17 



pasBed. A^in, webave what is called clairvoyance 

 (or clear-seeing). This is the power of seeing 

 things which are ct^noealed from the physical 

 senses, and closely resembling this is what is 

 known ss telepathy, or the power of one mind to 

 communicate with another without the aid of 

 the bodily tenses. Numerous experiments have 

 been conducted wiih regard to thispower.witb very 

 varied results. This power is often evidenced 

 when one of the communicants is near to death. 

 Thus a dying person may have a strong desire to 

 communicate with, or see someone who is dear to 

 him, and as a result, in or about the hour of death, 

 a vivid impression is produced on the mind of the 

 one for whom it is intended. It may tiike the 

 form of a voice, speaking to them at times 

 apparently quite audibly, urging them to some 

 action, or it may take even a bodily form and 

 make itself visible to the natural life. This 

 phenomena is explained as follows ; The body 

 being in a wcHk state, the objective mind becomes 

 weak and feeble als^o. upon which the subjective 

 mind becoming more free to act and, dominated by 



the last intense suggestion of the objective mind, 

 carries out its mission with the result mentioned. 

 The lecturer went on to speak at length upon the 

 possibilities of faith healing and auto-suggestion. 

 At the conclnsioo of the paper, a short discus- 

 sion took place, Mr. S. Harvey remarking that 

 the lecturer bad dealt with his subject in a very 

 cart-ful manner. It was a matter that was very 

 rarely discussed by a Society such as theirs, but 

 he saw no reason whatever why it should not be. 

 They had in Canterbury very remarkable proof 

 bearing out a great deal of what Mr. Smith had 

 said. In the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathe- 

 dral there still remained two windows depicting 

 scenes of the wonderful cures effected in the ca^ 

 of many who had visited Thomas a Beck-t's tomb 

 — these cures taking place during a considerable 

 period after his death. He saw no reason to donbt 

 the accuracy of these miracles, for names and 

 places were given, and the facts were very clearly 

 recorded in the archives of the City. 



A vote of thanks to the lecturer closed the 

 proceedings. 



ELEVENTH WINTER MEETING.— APRIL nth, 1905. 



"POLARISED LIGHT AND COLOUR PHENOMENA.' 

 Mb. \V. p. MANN, B.A. 



-By 



At the eleventh meeting a lecture was given by 

 Mr. W. P. Mann, on the subject of "Light," in the 

 " Kuskip Ro<im," at the Simon Langton School, on 

 Tuesday, ipril llih. Mr. Sidney Harvey presided 

 over a large attendance. 



The President said that since the last meeting, 

 oneof our most valued membeis,Mr. A.U. fiattley, 

 of Berne Bay, had passed away, and it was his 

 painful duty to move that a letter of condolence be 

 sent to the widow expressing the sympathy of the 

 meeting and oar sorrow at the great loss sustained 

 by Mr. Baltley's decease. The vote was passed in 

 silence. 



On the propo8iti(in of the Hon. Secretary, Dr. 

 W. H. Flint, of Ansdell House, Dover, was elected 

 a member of the Society. 



Mr. W. P. Mtinn then delivered his lecture on 

 "Polarised Light." 



The lecturer began by giving a brief account 

 with experimental illustrations of waves in water 

 and air, and he slll>s^'ed the difference between 

 longitudinal and transverse vibrations. Then he 

 passed on to the waves that produce light, explain- 

 ing that these wav^s were formed in a substance 

 named etler.of exi r. me rigidity, but of very small 

 density. Tuis sub-tance pervades space, and is so 

 subtle that it exits between what are called the 

 molecules of S'>lid substances. The vibrations in 

 it are of immense v*' ocity, and these vibrations at 

 different rates ^iv» us the sensations of light and 

 of heat. T" vibrations in it also, we owe the 

 wonderful el ctiic waves which have recently 

 been utilised tor wireless telegraphy. In the case 

 of light these vibrations are across the direction 

 of the tay, and take place in all directions, but 



when these numerous radial vibrations ar» 

 reduced to one plane, the light is said to be 

 polarised. This polarisation can be produced by 

 reflection from polished surfaces, or by passing a 

 beam of light through a double-refracting sub- 

 stance, such as Iceland spar, or gypsum. These 

 double-refracting substances have the power of 

 dividing a beam into two, each ot which is bent 

 out of the original course, and each of which, on 

 issuing from the spar, is ' polarised,' or has had 

 its vibratioES reduced to one plane— and the 

 vibrations of the two emerging beams are at 

 right angles to each other. If then these two are 

 allowed to fall upon a similar piece of the sub- 

 stance, they will, in some positions, each again be 

 split into two, but in other positions only one of 

 them will pass through. Such a substance, there- 

 fore, suggests a method of detecting polarised 

 light, and the best detector, or "analyser," is 

 made from Iceland spar, and is called a " Nicol's 

 prism." But light reflected from glass at a certain 

 angle is almost completely polarised, and this 

 m-thod was used during the lecture, the light from 

 a limelight lantern being reflected from a bundle of 

 thin glass plates, and analysed by a Nicol's prism, 

 which, in one position, allowed the polarised light 

 to fall on the screen, but when crossed or turned 

 through a right angle completely shut off all light. 

 The first illustration of the beautiful effects which 

 polarised light can give was that of inserting a 

 piece of mica between the polarisers and analyser 

 when there was a dark field on the screen — 

 immediately not only brightness, but beautiful 

 colours were visible, and these were shown more 

 vividly on inserting a plate of selenite. The 



