Baquet
A large circular tub which entered largely into the treatment which D'Eslon, the friend and follower of Mesmer, prescribed for his patients. Puységur tells us in his book Du Magnétisme Animal, that in the baquet were placed some bottles, arranged in a particular manner, and partly covered with water. It was fitted with a lid in which were several holes, through which passed iron Bassantin rods, connecting the patients, who sat round the contrivance, with the interior of the tub. The operator was armed with a shorter iron rod. While the patients waited for the symptoms of the magnetic treatment, someone played upon a pianoforte, a device which is frequently adopted at séances. The symptoms included violent convulsions, cries, laughter, and vomiting. This state they called the crisis, and it was supposed to hasten the healing process. A commission appointed in 1784 by the French government through the Faculté de Médecine and the Societé royale de Médecine, reported that such practiceswere exceedingly dangerous, and in nowise proved the existence of the magnetic fluid. Dı. Bell a "professor of animal magnetism" set up a similar institution in England in 1785, using a large oak baquet.