WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



The following is an abstract of an address given by Mr. R. C. Harding at 

 the second meeting, on 2nd June, 1909, on " The New Toy, the ' Sex Pen- 

 dulum ' : Mr. Stead's Fallacies and some Remarkable Facts." 



Mr. Harding said that the account of this device was given in an article by Mr. 

 W. T. Stead in a recent number of the Review of Beviews. It was said to have been 

 discovered by an engineer of Catford, named Williams, who had a poultry-farm, and 

 who had the appliance in constant use for determining the sex of eggs. It was simply 

 a steel weight suspended from a thread of wire, held steadily in the hand, so as to be free 

 to swing in any direction. Held over a man or any male animal (or egg), it would move 

 in a circle ; over a female, it would oscillate like a pendulum. It was said that Mr. 

 Williams became first aware of its property by noticing that a steel weight suspended 

 over a basket of eggs qixivered in a curious way, which led him to experiment. He 

 (Mr. Harding) had made a good many experiments, and did not believe that the 

 pendulum would act unless held in the hand ; he also found that it need not be st«el — 

 that any metal or vegetable substance would answer as well, but not an animal substance. 

 It seemed to be no more than a toy at present ; it might apparently be used as an instru- 

 ment of divination ; but he had endeavoured to ascertain if it had any scientific value. 

 It was not a scientific instrument in the true sense, as in some hands it would not answer 

 at all ; with some few experimenters it always reversed the indication. It would answer 

 correctly when there was actual knowledge, but otherwise could not be relied on. More- 

 over, it would respond to direct volition, even in the hands of those with whom it would 

 not act in the ordinary way, but not to an idea or mental impression, not did expectation 

 appear to affect it in the slightest degre". The movement was manifestly controlled by 

 an infinitesimal movement of the finger, but it was a nerve-movement, and the pendulum 

 was apparently a kind of index to subconscious action of the brain. Over metals it was 

 perfetly quiescent, but would respond to any animal or vegetable substance, livmg or 

 dead. Apart from quiescence, he had found six regular indicative movements. Plants or 

 vegetable substances usually gave the same quiver as had been observed over the mixed 

 eggs : it was a very curious perturbation, apparently owing to a conflict between the 

 rotary and oscillatory impulses. It gave the regular indications over male and female 

 flowers, but he was not sure that these indications could be depended upon. 

 F^ He had tried it with a magnet, and found that the north pole gave the oscillatory 

 response, and the south the rotary. It would therefore be convenient to describe the 

 three principal movements as " S," " N," and. " SN," respectively. Over a closed 

 circuit, the pendulum rotated at the ^joles, and oscillated transversely to the magnet 

 midway between them. Mr. Stead apparently supposed that the impulse proceeded 

 from the living object tested ; but any fragment of animal matter, such as a fragment 

 of bone or shell, without the slightest indication of sex, would answer ; and the mummy 

 in the hall excited as active a movement as a living subject. Moreover, pictured repre- 

 sentations answered equally well, as he illustrated by a book of engravings, and 

 statuettes or models of any living creatures. And there was a remarkable appearance 

 of systematic direction in the movements of the pendulum. He suspected that some 

 kind of radio-activity was discharged, as those over whose hands it was held sometimes 

 felt tinglmgs and the sensation of cool airs. Moreover, the interposition of a thin plate 

 of metal would immediately stop its action, but a thin piece of wood made no diflerence. 

 It would not work if the eyes were shut or the attention distracted. It was evident 

 that it was an appliance that lent itself readily to deception ; biit he thought it might be 

 found to have uses — perhaps important uses — in what was known as " experimental 

 psychology," and might throw light on such phenomena as those of water-finding. Some 

 of the experiments he had made had given results so unexpected and imaccountable 

 that he would have hesitated to mention them had it not been so easy to verify them ; 

 but so far as what were commonly called " occult " phenomena were concerned, he was 

 content to leave investigation to those interested in " psychical research." 



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