462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that two objects should not be so near to each other that the finger of 

 the operator strikes on both at once. When I began the study of this 

 subject, I supposed, even after the true theory of the matter had be- 

 come clear to me, that very small objects and narrow areas could not 

 be found in this way. Subsequent experiments showed that this sup- 

 position was erroneous. In a wide hall, in the presence of a large 

 audience, where the subject had the right to think of any object he 

 chose, Brown once found, after considerable searching, so limited an 

 area as a capital letter in the title of a newspaper pinned up on the 

 wall and barely within reach. About an hour after, in the same place, 

 he found a very small vial out of quite a large number ranged in a 

 row. Although reasoning deductively from the known relations of 

 mind to body, I had established conclusively to my own mind that the 

 so-called mind-reading was really muscle-reading, yet I could not be- 

 lieve, until the above-named experiments had been made, and frequent- 

 ly repeated, that it was possible for even the most expert operator to 

 find such small objects ; and no physiologist, I am sure, would have 

 believed such precision in these experiments conceivable until his 

 general deductions had been many times verified, and supplemented 

 by observations in which every source of error was guarded against. 



As already remarked, there are a variety of ways of making the 

 physical connection between subject and operator. A lady with 

 whom I am acquainted goes out of the room, and while she is absent 

 an object is hidden. She returns, and two ladies, who know where the 

 object is stand up beside her in the middle of the room and place both 

 of their hands upon her body, one hand in front, the other behind; all 

 three stand there for a moment, the two subjects who know where the 

 object is, keeping their minds intensely concentrated on that locality. 

 In a moment or so this lady who is to find the object moves off in the 

 direction where it is, the other ladies with her still keeping their 

 hands upon her, and in nearly all cases she finds it. This is accom- 

 plished by the unconscious muscular tension of the two ladies who 

 know where the object is, acting upon the person of the lady who is 

 seeking it. 



This experiment I have repeated with a number of amateur per- 

 formers, and in all cases with pretty uniform success. This method 

 is easier, both to learn and to practise, than some of the others ; it is 

 also far less artistic, and is not at all adapted for the finding of very 

 small localities. It illustrates, however, the general pi'inciple of mind 

 acting on body producing muscular tension in the direction of the 

 locality on which the thoughts are concentrated. 



The relaxation, when the locality or its neighborhood is reached, is 

 not so distinctly appreciated in this method of experimenting, which 

 is sufficient, however, to enable the operator to get the right direc- 

 tion and to proceed until the corner or side of the room is reached ; 

 then, by a combination of manipulation and guess-work, she will, after 



