484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



1882, the society's membership has increased to almost one thousand, 

 and on its roll we find the honorable names of Gladstone, Ruskin, 

 Tennyson, Earl Russell, Lord Rayleigh, the Bishop of Carlisle, the 

 Bishop of Ripon, John Addington Symonds, Canon MacColl, and 

 scores of others distinguished in politics, literature, and science. 



That a thoroughly scientific spirit is actuating the society's work 

 will be seen by an extract from its official publications. At the time 

 of organization we read : "It has been widely felt that the present is 

 an opportune time for making an organized and systematic attempt to 

 investigate that large group of debatable phenomena designated by 

 such terms as mesmeric, psychical, and spiritualistic. From the re- 

 corded testimony of many competent witnesses, past and present, 

 including observations recently made by scientific men of eminence in 

 various countries, there appears to be, amid much illusion and decep- 

 tion, an important body of remarkable phenomena, which are, prima 

 facie, inexplicable on any generally recognized hypothesis, and which, 

 if incontestably established, would be of the highest possible value. 

 The task of examining such residual phenomena has often been under- 

 taken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a scientific society 

 organized on a sufficiently broad basis." 



The field for operation was so extensive that there was naturally 

 some difficulty in determining the point of beginning work. But, 

 after due consideration, the following programme was drawn up, and 

 a special committee was intrusted with each of the six subdivisions of 

 the society's work : 



" 1. An examination of the nature and extent of any influence 

 which may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart from any gen- 

 erally recognized mode of perception. 



" 2. The study of hypnotism and the forms of so-called mesmeric 

 trance, with its alleged insensibility to pain ; clairvoyance, and other 

 allied phenomena. 



"3. A critical revision of Reichenbach's researches with certain 

 organizations called ' sensitive,' and an inquiry whether such organi- 

 zations possess any power of perception beyond a highly exalted sen- 

 sibility of the recognized sensory organs.* 



" 4. A careful investigation of any reports, resting on strong testi- 

 mony, regarding appearances at the moment of death, or otherwise, 

 or regarding disturbances in houses reputed to be haunted. 



" 5. An inquiry into the various physical phenomena commonly 



* The phenomena described by Baron Karl von Reichenbach (born 1788) were 

 these : Certain persons declared to him that ordinary magnets, crystals, the human body, 

 and some other substances were to them self-luminous, presenting singular appearances 

 in the dark, and otherwise distinguishable by producing a variety of peculiar sensory 

 impressions such as anomalous sensations of temperature, bodily pain or pleasure, unu- 

 sual nervous symptoms, and involuntary muscular action. These are generally (but 

 Reichenbach believed not necessarily) accompanied by abnormal physiological and men- 

 tal states. 



