8o 



NA TURE 



[November 25, 1897 



attached in my paper to any case not fully corroborated, and out 

 of scores of such cases received some half-dozen have been pub- 

 lished, as is expressly stated in my paper, in order to elicit 

 further information on account of their intrinsic interest. 



As regards the liability to overlook failures, I have referred 

 to this point both at the outset of my paper (p. 4) and elsewhere ; 

 further (on pp. 238 and 239), I state : '' It must be borne in 

 mind that (especially among amateur dowsers') one is more 

 likely to hear of success than failure, and therefore an extensive 

 and searching inquiry is necessary before any safe induction can 

 be drawn. . . . All that was possible in the present investiga- 

 tion was to make the range of evidence as wide and unbiassed 

 as possible, and not exclude a single case of failure that was 

 substantiated. This has been done.'' It is, of course, easy to 

 select, as your reviewer does, a certain number of cases in 

 which the failures exceed the successes.^ But I think one is more 

 likely to arrive at a correct estimate by the method I adopted, 

 which was to make extensive inquiries, both generally and 

 specifically, wiih regard to failures as well as successes in the 

 case of every professional dowser I heard of This is naturally 

 a vastly more laborious method than your reviewer's, hut was 

 necessary in order to arrive at the actual facts in a subject 

 which from all sides has been loosely discussed, albeit by eminent 

 men, for upwards of 200 years. 



I am glad to find your reviewer endorses certain cautions I 

 suggested in the event of further investigation ; though what 

 he means by "thought-reading" as a source of error is not 

 quite clear. It is a matter of importance, more so than your 

 reviewer appears to imagine, to recognise, and if possible exclude, 

 the aid which the dowser derives from indications given by the 

 surface of the ground. Long practice may give the most il- 

 literate person a power of detecting surface indications of under- 

 ground water, or the faint tremor of unseen running water, that 

 would entirely escape the ordinary observer, and of enabling 

 correct inferences to be drawn even from indications that the 

 dowser may have noticed quite unconsciously. We have here, 

 doubtless, the explanation of some of the singular successes of 

 dowsers in finding water ; but a careful examination of the 

 evidence I have collected has led me to think that no explanation 

 hitherto suggested is adequate to account for ail the facts.^ 



Kingstown, Co. Dublin, October 21. W. F. Barrett. 



At the head of Prof. Barrett's memoir is the following quotation 

 fromMr. Andrew Lang: " There are two wpysof investigating the 

 facts or fancies about the divining rod. One is to examine it in 

 its actual operation — a task of considerable labour, which will 

 doubtless be undertaken by the Society for Psychical Research ; 

 the other, and easier way, is to study the appearances of the 

 divining wand in history." This naturally led me to think that 

 Prof. Barrett intended to treat the subject as, in the main, a matter 

 for personal investigation. He now claims, however, "to take 

 the place of a judge in a court of inquiry." I therefore withdraw 

 the term " hearsay " applied to the bulk of the evidence he has so 

 laboriously collected, and will accept his own view of his position. 



But Prof. Barrett will agree with me that this is a technical 

 investigation needing expert knowledge. Now if so, where 

 does the necessity for expert knowledge come in ? Surely not 

 after the experiments have all been made, and the dowser is off 

 the scene ; but, as in any other scientific investigation, on the 

 spot, with the man and the conditions all before you. This is 

 the very core of the investigation, and no amount of after 

 analysis can atone for the lack of personal observation and judg- 

 ment exercised at this, the crucial point. But here, where 

 expert knowledge and observation are essential, he relies on 

 others, of whom the majority have no previous knowledge or 

 scientific training whatever. 



Prof. Barrett "had to exclude all evidence but that of eye- 

 witnesses." As to his " 152 numbered cases," 9 are avowedly 

 supplied by people who, on their own statement, do not appear to 

 be eye-witnesses. In 41 more there is nothing to show whether 



1 The reviewer is, however, delightfully free from the pedantry of those 

 who think accuracy desirable when dealing with such a contemptible super- 

 stition as the so-called diviniMg-rod. This, 1 think, is apparent already ; it 

 becomes \\\K.xi sj when spec fie assertions uf his ar^; examined, such e.g. as 

 "only two successes are mentioned in the Isle of Wight, " &c. 



- That a m xtiire of crass ignorance and charla'anry is to be found in many 

 professional dowsers, and that some of them are little better than rogues, is 

 only what might be expected ; but, on the other hand, we have the fact tlialt 

 so distinguished 3. savant as M. Mortillet was once, as he tells us himself, a 

 professional dowser, and publi.shed a book on water-finding In 1849. The 

 President of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is still a successful 

 amateur dowser. 



NO. 1463, VOL. 57] 



his informant met the dowser himself, or is trusting to in- 

 formation received from others. The information in 8 of these 

 comes from a firm or joint-stock company ; 8 are merely news- 

 paper reports ; some are ancient cases, which cannot now be 

 inquired into. 



With reference to the statement regarding liability to over- 

 look failures, I did not state or wish to imply that Prof. 

 Barrett had not fairly given all the failures which came to his 

 knowledge. What I did wish to imply was, that his method of 

 writing to the parties concerned for evidence on this point was 

 not likely to yield much result. 



As to the Isle of Wight, I may say, that not making it a habit 

 to collect information regarding the employment of dowsers in 

 different districts, I merely alluded to one where I happened to 

 have stumbled upon facts bearing on the question. Whether or 

 no other districts would give similar or contrary results I 

 cannot say, having no material to go upon. 



I fail to understand what meaning Prof. Barrett attaches to 

 the term " surface indications." He agrees with me as to their 

 great importance ; yet there are only 32 cases in which 

 his informants make even the slightest reference to this subject, 

 and in only 8 is there any note that Prof Barrett made special 

 inquiries on this all-important point. 



As previously stated, my criticisms apply to the bulk of the 

 evidence. I thoroughly recognise the value of Prof. Barrett's 

 personal observations, and have only to regret that these 

 experiments form so very small a part of his memoir. 



The Writer of the Article. 



A Proposed Memorial to Prof. Victor Meyer. 



There appears to be a strong desire among many of the 

 British students who worked under the late Prof. Victor Meyer, 

 to give expression to the feelings of gratitude and admiration 

 with which they remember him, by raising some form of memorial 

 to be placed in the Heidelberg Lecture Theatre. 



It has therefore been decided to call a general meeting of 

 Prof Meyer's British students, to be held in Manchester 

 on Saturday, December 11, at 5 p.m. Prof II. B. Dixon, 

 F. R.S., has kindly placed the Organic Lecture Theatre of 

 Owens College at our disposal. 



All past students of the late Victor Meyer, whether they 

 worked with him in Zlirich, Gottingen or Heidelberg, are 

 earnestly requested to be present. 



I shall be pleased to receive suggestions from any who may be 

 unable to attend, in order that they may be laid before the 

 meeting. J. J. Suoborough. 



University College, Nottingham, November 23. 



The Critical Temperature of Water. 



Can any of your readers tell me what is the critical tempera- 

 ture of water. I find in the supplement to Jamin and Bouty's 

 " Cours de Physique" the critical temperature given as 370° C. 

 and the corresponding pressure as 195 '5 atmospheres. On the 

 other hand, Cagniard-Latour gave this temperature as equal to 

 the melting point of zinc, which is known to be about 415° C. 



I have some theoretical grounds for believing this latter figure 

 to be the more accurate, so should be glad to know what other 

 determinations, if any, have been made. H. M. Martin. 



39 Guildford Street, W.C. , November 19. 



Coccoliths in our Coastal Waters. 



In our communication to Nature, September 16, 1897, we 

 say " the presence of these bodies (coccoliths) in our coastal 

 waters does not appear to have been recorded." Since this was 

 written we find that Dr. Wallich, in the Ann. and Mag. of 

 Natural Hist., vol. ii. 1868. p. 319, stated " Coccospheres have 

 been met with by me profusely ... in material collected at the 

 surface of the open seas of the tropics, and also in dredgings 

 from shoal water off the south coast of England " 



November 18. J- JOLY. 



Henry H Dixon. 



Phenomena Exhibited by Jackson Tubes. 



While investigating the best methods of working the 

 ordinary form of Jackson tubes during the last fourteen months, 

 I have noted the following interesting phenomena. 



Four tubes developed a pliosphorescent ring or halo rotating 

 rapidly round the anode, which by carefully heating became 

 comparatively steady ; this I ventured to name the Saturn 

 condition. 



