NA TURE 



[May 5, 1898 



himself" (p. 199). But this assumes that all the necessary 

 data are supplied — a large assumption. Fraud, at least 

 conscious fraud, may be held as excluded by the con- 

 ditions, which have all the seeming of true scientific 

 methods. Agent and percipient are strictly watched and 

 guarded. The most obvious sources of error are fore- 

 stalled. Silent choosing of cards, and the like, obviate 

 any risk of suggestion by normal channels — the purpose 

 being to isolate the fact of the actuality of transference. 

 How difficult it is so to isolate the fact may be guessed 

 from the somewhat extraordinary results of Hansen and 

 Lehman with " involuntary whispering." Their results, 

 as even Parish (" Hallucinations and Illusions," p. 320) 

 allows, are not necessarily conclusive against any ex- 

 periments recorded by the Society, but they show how 

 extremely difficult it is to establish, in this kind, the 

 ordinary conditions of strict physiological experiment. 

 But apart from these possible errors, the accounts seem 

 somewhat wanting everywhere in psychological " con- 

 text." This is specially true of the telepathic hallu- 

 cinations (Chapter viii.), where, once more, the " method 

 of agreement" predominates. A detached mental fact, 

 when once it is subjectively assigned to so simple a 

 cause as telepathic agency, is apt to escape from its 

 mental current. The immediate association may be 

 forgotten instantaneously, or pass utterly unrecognised. 

 It is a more distingushed and impressive thing to 

 have thoughts inspired by an outside source than 

 following in the orthodox way of contiguous or similar 

 association, This defect is very obvious in many of the 

 cases {e.g.^ p. 245). Several of the recorders of hallu- 

 cinations state that this is their only experience of the 

 kind. This seems to be a fairly complete proof of bad 

 self-observation. It is true that a well-defined hallu- 

 cination is, in the ordinary acceptation, a relatively un- 

 common experience ; but Mr. Podmore admits (p. 244) 

 that dreams and waking hallucinations differ, not in 

 essence, but in the accident of sleeping or waking. 

 Obviously, the recorders of those isolated experiences 

 do not take hallucinations in this wide sense. Con- 

 sequently, a doubt arises as to their competence to 

 record the psychological context. Further, if dream 

 and hallucination are thus to play into each other, the 

 long arm of coincidence is made yet longer, and tele- 

 pathy, while the marvel of it is none the less, becomes all 

 the more difficult to establish. Mr. Podmore's exposition 

 is so persuasive, and he obviously holds in reserve so 

 much more information, that one hesitates to express 

 doubts crudely. Yet he seems to allow too little for 

 the "submerged dream," for the coincidences that (in 

 excess of chance) must result from the general similarity 

 of mental venue of friends or relatives or acquaintances. 

 He seems to accept too easily the " veridicality " (Parish) 

 of the alleged coincidence, for in some of his instances 

 the precise nature of the fact is just what escapes. Thus 

 the "come to me" of case iv., p. 245, and of her tele- 

 pathic correlate, may have been, in each case, the end of 

 a normal associational sequence. But the data are not 

 enough to settle the point. The same difficulty in 

 fixing evanescent processes of association has been 

 pointed out by Prof. W. James {Psych., ii. 83), and by 

 Miss Helen Dendy {Mind, N.S., 7, 370), in connection 

 with subconscious processes. Many disputes might be 

 NO. 1488. VOL. 58] 



raised on the time that hallucinations take to emerge 

 after the alleged telepathic message has been sent, and 

 the suggestions to meet the difficulty are sometimes 

 more " copious than cogent." 



Ghosts (Chapter ix.) and haunted houses (Chapter x.) 

 are investigated only to be discredited, and Mr. Podmore 

 then concentrates himself on a very important subject, 

 " secondary consciousness," which, in its turn, is found 

 not proven as a" coherent system of ideas. That is, he 

 does not regard as sufficient the argument that con- 

 tends for separate subconscious personality acting in a 

 hidden way alongside of the normal supraliminal con- 

 sciousness. The ordinary doctrine of subconscious 

 storage of memories in the nerve centres is considered 

 enough. These subconscious personalities are " manu- 

 factured articles," and indicate rather the possible 

 education of special centres for special ends than any 

 fresh revelation of "transcending" consciousness. Once 

 or twice in this book we seem to catch a tendency to 

 meet popular explanations half-way {e.g., p. 378), but 

 there is proof enough that Mr. Podmore has a firm 

 hold of positive psychology, and his fair-minded re- 

 statements of somewhat inflated doctrines are excellent 

 instances of an investigator's patience. Although he 

 seems to give too little to " veridicality " of coincidence,^ 

 too little to mental venue, the submerged dream, the 

 psychological context, dissociation of consciousness, the 

 state of health and the " pathologic " element generally,, 

 yet he presents a residuum that will compel explanation, 

 and that is at once the final justification of the Society- 

 he represents and of his elegantly narrated studies. 



W. Leslie Mackenzie. 



BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 

 Travels in the Coastlands of British East Africa and 

 the Islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. By W. W. A. 

 FitzGerald. Pp. xxiv 4- 774. Maps and illustrations. 

 (London: Chapman and Hall, 1898.) 



THIS handsome volume deals with a part of East 

 Africa which, in spite of its apparent accessibility, 

 has down to the present day remained surprisingly little 

 known to the world at large. In the general rush to- 

 explore the more remote recesses of the African con- 

 tinent, many of the immediate coastlands have been left 

 comparatively unheeded, and nowhere, perhaps, has this- 

 been more the case than in the northern districts of the 

 British sphere along the East African coast. The present 

 book, therefore, fills a decided blank in the literature of 

 the continent. 



Commissioned in 1891 by the late British East Africa 

 Company to study the agricultural capabilities of the 

 coastal zone falling within its sphere of operations, Mr. 

 FitzGerald during the space of two years traversed that 

 region in all directions, from Mombasa in the south tO' 

 Port Durnford in the north, besides extending his in- 

 quiries to the two largest islands lying off the coast. He 

 was thus able to gain an intimate acquaintance with the 

 country, and the record of his experiences possesses a 

 solid value, which fully atones for the slight delay notice- 

 able in its presentation to the public. With the aid 

 of the numerous illustrations, all of them reproductions 

 of photographs, we gain a vivid idea of the characteristic 



