January 27, 19 16] 



NATURE 



591 



an account of the process of the greatest vahie 

 to those practically engaged in cyaniding, and 

 also to students. 



The author's chapter on the electrolytic parting 

 of gold and silver, which bids fair to displace the 

 old methods of treatment with sulphuric or nitric 

 acids, is one of the most important in the book. 

 It is not only an excellent resume of the practice 

 followed, but also embraces the valuable experi- 

 mental work done by the author himself. 



Of the chapters on the assay of gold ore and 

 bullion it need only be said that they are worthy 

 of the assayer of the Royal Mint. 



Much care has been taken, as in previous 

 editions, in quoting the sources of the informa- 

 tion given throughout the book, and the wealth of 

 references in the footnotes is a valuable biblio- 

 graphy of the literature of the subject. 



We unreservedly commend the book as being 

 indispensable, not only to students, but also, and 

 especially, to all who are practically engaged in 

 the metallurgy of gold. W. Gowland. 



PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

 Apparitions and Thought-Transference: An Ex- 

 amination of the Evidence for Telepathy. By F. 

 Podmore. New and enlarged edition. Pp. 

 xviii + 467. (London : The Walter Scott Pub- 

 lishing Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 65. 



THIS is a new edition, in the Contemporary 

 Science series, of a book which still remains, 

 after twenty-one years from its first appearance, 

 one of the best introductions to the subject (see 

 review in Nature, December 6, 1894). The illus- 

 trative cases have now inevitably a rather ancient 

 history appearance, and many of them are dupli- 

 cated in other books, such as Myers's "Human 

 Personality" and Sir Oliver Lodge's "Survival 

 of Man " ; it may be urged, therefore, that an en- 

 tirely fresh treatment of the subject, with due 

 attention to the experiments of Miss Miles and 

 Miss Ramsden and to the S.P.R. cross-corre- 

 spondences, would have been preferable to a 

 rechauffe. Moreover, the author being dead, 

 various slips occur: the American S.P.R. is no 

 longer a branch of the English society ; the latter 's 

 publisher is now the firm of Maclehose, not R. 

 Brimley Johnson; Dr. Sidis's name is wrongly 

 spelt on p. 260, as Sir Joseph Barnby's is in the 

 index; and there is an inventive misprint of 

 "Boding" for "Bodily" on p. 459, in the refer- 

 ence to Myers's "Human Personality." But these 

 are not very important matters. 



Mr. Podmore's thesis is that communication is 

 possible between mind and mind otherwise than 

 through the known channels of the senses. Begin- 

 ning with the early mesmerists, who in some cases 

 NO. 2413, VOL. 96] 



seem to have hypnotised patients at a distance, 

 he proceeds to cases of transference of pain or of 

 visual images, in the experiments of Dr. Liebeault 

 and the Nancy school generally, and of Prof, and 

 Mrs. Sidgwick and Sir Oliver Lodge ; thence to 

 spontaneous cases in dream or hallucination, culled 

 largely from the monumental collection, " Phan- 

 tasms of the Living," which is now out of print. 

 Possible sources of error are carefully considered 

 and allowed for, and the author's conclusion is^ — 

 quoting Prof. De Morgan— that either the thesis 

 as above stated is a justified hypothesis, or we 

 must say at leisure what David is reported to have 

 said in his haste. And if the latter — if human 

 testimony is completely untrustworthy — there is 

 an end of history and various other sciences. 



It is a somewhat remarkable fact, considering 

 the newness and difficulty of the research, that the 

 opinions expressed in the book would call for little 

 alteration, after twenty-one years, if they were to 

 be revised by a committee representative of the 

 present leaders of the S.P.R. Probably their only 

 qualifying remark would be that it is not quite as 

 certain as Mr. Podmore thought that such pheno- 

 mena as Mrs. Piper's are completely and truly 

 explained by telepathy. Other hypotheses, more 

 far-reaching but not less essentially scientific if we 

 can free our minds from prejudice, are possible. 



Finally, we may remark that the present war 

 presents a scientifically good if morally regrettable 

 opportunity of making exceptional records in 

 psychical research. There is reason to believe that 

 a moment of stress, of great excitement or emo- 

 tion or concentration, is favourable to the initia- 

 tion of a telepathic impulse. It is probable that 

 many people at home have become aware of their 

 soldier-relative's wound before the news arrived 

 by normal means. A dream or hallucination may 

 show the nature of the wound, as in Mr. Colt's 

 case in "Human Personality." These experiences 

 should be at once recorded ; and if the percipient 

 will send the account, before verification, to the 

 S.P.R., 20 Hanover Square, W., he or she may 

 be assured of sympathetic interest and may be 

 furnishing useful data. Obviously, expectation 

 will account for some of these experiences; but 

 when there is much true detail other suppositions 

 may become necessary. J. A, H. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Penrose's Annual, 1916. Vol. xxi. The Process 

 Year Book. Edited by W. Gamble. Pp. 112 + 

 illustrations. (London : Percy Lund, Hum- 

 phries and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 55. net. 

 In taking up an annual that deals with the pro- 

 gress of a handicraft at such a time as this, one 

 naturally looks for the effects of the unpre- 

 cedented conditions that now afflict us. On the 



