EDITOR'S TABLE. 



123 



of all who have the interest of the 

 present and future generations at 

 heart ; and the less we hear of the 

 separate and conflicting claims of 

 men and women the better. There 

 is ample scope to-day for the efforts 

 of all, and if any stand idle in the 

 vineyard it must be from lack of will, 

 not from lack of opportunity. 



AN ALMOST TOO SUCCESSFUL JOKE. 



When a valued contributor and 

 prominent man of science offered us 

 for publication recently an article 

 over his own signature intended to 

 cast not undeserved ridicule upon 

 the insatiable craving which so 

 many have for marvels, and particu- 

 larly for marvels that seem to pos- 

 sess the crowning merit (in their 

 eyes) of casting uncertainty upon the 

 methods and conclusions of physical 

 science, we decided to publish it ; and 

 it appeared in our last number, under 

 the title of The Sympsychograph. 

 The result, to speak frankly, has al- 

 most caused us to doubt the wisdom of 

 the step. Nothing, we know, was fui'- 

 ther from the intention of the writer. 

 Prof. D. S. Jordan, than to hoax or 

 mislead intelligent readers; and we 

 need hardly say that no such pur- 

 pose could possibly have commend- 

 ed itself to our approval. There is 

 reason to believe, however, that the 

 great weight attaching to Prof. Jor- 

 dan's name threw many persons off 

 their guard who would otherwise 

 have scanned the article with suffi- 

 cient closeness to perceive not only 

 its lack of scientific coherence, but 

 the mischievously sportive intent 

 undei'lying it. To such, we feel like 

 offering an apology: they read in 

 good faith, as a serious article, what 

 was written as a burlesque, and, 

 doubtless in some cases, puzzled very 

 unnecessarily over the incoherences 

 and obscurities which naturally en- 

 tered largely into its composition. 



Many a one doubtless said: "This 

 does not read like an article by Prof. 

 Jordan, yet his name is signed to it; 

 it must be his, and there must be 

 something in it." "Well, there was 

 nothing in it except a burlesque ; and 

 if any of our friends feel that they 

 were unfairly entrapped into taking 

 it seriously, we can only express our 

 sincere regret. 



It is worth while, however, for 

 those who took it seriously to reflect 

 for a few moments over what it was 

 that they thus gave credence to. The 

 statement was that photographs were 

 produced in absolute darkness; that 

 in the darkness a photographic plate 

 became sensitive to thought; and 

 finally, that the thought of a cat in 

 the mind could so decompose the 

 film on a prepared plate as to pro- 

 duce thereon the image of a cat. 

 This was a feast of absurdities which 

 our contributor doubtless supposed, 

 and which, we must confess, we our- 

 selves supposed would prove too rich 

 for all but the most credulous; and 

 if, on a review of the case, those who 

 were taken in are led to draw the 

 inference that a certain independent 

 exercise of judgment is always in 

 order, and that no name should be 

 accepted as sufficient voucher for 

 stark absurdity, the annoyance to 

 which the incident has given rise 

 will not be unmixed with benefit. 



If any reader should perchance 

 ask whether there is anything more 

 incredible in the alleged perform- 

 ances of the "Astral Camera Club" 

 than in what we have learned this 

 year in regard to the X rays, we an- 

 swer: Yes, there is, on the surface, 

 all the difference in the world be- 

 tween the two cases. In the case of 

 the X rays. Prof. Rontgen made his 

 announcement in a carefully worded 

 memoir addressed to a learned body, 

 and fully discussed therein the work 

 done by predecessors in, if not the 

 same, an adjoining field of research. 



