Original article Franklin, Lavoisier, and Mesmer: Origin of the controlled clinical trial

In 1784, a Royal Commission headed by Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier designed a series of ingenious experiments to debunk France’s greatest medical rogue, Anton Mesmer, and his bizarre healing of illnesses based on his bogus theory of animal magnetism. Using intentional subject ignorance and sham interventions to investigate mesmerism, Franklin’s commission provided a model for the controlled clinical trial. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.