July C, 1883.] 



* KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



9 



thereafter into the red clay, which proved on analysis to 

 consist of a silicate of the red oxide of iron and alumina, 

 and which now contains but few testaceous remains 

 (siliceous shells of Hadiolaria, sponge spicules, ic.) 



Sir Wyville Thomson noted the capture of numerous 

 highly organised Invertehrata in this red clay, such as large 

 Holothioria with only rudimentary calcareous neck-rings, 

 and a paucity of or no spicules in their tegumentary 

 system ; also of delicate Foli/'.oa with their zooecia almost 

 wholly membranous, and the tubes of a tube-building 

 annelid (Alyriocliele) still living ; and he reflects on the pos- 

 sibility of such a formation in palaeozoic times, the vestiges 

 of which are to be found in the Cambrian OhlJiamia, in 

 siliceous sponges, and peculiar thin-shelled shrimps.* 



The Globigerina ooze is usually bound together by a very 

 fine comminuted paste, which at first sight seems to be 

 amorphous, but under a high power of the microscope is 

 resolved into a variety of rounded and excessively beau- 

 tiful forms, two of which are here given in Fig. 5. 



Fig. 5. — EiiABDOLiTHs from Glohigerir\a ooze. (After Sir Wyville 

 Thomson, Proc. Roy. Soc, Vol. xxiii., PI. 3.) 



They have been termed " rhabdoliths," and are of the 

 nature of similar rounded bodies called " coccoliths " by 

 Huxley, and supposed to be A Iga- of a peculiar form. 



In conclusion, the formations which are now going on at 

 the bottom of the ocean, and which are chiefly composed 

 of these minute animal remains, point conclusively to the 

 manner in which extensive formations, such as the chalk, 

 Nummulitic limestones, itc, were evulved, and to the 

 importance of the living things, which, although they are 

 so diminutive apart, and not of any great commercial 

 value directly, are intensely interesting to the philosophical 

 observer. 



THOUGHT-READING. 



" "IVfONSENSE dies hard," says Mr. Labouchere, and he 

 X 1 is perfectly right ; liut no nonsense dies harder 

 than tbe nonsense of infatuated prejudice. Amongst lite- 

 rary men, those who know Mr. Henry Sidgwick and Mr. 

 Labouchere — the two who wrote to the I'hnes on the 

 Thought-reading wager — very few, we suspect, would 

 prefer Mr. Labouchere's judgment on a matter of evidence 

 of this kind to Mr. Sidgwick's. Mr. Sidgwick has as cool 

 and sceptical a temperament as Mr. Labouchere himself, 

 but he has in addition a very much larger knowledge of 

 the subject under investigation, and knows how absolutely 

 childish it is to speak of such a power as some persons 

 impute to Mr. Lishop as a miraculous and all but incredible 

 thing. We say this without having formed any detinite 

 opinion ourselves on the subject of Mr. ]5ishop's powers, 

 and, indeed, with a strong prejudice against a man who 

 mixes up connnon conjurer's tricks with the professed 



* L'jco citatOj p. 47. 



attempt to illustrate obscure psychological powers of this 

 nature. 



But this we will say, that to all who have studied the 

 subject, evidence literally ahoumls of the existence in rare 

 cases of powers of thought-reading much more remarkable 

 than any alleged in the case of Mr. Bishop. As we 

 do not like to make this sort of statement without any 

 kind of verification, we will take a modem instance from 

 the writings of a Bristol medical man. Dr. Davey, who 

 published a paper in the Journal of Psyoholoiilcal Medicim 

 for April, 1881 (Part 1 of Volume VII. of the Journal), 

 which records the case of a patient of his, investigated by 

 him in concert with two other Bristol medical men — Dr. 

 Andrews and Dr. Elliott. Here is Dr. Davey's description 

 of Mrs. Croad's state : — 



In 1870, it is stated, "she became totally blind ; " in the follow- 

 ing year deaf, and in 1874 speechless. The paralysis, which was 

 limited to the lower extremities, involved, in 1879, the upper limbs ; 

 but at this time the loss of sensation and motion is limited to the 

 left arm, the fingers and thumb of the left hand being but partially 

 affected. The right hand and arm have recovered their once-lost 

 functions. She is now able to articulate, though with difficulty, 

 from, as it appears to me, a tetanic rigidity of the temporal and 

 masseter muscles, by which the mouth is kept, to a large extent, 

 fixed and closed. It was in October last [i.e., October, 1880] that 

 I was asked to see Mrs. Croad. I found her sitting on a semi- 

 recumbeut position on a small bedstead, her head and shoulders 

 resting on pillows. The eyelids were fast closed, and the left arm 

 and hand resting by the side. The knees I found then, as they are 

 still, bent at an acute angle, the heels closely pressed to the under 



and upper parts of the thighs Since October, and through 



the months of November and December, 1880, I have subjected 

 Mrs. Croad to many and various tests with the view of satisfying 

 myself as to the truth or otherwise of the statements given 

 to the world of her blindness, sense of touch, and marvellous 

 sympathies. To my near neighbours— Drs. Andrews and Elliot — 

 I am much indebted. The various tests referred to were witnessed 

 by them in my presence, and with the effect of assuring ns that 

 she (Mrs. Croad) was and is enabled to perceive, through the aid 

 only of a touch, the various objects, both large and small, on any 

 given card or photograph. After an experience extending over 

 some nine or ten weeks, during which the "tests" were many 

 times repeated, and, now and then, in the presence of several 

 medical and non-medical (ladies and gentlemen) friends, there 

 remained (I believe) not the least doubt of this " transference of 

 sense " from the eyes of Mrs. Croad to her fingers and the 

 palm of her right hand. It need not to be supposed that I 

 and others were content to believe in Mrs. Croad's blindness, 

 and to take no specific precautious against any possible trick 

 or deception — far from this. On solicitation, "she very kindly 

 assented to be blindfolded, after a very decided fashion ; and so 

 blindfolded, that neither deception on her part nor prejudice nor 

 false judgment on ours were — either the one or the other — possible. 

 The blindfolding was accomplished thus : a pad of cotton wool being 

 placed on each orbit ; the face was then covered by a large and 

 thickly-folded neckerchief ; this was tied securely at the back part 

 of the head, and— even moi-e than this — mere cotton wool was 

 pushed up towards the eyes, on either side of the nose. Not con- 

 tent, however, the aid of two fingers of a bystander were called 

 into requisition, and with these a continued pressure was kept up, 

 during the 'testing,' outside and over the neckerchief and wool, and 

 above the closed eyes. At this stage of the proceedings the room 

 was, on two different occasions, very thoroughly darkened. Under 

 such circumstances it was the testing commenced, and continued 

 to the end ; the result being, as theretofore, in the highest degree, 

 conclusive and satisfactory. The transference of sense from 

 one organ to another as an acquired and spontaneous condition 

 of being must, on the evidence here adduced, be accepted as 

 a demonstrated and certain fact. I would state here, that 

 on receiving a picture card or a photo' from a bystander she 

 (Mrs. Croad) places it on and about the chin or mouth, and 

 perhaps draws it across the forehead, but the minute examina- 

 tion of the card is, apparently, the work of the fingers of the 

 right hand. These several acts ai-e, for the most part, followed 

 by a quiet and intense thought, a well-marked concentration of 

 mind on the picture, or whatever it may be, wlien, after a short 

 time, she writes on a slate kept near her a description — sometimes 

 a full and detailed one— of the card, its colouring, and the several 

 objects thereon. I have seen S'>mo forty or fifty picture-cards and 

 photographs described by Jlrs. Crond at different tirae." with varions 



