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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[A0GUST 1, 1888. 



SPECTRAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



N the March number of Knowledge there is an 

 article entitled " Have Ghosts been Seen ? " in 

 which the writer describes various forms and 

 instances of " Spectral Manifestations," and 

 deplores the inabilitj' of science to account for 

 them. The article in question describes these 

 phenomena as being presentiments that some- 

 thing of a dreadful or most impressive nature has affected 

 a dear friend or relative, and that they are almost always, 

 if not invariably, confirmed by the event ; moreover, that 

 these phenomena are unusual. It must be admitted that 

 these sti-ange visions mostly terminate in accident, sickness, 

 or even death ; but the writer of this knows two or three 

 cases where the ghostly visitor was the bearer of good 

 tidings. 



If these phenomena were limited to dreams and unusual 

 noises, the difficulty of solving the mystery would not be so 

 far from our reach, as a too active brain would in most 

 cases be accountable for the former, while the latter has been 

 ascribed to a defect in the brain in connection with the aural 

 nerves ; but when we come to " Spectral Manifestations," 

 how are we to account for them 1 The object of this article 

 is to suggest that " animal magnetism " is the agency thi-ough 

 which we are able to perceive these spectral manifestations. 

 Nature has giveu five senses to man generally, namely, 

 sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste ; but to some .she has 

 been more lavish and has endorsed them with what is com- 

 monly called a sixth sense. This sixth sense is, to a certain 

 extent, beyond explanation ; the nearest approach we can 

 make is to suppose it a higher development of some of the 

 ordinary senses, such as touch and hearing. Persons endowed 

 in this way are extremely sensitive. They can often per- 

 ceive, if placed in a dark room, the luminous flames or 

 scintillations from the poles of a magnet, or fiom the 

 extremities, especially the fingers, of any one possessing a 

 highly magnetic body. These persons must not be mistaken 

 for cataleptic patients. The subjects we have to deal with 

 are healthy both in body and mind. The most important 

 feature of this extraordinary sensitiveness is that its 

 possessors are so mediumistic for mesmerism. Now let us 

 see what mesmerism really is. 



Mesmerism, or correctly magnetism, is artificial somnam- 

 bulism, the latter being the natural force — hence if we 

 mesmerise a man we make him somnambulistic, but at the 

 same time subservient to our will. Science and experience 

 have taught us that somnambulists do not use then- eyes in 

 the ordinary sense when in this magnetic state — that is, as 

 reflectors ; the optic nerves must be requisite, but then 

 seemingly in conjunction with others. 



These spectral phenomena are unusual ; at least, we only 

 occasionally hear of them ; equally rare are these cases of 

 persons so specially gifted. Does it not, then, appear feasible 

 to contend that these said persons are the only ones that 

 can see " spectral manifestations " 1 If it is such an 

 easy matter to influence their minds, and almost their 

 entire systems, when in the same room, may it not be 

 equally possible to manifest the same power from a dis- 

 tance. Again, when these visions appear, there is usually 

 something sad happening to one dear to us, and that solicits 

 sympathy. That is what these sensitive persons can 

 " feel " ; they instinctively know that this friend, say, 

 is in trouble, and their power of sympathy is so great that 

 they can often feel the pain as acutely as the individual 

 afilicted. 



If, then, through the agency of some magnetic power it 

 is possible for certain .specially gifted persons to be cognisant 



of a friend's sufiering — which may be occurring hundreds of 

 miles away — it must be the same force operating on other 

 nerves that enables these same persons to see " spectral 

 manifestations." 



Charles E. Cowan. 



NOTE ON TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSES. 



HOPE European astronomers will not waste 

 time and money in attempting to visit North- 

 western America to see the eclipse of 

 January 1, 1889, for I believe that only dis- 

 appointment is likely to result. It is prac- 

 tically certain that nothing worth knowing 

 can be added on this occasion to what has 

 been learned under more favourable conditions. For the 

 eclipse will last but a very short time, and the sun will be 

 very low at evei-y American station. 



I may take this opportunity of recalling the valuable 

 results obtained during the eclipse of July 29, 1878, when 

 observations were made under favourable conditions from 

 lofty stations. Amongst other such places Pike's Peak in 

 Colorado was occupied, and at heights ranging from 5,000 

 to 10,000 feet above the sea-level observations were made 

 which served to prove, what had already been recognised by 

 the more though tftil, that the visible extension of the corona 

 depends almost wholly on the clearness of the air through 

 which the region around the eclipsed sun is observed. 



The greatt^st extension of the corona was observed by 

 Professor S. P. Langley, wliose drawing of the corona (made 

 from a station on Pike's Peak, about 10,000 feet above the 

 sea-level, is shown in fig. I. of the accompanying four. It 

 is to be noted, however, that he observed the coronal ex- 

 tension on the right first ; he next turned to the left 

 side, where the extension was greater, amounting to six 

 diameters of the moon ; he then looked around for rays, 

 jjerceiving none ; and finally he looked again carefully at the 

 left side, and found the extension to be now twelve diameters 

 on that side. He felt that his eye was at this time only 

 beginning to be in the right condition for recognising the 

 delicate light of the long radial streaks, and adds that " the 

 twelve diameters through which I traced " the streak on 

 the left " were (I feel great confidence in saying) but a 

 jyortion of its extent." (The italics are his.) It is clear 

 that the inferior extension of the ray observed on the right 

 corresponded with the less sensitive condition of Professor 

 Langley's eye when he looked at that side of the corona. It 

 will be observed that he assigns to it a length of more than 

 four diametere, the ray on the other side having an apparent 

 length of six diameters, as seen afterwards, and going to a 

 length of twelve diameters later. Had he been able to look 

 at the left side later he would doubtless have found, like 

 Newcomb, the extension on that side as great as on the 

 other. Of the coronal wing he did ob-serve, he says, " the 

 central part was brighter than the edges, which were so 

 difi"use as to make the determination of its boundary diffi- 

 cult. It was not so absolutely structureless as the zodiacal 

 light, perhaps, and it appeared longer in proportion to its 

 breadth than that, otherwise I should compare it to the 

 zodiacal light with more confidence than to anything else. 



Several interesting views of the corona were obtained on 

 this occasion. Professor Newcomb, hiding by means of a 

 disc set on a pole a circle 1° in diameter (with the 

 moon in the middle), was able to trace the corona in two 

 long extensions, nearly coincident with the eeUptic, to a 

 distance of about G° from the disc on either side. 

 They looked, he says, very like the zodiacal light on a 

 reduced scale. Six degrees from the disc would be G^° 



