Mesmerismus Research Institute

The Magnetic Library

The Magnetic Library is the institute’s collection of historical sources on animal magnetism, early hypnosis and the fields that grew around them. It exists so that every question we ask about the body can be checked against what the first observers actually wrote.

Engraving of an eighteenth-century magnetiser raising his hands towards the face of a seated woman, with dotted lines showing the supposed flow — “Animal Magnetism – The Operator putting his Patient into a Crisis”. Engraving, 1802, after D. Dodd. Wellcome Collection, public domain (PDM).

Scope

The Library covers the literature of animal magnetism from its beginnings in 1766, the year of Mesmer’s medical thesis, through magnetism, somnambulism, early hypnotism and psychical research, with later works that discuss these traditions. It includes books, pamphlets, periodicals and other documents, in their original languages.

4,841catalogued items on animal magnetism, hypnotism, somnambulism, fascination and psychical research, about 4,050 of them with fully readable digitised text

~660works also listed in Adam Crabtree’s reference bibliography (1766–1925), about 490 of them identified with certainty

13,700+documents in the digital collection, in more than 10 languages

Figures as of 26 October 2026, from the Library’s own catalogue.

Title page of Mesmer, Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal, 1779 — F. A. Mesmer, *Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal*, Geneva and Paris: Didot le jeune, 1779. Wellcome Collection via Internet Archive, public domain (PDM).

First page of the Rapport des commissaires chargés par le Roi de l’examen du magnétisme animal, 1784 — *Rapport des commissaires chargés par le Roi de l’examen du magnétisme animal*, Paris: Moutard, 1784. BIU Santé (Paris) via Internet Archive, Licence Ouverte (Etalab).

Title page of Deleuze, Histoire critique du magnétisme animal, first part, 1813 — J. P. F. Deleuze, *Histoire critique du magnétisme animal*, first part, Paris: Mame, 1813. Wellcome Collection via Internet Archive, public domain (PDM).

The Library catalogues 4,841 items on animal magnetism, hypnotism, somnambulism, fascination and psychical research, about 4,050 of them with fully readable digitised text. Compared with the reference bibliography by Adam Crabtree (about 1,900 entries), about 490 works are identified with certainty and about 660 in total: more than a third of the bibliography, and about half of the entries it lists for 1766–1849. The catalogue also holds many books, pamphlets and periodical issues of the same period that are not linked to any Crabtree entry. We are examining them one by one: each work confirmed as absent from Crabtree’s bibliography enters the index with its own note. Overall the digital collection counts over 13,700 documents in more than 10 languages.

Method

Our method follows the model of a reference bibliography widely used by historians of hypnosis. Adam Crabtree, a Canadian psychotherapist and historian of psychology, published in 1988 Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism, and Psychical Research, 1766–1925: An Annotated Bibliography, which lists and comments about 1,900 works in chronological order. We use it as a grid: each document in the Library is identified as a distinct text (the same work may exist in several editions or copies), compared with Crabtree’s entries, and described. Each work receives a permanent reference code (e.g. BM-1784-012); matches with Crabtree are verified by rule-based comparison and a second independent check.

From the document to the published period card.

The period index

The period index is the public face of the Library: for each historical period, a card for every relevant work, with three kinds of judgement side by side. The first records what historians have said about the work; the second gives Crabtree’s annotation where one exists; the third is a note of the Library, written by us after reading the source. The index is in progressive publication, period by period.

1766–1784 · Mesmer and the first commissions coming
1784–1815 · Puységur and magnetic somnambulism coming
1815–1841 · The magnetic societies and the second Paris inquiry coming
1841–1882 · Braid, hypnotism and the spread across Europe coming
1882–1925 · Nancy, the Salpêtrière and psychical research coming

Work of the month

Every month the Library presents one work, with what its contemporaries said about it.

Instruction pratique sur le magnétisme animal

J. P. F. Deleuze · Paris: Dentu, 1825 · Crabtree no. 320

What its contemporaries said

«L’Instruction pratique de M. Deleuze est un livre dont je recommande la lecture à tous ceux qui n’ont aucune idée du magnétisme.»Translation: “Mr Deleuze’s Instruction pratique is a book whose reading I recommend to all those who have no idea of magnetism.”Aubin Gauthier, Traité pratique du magnétisme (1845)

“…the Instruction Pratique of the excellent and sober-minded Deleuze is the first book that I should recommend.”George Sandby, Mesmerism and its Opponents, 2nd ed. (London: Longman, 1848), preface, pp. xiii–xiv

Note of the Library

A clear practical manual built on simple, tested procedures; it places the goodwill and steady intention of the practitioner at the centre of the work.

Access

Researchers can apply for access to the Library as Visiting Scholars. Access is granted on the basis of a short research proposal.

Apply for access