WATER DIVINING GREGORY 327 



for ores and oil. Some writers claim that it is effective for practi- 

 cally anything, and will find ores, oil, and buried treasure, and will 

 answer questions on any problem. According to Mager, it will not 

 only distinguish between different metals but it can be relied upon 

 to indicate the percentage of different metals in an alloy. Sir Her- 

 bert Maxwell (1919, p. 174) describes how a blindfold diviner dis- 

 tinguished between different kinds of pottery. Sir William Barrett 

 believed that it could read words in a closed envelope and could pre- 

 dict the results in a university examination (Barrett and Bester- 

 man, 1926, pp. 265 and 267). The divining rod is used by landowners 

 and municipal authorities, and wells sunk at sites fixed by it have 

 yielded useful supplies of water, where geologists and water-supply 

 engineers have failed. The expense of using a water diviner was at 

 one time disallowed by the board of trade, and members of county 

 councils responsible for the expenditure had to pay it, but later deci- 

 sions make the operations recommended by a diviner a legitimate 

 charge upon the public rates. Firm faith in the divining rod has 

 been expressed by bishops and members of Parliament, and in the 

 recent work on the foundations of St. Paul's Cathedral the con- 

 tractors used a diviner to determine the positions of water under the 

 crypt. The claims for the success of water divining are innumerable ; 

 the practice is common throughout the civilized world, and its cham- 

 pions claim that its efficiency is established beyond reasonable doubt.- 



II. THE ROD AND THE NATURE OF ITS MOVEMENTS 



The rod usually employed is a forked twig of hazel with the forked 

 ends each about 10 to 18 inches in length, about one-eighth to one 

 quarter of an inch in thickness, and the butt a few inches long. It 

 should be tough and springy, and therefore should be freshly cut. It 

 is held with moderate firmness in the hand and often with each end 

 of the fork passing between the little and third fingers (fig. 4), or 

 between the second and third fingers (fig. 5). When thus held, pres- 

 sure by the finger above the rod bends or twists it and causes the end 

 to rise or fall. In the first mode of handling the pressure of the third 

 finger may be sufficient to break the rod and bruise the little finger. 



The rod is carried in various ways. The French diviner Bleton, 

 who made a great sensation in the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, placed a curved rod on his open hands, and it rotated over under- 

 ground water (fig, 2) ; but when this rotation was shown to be due 

 to a slight movement of the muscles of the hand, it was dismissed as 



^ Some recent correspondence from the Observer, Muncipal Engineering, and The Sur- 

 veyor has been reprinted in the British Waterworks Association official circular, 9th Ser., 

 vol. 9, June, 1927, pp. 413-417. I am much indebted to Mr. G. P. Warner Terry for a 

 long series of press references to the subject. 



