[f. L. tellūr-em the earth + -ISM: in sense 1 = Ger. tellurismus, in sense 2 = F. tellurisme.]
1. A magnetic influence or principle supposed by some to pervade all nature and to produce the phenomena of animal magnetism; also the theory of animal magnetism based on this, propounded in 1822 by Kieser in Germany.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., III. iv. 333. The inorganic mass is divided [by Grohmann] into tellurism, atmosphere, and light.
1833. C. F. Hoffman, Winter in Far West (1835), II. 286, note. The art of discovering veins of water concealed in the bowels of the earth, by a direct perception of their existence, is mentioned by Kieser in his System of Tellurism as existing from the most remote periods.
1843. Hartshorn, trans. Deleuze’s Anim. Magn., x. 209. There are in magnetism two different actions. One which depends upon a vital principle spread throughout nature, and circulating in all bodies;… the first sort of magnetism, which he calls tellurism or siderism.
1849. S. R. Maitland, Illustr. Mesmerism, 63. They [the Ancients] did not write systems of Animal Magnetism, or Tellurism, or Geisterkunde.
2. Influence of the soil in producing disease.
1890. in Billings, Nat. Med. Dict.
1899. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
