Mesmer, Friedrich Anton, a German physician, born near Constance; bred for the Church, but took to medicine; was the founder of animal magnetism, called mesmerism after him, his experiments in connection with which created a great sensation, particularly in Paris, until the quackery of it was discovered by scientific investigation, upon which he retired into obscurity, “to walk silent on the shore of the Bodensee, meditating on much” (1733‒1815).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Meryon, Charles * Mesmerism