The real Mesmer (1734-1815), a controversial physician with a mystical streak, bequeathed us the practice that later evolved into hypnosis, as well as the word 'mesmerise'.
In his time, he became famous - and infamous in some circles - for inventing (rather than discovering, as he maintained) 'animal magnetism', which has come to describe the power of physical attraction. However, Mesmer's idea of it had to do with an occult physical force emanating from an obscure, magnetic bodily fluid, rather than with raunchy instincts.
Although animal magnetism was dismissed as quackery, Mesmer's ideas fascinated, among others, Mary Shelley, whose fictional Dr Victor Frankenstein animated the cadaverous creation that Boris Karloff immortalised. In this short film, however, Mesmer, played by Méliès himself, animates a bunch of entirely benign, pretty young ladies.
Watch it here.
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