Mesmerism
, French medical community’s disengagement from Church in critique of
In meeting the challenge of Mesmerists, the French medical community “derived little support from its traditional alliance with the church.” Indeed, by the 1780s, many doctors made a point of dissociating medicine from its links to theology; they sought “not to admire but to control nature. That this goal eluded them “gave rise to anxiety over the limitations of man rather than admiration of the majesty of God” (L. Wilson, loc 853-854).