Mesmerising Science: The Franklin Commission and the Modern Clinical Trial
— By Urte Laukaityte Benjamin Franklin, magnetic trees, and erotically-charged séances — Urte Laukaityte on how a craze for sessions of “animal magnetism” in late 18th-century Paris led to the randomised placebo-controlled and double-blind clinical trials we know and love today. Patients, mostly women, are sitting around a large wooden tub filled with magnetic water,… Read More »
