Électricité animale, magnétisme animal, galvanisme universel : À la recherche de l'identité entre l'homme et la nature / Animal electricity, animal magnetism, universal galvanism : In search of universal harmony between man and nature

摘要

SUMMARY. — Through animal electricity and animal magnetism, research was developed in order to show the essential unity of forces in organic and inorganic nature. Animal forces were considered able to reveal universal forces. At the end of the 18th century, some scientists, mainly in Germany, followed this line of investigation. Alexander von Humboldt and Ritter developed an experimental programme based on the idea of universal galvanism. Some physiologists (Johann Christian Reil, Samuel Thomas Soemmerring, Karl Friedrich Burdach) tried to explain vital force as animal electricity. After the negative judgement by the Académie des sciences in Paris about a physical explanation for mesmerism, animal magnetism became a theory founding the idea universal harmony between human beings and nature.