Portfolio > Museum of Mesmerism

This magnetic healing apparatus for arthritic hands was located in the special “chamber for cures” in the Bzinica Stara building. It was manufactured by a devotee of the work of Antoine Mesmer. This very spiritual physician held on to Mesmer’s original theories of “animal magnetism” long after they were proven to be misguided, and he developed his own therapeutic devices based on those theories. My great grandfather imported this apparatus from Austria in hopes of relieving my great grandmother’s arthritic affliction.