FRANKLIN AND MESMER - AN ENCOUNTER

In 1784, as the Enlightenment was on the wane, Paris faced a debate in which reason confronted the supernatural and the mysterious. Dr. Mesm er, a graduate of the medical school in Vienna, had been running a ''m agnetic clinic'' based on the belief that magnetic fluid, flowing from the stars, permeated all living beings and that every disease was due to an obstruction in die flow. By manipulating that fluid, he launche d the concept of animal as opposed to mineral magnetism and claimed to cure all ills. This got him into trouble with the medical faculty, an d in 1778 he emigrated to Paris, creating secret societies all over Fr ance. Six years later, mesmerism was considered a threat, possibly del eterious to both mind and body. Louis XVI appointed two commissions to investigate this likely fraud. Dr. Guillotin headed one; the other, m ade up of five members of the Academy of Sciences, included an astrono mer and was headed by Franklin, American Ambassador to France. Both co mmissions concluded that the success of mesmerism was due to the manip ulation of the imagination. Mesmer protested vigorously but in vain. H e left France and died in obscurity in 1815.