The REALL News - March 1999

<body> <div id="main-title"><img src="/images/main-title.gif" width="329" height="81" alt=""></div> <div id="global-navbar"> <ul> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/about/">About Us</a></li> <li><a href="/newsletter/">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="/letters/">Letters</a></li> <li><a href="/calendar.html">Calendar</a></li> <li><a href="/links.html">Links</a></li> <li><a href="/search.html">Search</a></li> <li><a href="/email.html">E-Mail</a></li> </ul> </div>  <p align="center"><font size="2"><i>(<a href="index.html">Toggle Frames</a>)</i></font></p> <h1 align="center"><img src="/images/anthony/std_news.gif" alt="*" align="middle" WIDTH="64" HEIGHT="54">The REALL News<img src="/images/anthony/std_news.gif" alt="*" align="middle" WIDTH="64" HEIGHT="54"></h1> <p align="center"><i>"It's a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense." -- James Randi</i></p> <hr> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="50%"><b>Volume 7 Issue 3</b></td> <td align="right" width="50%"><b>March 1999</b></td> </tr> </table> <hr> <h2 align="center">In This Issue</h2> <div align="center"><center> <table border="0" width="80%"> <tr> <th align="left">Features</th> <th align="left">Departments</th> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="50%"><ul> <li><a href="kreider-speaks-3.html">Dr. Kreider Speaks Out<br> Part 3: On Mesmerism</a>, by Randy Alley</li> <li><a href="reallity-check.html">REALLity Check</a>, by David Bloomberg</li> </ul> </td> <td valign="top" width="50%"><ul> <li><a href="chairman.html">From the Chairman</a> - David Bloomberg</li> <li><a href="editor.html">From the Editor</a> - Bob Ladendorf</li> <li><a href="masthead.html">Masthead</a></li> </ul> </td> </tr> </table> </center></div> <p> </p> <div align="center"><center> <table border="1" width="80%"> <tr> <td width="100%"><h2 align="center">Dr. Kreider Speaks Out<br> Part 3: On Mesmerism</h2> <p align="center"><b>by </b><b>Randy Alley</b></p> <p><img src="magnet.gif" alt="x" align="right" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100">Dr. Kreider's outrage did not stop with phrenology. He was also skeptical of another pseudoscience: mesmerism or, as Mesmer originally called it, animal magnetism. </p> <p>As you will recall (Vol. 6, #10), Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician who developed the theory of animal magnetism (mesmerism). Animal magnetism decreed that magnetic forces from stars, planets, and objects exerted influences on all living things. Mesmer proposed that these magnetic forces could be directed and used to cure physical ailments and diseases. Kreider recognized that mesmerism was fraudulent and was determined to convince others. Kreider began his discussion against the validity of mesmerism by presenting the comical situations associated with it. He then finished with a review of the commissions on mesmerism.<a href="kreider-speaks-3.html"><img alt="More" border="0" hspace="2" src="/images/anthony/hpoint_right.gif" WIDTH="33" HEIGHT="14">More</a></td> </tr> </table> </center></div>   </body>