ity that forces such as the gravitational pull that causes the ebb and flow of the tides could also be involved in how diseases progress (Forrest, 1999). While these ideas were not original (Mesmer seems to have plagiarized and borrowed quite a bit of the work from another physician), they are also somewhat beyond what the mainstream thinking at the time seems to have been (Forrest, 1999).
             Once Mesmer defended his thesis, he successfully obtained his medical degree. It was not long before he was able to put his theory into practice when a relative of his became ill. According to Mesmer's account, she suffered from a "hysterical fever [that] caused continual vomiting, inflammation of the bowels, stoppage of urine, excruciating tooth-ache, ear-ache, melancholy, depression, delirium, fits of frenzy, catalepsy, fainting fits, blindness, breathlessness, paralyzes lasting some days, and other symptoms" (Forrest, 1999, p. 4). Mesmer began treating this patient, referred to as Fraulein Franzl, using magnets. She was the first patient he treated in this way (Forrest, 1999). Mesmer came to utilize magnets as his method of treatment because of the properties he felt they shared with the system of the tides. Mesmer felt that magnets' ability to attract and repel each other was a similar pattern to the forces shared between the tides and the sun and moon. Because Mesmer saw this similarity and knew that magnets were being used for medicinal purposes in England and France as well, he felt magnets would be a useful form of treatment (Forrest, 1999). Mesmer felt that illness was the product of forces that were opposing each other within the body, and magnets could realign the forces (Goodwin, 1999). Mesmer called his theory of illness and subsequent treatment animal magnetism. His ideas would eventually evolve into what was called mesmerism, and then hypnotism.
             Mesmer used magnets in various shapes, such as heart shapes, on Fraulei...