Once in a while you may see the phrase unexpectedly in a news-magazine, when the writer is desperate for a way to make his prose more lively. But probably for many people animal magnetism remains a topic from another century.
Does it truly belong in the category of old attics and musty trunks?
In point of fact, there's probably no better way to explain some very modern events than in terms of animal magnetism. What, for example, made a nation—apparently cultured, civilized, lawful—allow the attempted extermination of entire groups of people, including tiny children, when a fraudulent, unbalanced demagogue pointed the way? Mesmeric influence is the explanation that seems to get closest to the heart of the matter.
