160 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



of their interpretation, could be tested — viz., either that the ex- 

 periments signally failed to educe the results professed, or that 

 the experimenters were detected in the most shameless and deter- 

 mined impostures. I have myself been fully convinced of this by 

 repeated examinations. But were any guarantee required for the 

 care, soundness, and efficiency of the judgment of men of science 

 on these phenomena and views, I have only to mention, in the 

 first place the revered name of Faraday, and in the next that of 

 my life- long friend Dr. Sharpley, whose ability and candour none 

 will dispute, and who I am happy to think, is here among us, 

 ready from his past experience of such exhibitions, to bear his 

 weighty testimony against all cases of Zeyi^a^WTi, or the like, which 

 may be the last wonder of the day among the mesmeric or spirit 

 tual pseudo-physiologists. The phenomena to which I have at 

 present referred, be they false or real, are in great part dependent 

 upon a natural principle of the human mind, placed, as it would 

 appear, in dangerous alliance with certain tendencies of the nervous 

 system. They ought not to be worked upon without the greatest 

 caution, and they can only be fully understood by the accomplished 

 physiologist who is also conversant with psychology. The ex- 

 perience of the last hundred years tends to show that there will 

 always exist a certain number of minds prone to adopt a belief 

 in the marvellous and striking in preference to that which is easily 

 understood and patent to the senses ; but it may be confidently 

 expected that the diffusion of a fuller and more accurate knowledge 

 of vital phenomena among the non-scientific classes of the commu- 

 nity may lead to a juster appreciation of the phenomena in ques- 

 tion, and a reduction of the number among them who are believ- 

 ers in the impossible. As for men of science who persist in sub- 

 mitting to such strange perversion of judgment, we can only hope 

 that the example of their less instructed fellow-countrymen may 

 lead them to allow them themselves to be guided more directly by 

 the principles of common sense than by the erratic tendencies of a 

 too fervid imagination. 



Extracts from the President's (T. Andrews, F.R.S.) Address 

 in the Chemical Section on the 



PROGRESS OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH. 



Proceeding to touch on questions of general chemistry at pre- 

 sent attracting attention, the learned Professor spoke first of the 



