338 



ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



Site 



None in center 

 Child and Tomkins 



The committee in their report on the experiment state (ibid., 

 p. 466) "on comparing the state of facts known to exist with the 

 indications given by the diviners, that whatever sensitiveness to 

 underground waters may exist in certain persons, of which some 

 evidence has been given, it is not sufficiently definite and trustw^orthy 

 to be of much practical value. Moreover the lack of agreement with 

 each other shows that it is more a matter of personal mentality than 

 any direct influence of the water. The diviners, as a rule, confine 

 their attention to small streams of water, and as there are few places 

 where these can not be found, they may well show a large percentage 

 of success." 



Prof. J. Wertheimer, dean of the facility of engineering of Bristol 

 University, conducted a series of experiments to test various pow- 

 ers claimed by diviners. (Journ. Soc. Arts, 1911, vol. 59, pp. 



384-391.) For example in the kitchen 

 at Brislington Hall there is a well, 

 and three dowsers were asked to locate 

 it ; they reported water in many places 

 under the floor (fig. 13), but not the 

 known well. One of them having de- 

 termined three positions all away from 

 the well (CI, C2, C3), on Figure 13, 

 when told where it was, said he could 

 trace a course of water to it from his 

 Cl. One of them claimed to know 

 when the water was flowing through 

 a pipe, and when it was stopped, and 

 said he would pay £5 to the Bristol 

 Hospital if he were unsuccessful. He 

 paid the £5. Experiments were also 

 conducted for finding coins under 

 saucers and cushions, but with more failure than success. Professor 

 Wertheimer concluded from the results that the motion of the rod is 

 not due to any cause outside the dowser. 



Among other tests was one by Professor Sollas at the request of 

 the Society for Psychical Research (Proc. Bristol. Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 N. S., Vol. IV, 1885, pp. 116-125). The dowser, Thomas Young, 

 selected two points in a field at one of which he said there was water, 

 and at the other none. Sollas predicted that as regards water, both 

 sites would be found alike, and he claimed in his report that equal 

 quantities of water were found in both. His conclusion has been 

 criticized (Barrett and Besterman, p. 59) on the ground that a 

 subsequent visitor represented one well as 10 feet deep and the other 

 24 feet. According to Sollas one well w^as 29 feet deep, and the 



O-Jtlet 



• Antclifl. • Bacon. X Beyer. 



O Child. S Sutton. + Taylor. 



T Tompkins. 



Figure 11. — The Guilford test, 

 April, 1913 



