May 5, 1898] 



NATURE 



Ijlasting gelatine respectively, to shock or percussion, 

 -;elatine dynamite, when frozen, being, if anything, rather 

 more sensitive to percussion than when unfrozen, while 

 with blasting gelatine the reverse is the case. This is a 

 point of some importance when these two explosives 

 have to be dealt with in winter, and it is curious to note 

 that this fact, like the baneful effects of dinitrobenzole, 

 although first established in England, is not found in 

 the English work, but appears in the French translation. 



We must also raise our protest against the statement, 

 repeated in the translation, that blasting gelatine, when 

 ignited in the open, burns but does not explode ; this is 

 true only when the blasting gelatine is in relatively 

 small quantities, or in an unfrozen condition. The burn- 

 ing of large quantities of blasting gelatine frequently 

 ends in a violent explosion, and the burning of even a 

 pound or two of the frozen material nearly always leads 

 to explosion. This is one of those careless statements 

 which, unfortunately, frequently lead to accidents. 



As regards this portion of the work we should have 

 been grateful to the author if he had given us a little 

 more information as to the various explosives, propulsive 

 -^ well as disruptive, used in the French army. We in 

 i.ngland, foolishly perhaps, have i&w or no secrets in 

 such matters ; it is, in fact, one of the most difficult 

 things imaginable to keep anything secret. In France 

 they manage these things better, or at least differently, 

 and we are still, many years after their introduction, 

 ignorant of the exact nature of the powder and other 

 explosives used by the French army. Any information 

 on these points from M. Daniel would have met with 

 our warmest appreciation. 



The chapters on the analysis of explosives are prac- 

 tically a simple translation of Mr. Sanford on the same 

 subject, and suffer from the same defects, and have the 

 same excellencies as the original. Here we can only 

 point out one more instance of want of care in the 

 translator, M. Daniel, like Mr. Sanford, dries moist 

 guncotton at ioo° C. to estimate the proportion of water, a 

 proceeding which every one who has tried it must know 

 to be impossible. 



One of the greatest, if not the greatest, advances made 

 in the production of smokeless powder, consisting in 

 their complete gelatinisation, whereby they are converted 

 into hard non-porous masses which burn only on the 

 surface, is scarcely hinted at in this work. 



Lastly, the list of explosives given at the end of the 

 work suffers from the same defect as did the similar list 

 in Mr. Sanford's book, and several explosives are given,- 

 which from the nature of their constituents must be 

 unstable, and therefore dangerous to keep, without a 

 word of warning being added ; such as, for example, [ 

 ammonia dynamite (amidogene) and poudre au nitrate j 

 <l'ammoniac, which latter contains two salts incompatible 

 with each other, viz. nitrate of ammonium and chlorate 

 of potassium. 



In conclusion we welcome this book as a useful 

 addition to our library, but cannot refrain from express- 

 ing a hope that Mr. Sanford may soon have an oppor 

 (unity of giving us a second edition of his work, free 

 from the mistakes and shortcomings of his own first 

 edition as well as those in the French translation of the 



ne. A. D. 



NO. 1488, VOL. 58] 



P'SYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

 Studies in Psychical Research. By Frank Podmore, 

 M.A., author of "Apparitions and Thought-Trans- 

 ' ference." Pp. xi + 458. (London : Kegan Paul, 

 I Trench, Triibner, and Co., 1897.) 



\ \l\^- FRANK PODMORE'S "Studies in Psychical 

 I •'■'A Research" is at once a critically sifted account 

 of facts and the story of a movement. The facts, or 

 alleged facts, concern spiritualism, poltergeists, thought- 

 transference, telepathic hallucinations, ghosts, haunted 

 houses, premonitions, previsions, secondary conscious- 

 ness, impersonation, obsession, clairvoyance. The move- 

 ment is the persistent transfer of the facts from the 

 region of myth to the region of verified science. This 

 movement is typified by the work of the Psychical 

 Research Society, which, as Mr. Podmore in his open- 

 ing chapter shows, was founded by competent persons 

 for the special purpose of ascertaining whether the 

 popular belief in certain phenomena had any basis in 

 scientific evidence. Some ten years ago " Phantasms 

 of the Living " set men thinking on these topics. The 

 theories, as much as the facts there adduced, have 

 stimulated reflection at every hand. Mr. Podmore now 

 j aims at placing in a simple form the critical result of 

 j twenty years' labour. He is lucid, exact and critical. 

 j He pushes no hypothesis except so far as the evidence 

 seems to justify it. Even his favourite "telepathy" is 

 ! offered as a "working hypothesis" chiefly because it is 

 the smallest " draught upon the unknown." , 



In Chapter ii., Mr. Podmore gives an account of 

 " spiritualism as a popular movement." The testimony 

 is, he finds, more " copious than cogent." The high- 

 water mark in the scientific observation of spiritualism 

 was Mr. Crookes' experiments with Home and others. 

 The facts narrated in this chapter are subjected to a 

 thorough criticism in Chapter iii. The two chapters are 

 in admirable contrast— the facts of the one melting away 

 under the scrutiny of the other. " Perhaps they heard 

 Dr. Hodgson and the new generation knocking at the 

 door" (p. 81). As the scientific search-light grows 

 stronger, the marvels grow smaller and less numerous. 

 Yet, negative conclusions notwithstanding, the year 1894 

 witnessed the performances of Eusapia Palladino. In 

 regard to Mr. Crookes and his experiments, Mr. Podmore 

 is becomingly respectful ; but the best critical faculty 

 may be taken in by trickery (e.g., p. in, "Miss Cook, 

 Miss Fay, and other mediums with whom Mr. Crookes 

 experimented"). Mr. Podmore concludes : " Unless and 

 until some feat is performed which fraud cannot explain, 

 the presumption that fraud is the all-sufficient cause 

 remains unshaken " (p. 1 24). The " unless " and " until " 

 rest with spiritualism, and were it for this result atone, 

 the S.P.R. has not worked in vain. The poltergeists 

 (Chapter v.) are, in brief, demonstrated trickery. In 

 Chapter vi., Madame Blavatsky and her theosophy are, 

 after a narrative that leaves no doubt, dismissed with a 

 decipiantur. The grosser theosophy, like the grosser 

 spiritualism, now receives its " unless " and " until." In 

 Chapter vii. ("experimental thought-transference"), 

 however, we are on more solid ground. Much of the 

 material reminds one of Mr. Podmore's former book. 

 He states the cases, and lets the reader "judge for 



