response to newspapers. Never before probably had an issue of public health been discussed with so much verbal violence. Whom henceforth was recognized medical authority? The Archiv für Magnetismus und Somnambulismus [Archives of Magnetism and Somnambulism] was published in Strasbourg by the physics professor Johann Lorenz Böckmann in 1788-1789, in 8 volumes of over 100 pages. It was the only scientific journal on animal magnetism that really operated as a forum on the new therapy. It attempted to correct the disastrous effect of the Parisian condemnation of the notion of a universal fluid (that was put forward by Franz Anton Mesmer) in August 1784 and to promote a scientific discourse by denouncing anonymous articles.