AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 
ArTICLE 1—The Divining Rod. 
OBSERVING men have long been perplexed with the divin- 
ing red, that common discoverer both of salt water and fresh; 
who at once laugh at its pretensions and always laugh at 
them, make light of the perplexity, without taking a step to- 
wards its removal; while those who have paid any atten- 
tion to the subject, find facts irreconcilable with any known 
and established laws of nature ; and, also, reasonings contra> 
ry to known laws and to common sense. If the laws of the 
divining rod be an absurdity, it is equally an absurdity that 
honest men should combine to maintain a poor falsehood. 
Since the eleventh century, the divining rod has been in 
frequent use. It was first employed “for the purpose of 
has long since only claimed, to find metals and ores 
ins and veins of water below the surface of the earth. 
More than one English writer has spoken kindly of the es- 
teem in which it is held by the miners of Britain. In France, so 
late as 1781, a volume was published, ‘ detailing 600 experi- 
ments, made with all possible attention and circumspection, to 
ascertain the facts attributed to the divining rod; by which is 
VOL. XI.—wNo. 2. a : 
