RESUMO
In the mid-nineteenth century, magnetic theories penetrated other recognized medical practices in Argentina in order to rationalize their procedures, in a culture that accepted and validated magnetism as a positive science. At the start of the twentieth century, mesmerists created a society, published books and journals, and carried out a large welfare programme; there were public lectures, and magnetic treatment for spiritualists and the general public, emphasizing the therapeutic properties of mesmerism. Magnetologists/mesmerists measured vital radiation and built devices using sensitive objects as 'physical' evidence of it. There was an interest in acquiring and using artefacts to measure human radiation useful in medicine. Magnetic practices survived until the end of the 1920s, when they lost importance.
Assuntos
Hipnose , Argentina , Humanos , História do Século XX , História do Século XIX , Hipnose/história , Espiritualismo/história , Magnetismo/históriaRESUMO
El objetivo de este artículo es analizar a un personaje remarcable del escenario cultural y científico de Buenos Aires de fines de siglo, el director de la Revista Magnetológica: Ovidio Rebaudi (1860-1931), renombrado químico así como adherente al espiritismo y el magnetismo. La vida y obra del mismo, oriundo de Paraguay y radicado en Argentina, resulta de utilidad para comprender cómo actores de filiación científica practicaban y defendían, al mismo tiempo, la hipnosis y el magnetismo. De hecho, Rebaudi dedicó gran parte de su vida a estudiar y conceptualizar acerca de los fenómenos sobrenaturales, llevando a cabo también curaciones magnéticas y diversas experiencias espiritistas, siempre dotando sus prácticas de cientificidad. El presente artículo analiza a este personaje de fin de siglo que abogaba, al mismo tiempo, por las prácticas científicas y por el estudio de lo sobrenatural. Entendemos que dicho análisis servirá para iluminar las zonas de mixtura y entrelazamiento entre terrenos tan disímiles como el científico y el de las energías y fluidos magnéticos.
The aim of this paper is to analyze a remarkable character of Buenos Aires cultural and scientific scenario during the end of the century, the producer of the Revista Magnetológica (Magazine of magnetism) Ovidio Rebaudi (1860-1931), a well-known chemist and follower of magnetism and spiritualism. The life and work of this chemist, native of Paraguay and resident of Argentina, seem useful to understand how scientific actors held and protect hypnotic and magnetic practices. In fact, Rebaudi dedicated a great part of his life to the study and conceptualization of supernatural phenomena, performing magnetic healings and diverse spiritualist experiments, enduing their practices with scientific attributes. This paper intends to analyze this end-of-the-century character, who pleaded for scientific practices on the one hand, and for supernatural studies on the other. We understand that this analysis could enlighten some mixture zones and interweaved soils between the scientific and the magnetic grounds.