1821.1 



Virgula Divina ; or, Divining Rod. 



SIS 



JBSsession of the secret of the virgula 

 ivina, or divining rod. Now I can 

 assure tile gentleman from unquestion- 

 able authority, tliat tlie use of the 

 xiivining rod lias been known in Spanish 

 America and in this country, for nearly 

 two centuries. Don Alonso Barba, 

 many years director of the Spanish 

 mines of Potosi, wrote a treatise on 

 metals, mines, and minerals, which 

 was translated into English by the Earl 

 «f Sandwich in tlie year 1669, which 

 treatise I have got. 



Barba, after giving some very clear 

 directions for discovering metals and 

 minerals, (as according to de Hum- 

 boldt Spanish America contains almost 

 all the metals and minerals.) says the 

 next work is to try the operation with 

 tile virgula divina, and is thus per- 

 formed : 'About Midsummer, in a calm 

 morning, I cut up a rod of liazle, all 

 of the same spring's growth almost a 

 yard long, then I tied it to my staff in 

 the middle so that it did hang even like 

 the beam of a balance ; thus I carried 

 it up and down the mountains where 

 lead growed, and before noon it guided 

 me to the orifice of a lead-mine, which 

 I fried, having one with me that had 

 an hatchet of iron and a spade, and 

 within two hours we found a vein of 

 le;ul ore within a foot of the grass. 

 Tlie signs that it sheweth is to bow 

 down tlie root end towards the earth 

 as though it would grow there near 

 unto the orifice of a mine ; when you 

 see it does so, you must carry it round 

 about the place to see that it turneth 

 in the string still to the same place on 

 wiiich side soever you stand, as the 

 neetlle of a mariner's compass, however 

 you turn it will when at liberty still 

 turn to the north,' 



The reason of this attraction I con- 

 ceived to be of kin to the loadstone 

 drawing iron to it by a secret virtue 

 inbi-ed by nature, and not by conjura- 

 tion, as some have fondly imagined.* 



Greenwood is fovmd to be a conduc- 

 tor of electricity, and by Dr. Watson's 

 experiments he found that the elec- 

 tiic fluid proceeds from the earth. 

 Metalsand water are both conductors ; 



* Our ingenious correspondent's solution 

 18 but anotker mode of describing conjura- 

 tion. We hoped that our " Philosophical 

 Enquirer " had removed from the minds of 

 all our readers the superstitious notion of 

 inbred or innate attraction. Even in re- 

 g:ard to the magnet, he has shewii, and late 

 experiments have proved, that the pheno- 



may not thftt bethe cause of thedivinin|f 

 rod bowing down to the earth over 

 metals and water, the rod itself being 

 a conductor. 



I was at the Mendip coal mines 

 some yearsago, and was there informed 

 that the divining rod was frequently 

 used in searching for coal. 



Mr. Partridge's rdd not working'over 

 a wooden bridge may be attribrifed to 

 its being an imi)erfect conductor, as 

 dry wood is known to be so, nor will it 

 work, he says, when the hands are 

 covered with leather gloves ; perhaps 

 the leather is a non-conductor, and the 

 rod is then insulated. 



Bletonism is a faculty of perceiving 

 and indicating subterraneous springs 

 and currents by sensation; the term is 

 modern, and derived from a Mr. Ble- 

 ton,who for some years past has excited 

 universal attention by his possessingthe 

 above faculty, wliich seems to depend 

 upon some peculiar organization. Con- 

 cerning the reality of this extraordin- 

 ary faculty, there occurred great doubts 

 among the learned ; but M. Thouve- 

 nel, a Frenchman of some consequence 

 and a philosopher, seems to have put 

 the matter beyond dispute in two me- 

 moirs which he has published upon 

 the sfibject. He was charged with a 

 commission to analyse the mineral and 

 medicinal waters in France, and by re- 

 peated trials he had been so fully con- 

 vinced of the capacity of Bleton that 

 he solicited the ministry' to join him in 

 the commission. All this shows that 

 the operations of Bleton have a more 

 solid support than the tricks of impos- 

 ture or tile delusions of fancy. 



In fact a great number of his disco- 

 veries are ascertained by respectable 

 affidavits. The following is a strong 

 instance of Bletonism. For a long 

 time the traces of several springs and 

 their reservoirs in the lands of the 

 Abbey de Verains, had been entirely 

 lost. It appeared, nevertheless, by 

 ancient deeds, that these springs and 

 reservoirs had existed. A neighbour- 

 ing Abbey was supposed to have turned 

 tliese waters for its benefit into other 

 cliannels,and a law suit was commenced 



mena result from circulations of rare media. 

 But in his next paragraph Mr. Hall gives a 

 solution -which removes the necessity for 

 his " secret virtue inbred by nature." It 

 is high time that the language of philosophy 

 should be cleared of such terms as secret 

 virtue, sympathy, attraction, repulsion, and 

 the like. — Ed. 



upon 



