In 1779, Franz Anton Mesmer wrote an 88-page book, Memoire sur la decouverte du magnetisme animal, to which he appended his famous 27 Propositions. While undertaking research, G.F. Frankau obtained, on loan from a private library, an original edition of Mesmer's Memoire sur la decouverte de Magnetism Animal. Realising its medico-historical importance and tempted by a layman's vanity to undertake the translation himself, he eventually decided that the task could only be accomplished by an expert; He secured the services of Captain V. R. Myers of the Berlitz School of Languages. Myer's rendering of the eighteenth-century French is highly praiseworthy. The adjective "mesmeric," the substantive "mesmerism," and the verb to "mesmerise" have not changed their meanings since they first became current-posterity's unique tribute to a unique man."