710 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mind than to the record of occasional floods, transient eddies, and 

 doubtful whirlpools. His method in this respect, we think, is some- 

 what defective, and method in such a matter is of the very essence of 

 the investigation. 



One noteworthy, whirlpool of deception and credulity, namely, 

 spiritualism. Dr. Carpenter has investigated here and elsewhere with 

 great care — not, perhaps, so much in reference to the wild turmoil 

 itself, as to the manner in which innocent chips and straws are whirled 

 round on its surface, or engulfed in its depths. He has shown how 

 much and how far persons of a certain constitution may, by automatic 

 action of muscle, nerve, and brain, be the dupes of their own imper- 

 fect organization, and the puppets of stronger and more vulgar minds. 

 We could have wished that the peculiarities of extra-automatic people 

 could have been investigated by themselves, and in a strictly scien- 

 tific manner, and without according the undeserved honor of inquiry 

 to those who travesty the wholesome laws of Nature, convert a fit 

 into a heavenly trance, an hysterical girl into a prophetess, an auto- 

 matic movement into a communication with the spirits of the dead. 

 We scarcely think that the one grain of truth was worth sifting from 

 all those bushels of chaff and rubbish. Perhaps no one who was not 

 thought to be open to conviction in these matters would have been 

 permitted to look behind the foot-lights, and if Carpenter had spoken 

 sharply and bluntly, as Faraday did of the table-turners, his oppor- 

 tunities for investigation might have been greatly curtailed. As it 

 is. Dr. Carpenter has done rare service in this cause now and afore- 

 time. 



Dr. Carpenter states that the number of persons capable of being 

 biologized is "from one in twelve to one in twenty; so that, in a com- 

 pany of fifty or sixty persons, there are pretty sure to be two or three 

 who will prove good biological subjects." We apprehend that a very 

 wide margin must be left for the effects of deception and credulity 

 even in the simple j)rocess of biologizing. We never saw a lunatic 

 biologized, and we have seen a hundred experimented upon by pro- 

 fessors of the art. In as many school-girls probably a large propor- 

 tion would be found susceptible, especially if they had been ill sup- 

 plied with good food and fresh air, and had imbibed an undue amount 

 of sensational poetry and fiction. One lady Dr. Carpenter has him- 

 self biologized into so deep a sleep that she could not be awakened by 

 any ordinary means, even by being roughly shaken. " Her slumber 

 appeared likely to be of undefined duration ; but it was instantly ter- 

 minated by the operator's voice calling the lady by her name in a 

 gentle tone." What assurance, however, can the doctor have that 

 this young lady was not playing a trick upon him, or simply indulging 

 a caprice ? It is always wise to try the simplest explanation first, and 

 in women the capricious is certainly more common than the biologi- 

 cal temperament, even if the author's statistics of the latter be correct. 



