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Divining Rod was in any way caused to move by electric or 
magnetic forces. Thus these wise men differ in their acceptance 
of this grotesque superstition of the power of a forked rod to 
discover water, but the learned doctor, who is himself a thorough 
believer in this occult but unexplainable power, proceeded to. 
quote from a paper on the Divining Rod, by Mr, W. B. Teget- 
meier, in the Field newspaper of Jan. 15th, 1898, who says :— 
“Taking a cut stick of the usual pattern out of the dowser’s 
hands, I can operate with it as successfully as the individual 
himself. As I pass over the ground, the stick dowses or bends 
in the orthodox manner, and should I be reduced to a state of 
absolute impecuniosity and have lost my conscience, as well as my 
money, I could gain a dishonest livelihood by water dowsing.” 
The lecturer concluded his interesting paper by further ex- 
tracts, and asked his audience to notice how the highly scientific 
Professor Barrett hunts about for an explanation of the Divining 
Rod in his contributed paper to the Proceedings of the Psychical 
Research Society, July, 1897. As for himself, he held the truth 
of the dowser’s faculty to discover water, although the water 
must be in motion, not stagnant, though he repudiated entirely 
_ the sensitiveness of a rod at the presence of a murderer, a thief, 
a hidden treasure, or metallic veins, a superstition much in vogue 
in the Middle Ages. 
This paper by Surgeon-Major Mantell drew forth a long dis- 
_ cussion from the gentlemen present, the prevailing opinion among 
the believers in Rhabdomancy seeming to be that the motion of 
_ the Divining Rod in the hands of the dowser is merely an 
- indicator—of what was not exactly decided. That the power 
of finding water was the personal sensitiveness of the dowser to 
_ the presence of water, the sensation of some performers being 
said to be near sickness, in others a pain at the pit of the 
stomach. Similar sensitiveness was said to be felt by some 
women at the presence of a cat or mouse in their room, or at the 
