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LIT. On the Virgula Divinatorla, or Divining Rod. B\" 

 William Phillips, fifq. Read before the Ajlejian 

 Society in the Sejfion 1801. 



X HE virgula divinatoric, or divining rod, is a forked 

 branch, or two (hoots or young branches of a fruit- bearing 

 tree, tied together at one end, and held by the other ends 

 one in each hand. When held in a certain pofition, and 

 tinder certain circum fiances, which I fliall endeavour pre- 

 fently to defcribe, it is faid to difcover the fituation of metals, 

 &c. in the earth, by dipping as it approaches the place be- 

 neath which they immediately lie. 



It is not known who was the difcoverer of it ; but Agri- 

 cola, in his Treatife De Re Meta/lica, fuppofes that it took 

 its rife from the magicians, who pretended to difcover mines 

 by inchantment: others arc of opinion that the difcovery is 

 of later date, and that the inventor was hanged in Germany 

 as an impoftor. Be that as it may, no mention is made of 

 it earlier than the nth century; and though it has occa- 

 fionally occupied attention for fo long a time, yet the nice- 

 ties attending its ufe according to the prefcribed directions, 

 and probably, too, the difficulty of accounting for the effects 

 laid to be produced by any plaufible theory confident with 

 the admitted laws of natural philofophy, may have retarded 

 its progrefs ; for it is now almoft totally neglected. 



About the middle of the 1 8 th cert tufy it was ably fup- 

 ported in France by De Thouvenel, who publifhed a book 

 rrpon the fubject, in which he endeavoured to fubftantiate 

 the virtue of the divining rod by the recital of about fix hun- 

 dred inftances of its fuccefsful employment, principally by 

 himfelf or within his own knowledge; and foon after by a 

 phiiofopher of unimpeachable veracity, and a chemilf, Wil- 

 liam Cookworthy, late of Plymouth. The favourable opinion 

 he entertained of it was grounded, according to his" own ac- 

 count, as became a chemift, upon actual experiment. It 

 appears that his experiments were frequentlv repeated, and 

 that the eafe which he attained in ufing the virgula was the 

 means of his fatisfying many intelligent men of its virtue, by 

 experiments for the difcovery of pieces of metal hid in the 

 earth, as well as by the difcovery of a copper, mine near 

 Oakhampton, which was worked for feveral years. Thus it 

 became introduced into Cornwall, where the difcovery of 

 feve ral mines is attrib uted to it; and there are yet a few 

 ; Vol. XIII. No. 52. x among 



September 1803, 



