A crescendo of scales

Abstract

Lodestone has always been surrounded by an air of fascination and mystery, and credited almost magical properties. Any time you call “mesmerizing” something that is attractive in a mysterious way, you are in fact referring to Franz Anton Mesmer, a German physician who claimed he could cure blindness, paralysis, hysteria, and even haemorrhoids, by attaching magnets to various parts of his patients’ body, after they have swallowed a preparation containing iron.

Questo è quel pezzo di calamita:

pietra mesmerica, ch’ebbe l’origine nell’Alemagna,

che poi sì celebre là in Francia fu. ^a

Lorenzo da Ponte, Così fan tutte, Atto I

^aThis is that piece of lodestone: a mesmeric stone that was discovered in Germany, and then became so famous in France.