PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 461 



public attention to the subject in New Haven, claims to succeed, even 

 with the nlost intellectual persons, provided they fully comply with 

 the conditions, and honestly and persistently concentrate their minds. 

 One fact of interest, with regard to bis experiments, is the exceeding 

 minuteness of the objects that he finds. A large number of the 

 audience empty their pockets on the table, until it is covered with a 

 medley of keys, knives, trinkets, and miscellaneous small objects. 

 Out of them the subject selects a small seed a little lai'ger than a 

 pea, and even this the operator, after some searching, bits precisely. 



One may take a large bunch of keys, throw them on the table, and 

 he picks out the very one on which the subject concentrates his mind. 



Another fact of interest in his experiments is that, if the subject 

 thinks over a number of articles in different parts of the room, and, 

 after some doubt and hesitation, finally selects some one, the oper- 

 ator will lead him, sometimes successively, to the different objects on 

 which he has thought, and will wind up with the one that he finally 

 selected. He also j3erforms what is known as the " double test," which 

 consists in taking the hand of a third party, who knows nothing of 

 the hidden object, but who is connected with another party who does 

 know, and who concentrates his mind upon it. The connection of 

 these two persons is made at the wrist, and the motion is communi- 

 cated from one to the other through the arms and hands. The 

 " double test " has been regarded by some as an argument against the 

 theory that this form of mind-reading was simply the utilizing of un- 

 conscious muscular motion on the part of the person operated upon. 



This gentleman represents that the sensation of muscular thrill is 

 very slight indeed, even with good subjects ; and, in order to detect 

 it, he directs his own mind as closely as possible to the hand of the 

 subject. 



In all these experiments, with all mind-readers the requirement for 

 the subject to concentrate the mind on the locality agreed upon is 

 absolute ; if that condition is not fulfilled, nothing can be done, for the 

 very excellent reason that, without such mental concentration, there 

 will be no unconscious muscular tension or relaxation to guide the 

 operator. 



Experiments of the following kind I have made repeatedly with 

 the above-named gentleman : 



A dozen or more pins may be stuck about one inch or half an inch 

 apart into the edge of a table : I concentrate my mind on any one of 

 these pins, telling no one. The operator enters the room, gets the 

 general direction of the object in the usual way (d la Brown), and, 

 when he has come near to the row of pins, he will limit the physical 

 connection to one of his index-fingers, pressing firmly against one of 

 mine, and in this way he soon finds the head of the pin on which my 

 mind has been concentrated. The only limitation of area in the local- 

 ty that can be found by a good mind-reader with a good subject is, 



