922 OF MUSCULAR MOVEMENTS. 



by his visual sensations, and that the impulse to them is entirely derived from 

 his expectation of a given result. For, if he close his eyes, or withdraw them 

 from the vibrating body, its oscillations (as in the previous case) immediately 

 lose their constancy; manifestly proving that the influence which directs them 

 acts through his consciousness. And, again, if he be ignorant of the change 

 which is made in the conditions of the experiment, and should expect or guess 

 something different from that which really exists, the movement will be in ac- 

 cordance with his idea, not with the reality. 1 Thus, then, we have here a most 

 distinct proof that a state of mind exists, which is neither volitional nor emo- 

 tional, but which consists in the complete engrossment of the attention by a 

 fixed idea, whereby definite muscular movements are produced, in spite of a 

 determined exertion of the Will. The Will is concerned, however, in the in- 

 duction of the mental state in question, by the fixation of the attention on the 

 oscillating body; and it is only in those individuals who possess the power of 

 voluntary abstraction ( 823) to a considerable extent that the experiment is 

 likely to succeed. It is scarcely necessary to add, that as faith in its results is 

 essential to their production, those who are acquainted with the mode in which 

 they are really brought about, are not likely to be good subjects for it. 



925. It is doubtless on the very same physiological principle, that we are to 

 explain the mysterious phenomena of the "Divining-Rod," which have been 

 accepted as true, or rejected as altogether fabulous, according to the previous 

 habits of thought of those who have given their attention to the subject. Now 

 that the end of a hazel-fork, whose limbs are grasped firmly in the hands of a 

 person whose good faith can scarcely be doubted, frequently points upwards or 

 downwards without any intentional direction on his part, and often thus moves 

 when there is metal or water beneath the surface of the ground at or near the 

 spot, is a fact which is vouched for by such testimony that we have scarcely a 

 right to reject it; and when we come to examine into the conditions of the oc- 

 currence, we shall find that they are such as justify us in attributing it to a 

 state of expectant attention, which (as we have seen) is fully competent to induce 

 muscular movement. For, in the first place, as not above one individual in 

 forty, even in the localities where the virtues of the divining-rod are still held 

 as an article of faith, is found to succeed in the performance of this experiment, 

 it is obvious that the agency, whatever be its nature, which produces the de- 

 flections, must operate by affecting the holder of the rod, and not by attracting 

 or repelling the rod itself. And when experiments are carefully made with the 

 view of determining the nature of this agency, they are found to indicate most 

 clearly that the state of expectant attention, induced by the anticipation of 

 certain results, is fully competent to produce them. For the mere act of hold- 



1 A most remarkable and convincing exemplification of this fact is afforded by Dr. 

 Henry Madden' s experiments with Mr. Rutter's "Magnetometer," at Brighton, as detailed 

 in the "Lancet" for Nov. 15, 1851. Dr. Madden had satisfied himself, in the first in- 

 stance, that the vibrations of the suspended body were affected by the reception, into his 

 other hand, of homoeopathic globules, whose differences of composition were indicated by 

 corresponding changes in the direction of the oscillations. But having been led to re- 

 examine the question, and to apply that test which he ought to have employed from the 

 first namely, to have various globules put into his hand, without being himself made 

 aware of their composition he found that the results entirely lost their previous con- 

 stancy, which was thus evidently due to his expectation of a particular movement in each 

 case. It is a manifestation of the very imperfect analysis which is commonly made of 

 such phenomena, that, from the moment when they are found referable to a physiological 

 principle, instead of demonstrating (as they were at first supposed to do) the existence of 

 a new force, they seem to lose all their interest for those who had previously watched 

 them with eagerness, and to be set down as illusory, or as the product of the "imagina- 

 tion;" notwithstanding that they are as real in the one case as in the other, and are not 

 in any degree less curious and interesting when considered under the former aspect, than 

 when viewed in the latter. 



