title: Franklin, Lavoisier, and Mesmer: origin of the controlled clinical trial.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. herrh@mskcc.org
authors.forename: Harry W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Herr
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans