250 NATURE AND MAN. 



1. When, in 1853, the "table-turning" epidemic had taken so 

 strong a hold of the public mind, that Professor Faraday found 

 himself called upon to explain its supposed mystery, he devised 

 a very simple piece of apparatus for testing the fundamental 

 question, whether there is any evidence that the movements of 

 the table are due to anytlmig else than the muscular action of 

 the performers who place their hands upon it. And having 

 demonstrated by its means (i) that the table never went round 

 unless the "indicator" showed that lateral pressure had been 

 exerted in the direction of the movement, whilst (2) it always 

 did go round when the 'indicator' showed that such lateral 

 pressure was adequately exerted, he at once saw that the phe- 

 nomenon was only another manifestation of the involuntary 

 " ideo-motor " action which had been previously formulated, on 

 other grounds, as a definite physiological principle ; and that 

 there was, therefore, not the least evidence of any other agency. 

 Yet it is still asserted that the validity of Faraday's test is com- 

 pletely disproved by the conviction of the performers that they 

 do not exert any such agency ; all that this proves being that 

 they are not conscious of such exertion — which, to the physio- 

 logist, affords no proof whatever that they are not making it. 



2. So again Professors Chevreul and Biot, masters of ex- 

 perimental science worthy to be placed in the same rank with 

 Faraday, had been previously applying the same principles and 

 methods to the systematic investigation of the phenomena of 

 the Divining rod and the oscillations of suspended buttons ; 

 the former of which were supposed to depend upon some 

 "occult" power on the part of the performer, whilst the latter were 

 attributed to an hypothetical "odylic" force. And they con- 

 clusively proved that in both cases the results are brought about 

 (as in table-turning) by the involuntary action of mental ex- 

 pectancy on the muscles of the performer ; the phenomena 

 either not occurring at all, or having no constancy whatever, 

 when he neither knows nor guesses what to expect. — The follow- 

 ing instance of the application to the phenomena of the divining 

 rod, of the very simple test of closing the eyes, has lately been 

 sent me by an American friend, who was apparently unaware of 

 its former application by Chevreul and Biot. " An aged clergy- 



