Magnetism, the branch of science devoted to the study of the properties of magnets, and of electric currents in their magnetic relations; sometimes also used to denote the subtle influence supposed to lie at the root of all magnetic phenomena, of the true nature of which nothing is known. See Animal Magnetism.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Magnetic Induction * Magnificat, The