Dec. 7, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



353 



0m- WMn^t Colunuu 



By " Five op Olubs." 



THE following is the game referred to in our last three numbers. 

 It appeared in the Field a few months ago, and was contri- 

 buted by Mr. N. B. Trist, of New Orleans. The notes and criticisms 

 are by Cavendish ; the additional notes by the Whist Editor of the 

 A usfralasian ; — 



The Hands. 



Viainonds — K, 9, 7, 5 

 Clubs— 8, l; 3. 

 Hearts— Q, Kn, 10. 

 Spades— K, 9, 2. 



Diamonds — 6, 4, 2. 

 Clubs— Kn, 10, 7, 0,2. 

 Hearts— A, 8. 

 Spades— 6, 4, 3. 



♦ » 







o <> \^^m o 9 





O 

 0.0 

 0^0 

 O 



o^o 



0^0 

 *0* 



.^ oj 



B. 



Diamonds— A, Q, 10, 8,3. 

 Clubs— K, 9, 5. 

 Hearts — 9, 4. 

 .Spades — 8, 7, 5. 



Z. 



Dinmonds— Kn. 

 Clubs— A, Q. 

 Heart.s— K, 7, 0, 5, 3, 2. 

 Spades— A, Q, Kn, 10. 



NOTES AND CRITICISMS. 



NoTB. — The card underlined wins the 

 trick, and card below leads next round. 



Trick 2. — Itisaque.stion whetlier 

 Z should not open the Heart suit, 

 but Z's hand is not under examina- 

 tion. 



Trick 3.— B has called. 



Trick 5. — A notes that B has the 

 Three of trumps. B can place all 

 the remaining trumps. 



Trick 9.— Z ought to lead the 

 Knave of Spades, on which his 

 partner should discard the Eight 

 of Clubs, when F and Z win the 

 game. -4 plays a masterly co^tp in 

 trnmping with the Four. His 

 argumenc is as follows : — My part- 

 ner, with his weak hand, would 

 not have called for trumps unless 

 he had at least five trumps, two 

 honours. All the other trumps are 

 inT'shand. I know my partner has 

 the Three of trumps, and as it is 

 most probable that he has not Ace 

 and King, or he would have con- 

 tinued trumps at Trick 6 instead 

 of trying to give me the lead 

 again, I shall most likely have to 

 lead twice through Y in order to 

 make every trick, which wo re- 

 quire to save and win the game. 

 But even then 1 shall fail if my 

 p.irtner has to lead trumps up to 

 r. I must therefore give ray 

 partner an opportunity of playing 

 the iirand coup with his Three of 

 trumps if he deems it advisable to 

 do so. 



Trick 10. — B plays the grand 

 niup, undertrumping his partner. 

 If lie discards the Club he loses 

 the game. Though B plays ex- 

 tremely well, .4's coup in trumping 

 with the four is entitled to the 

 palm. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



Trick 6. — A believes in the pen- 

 ultimate game. He drops the Two 

 of Chibs to this trick. Tlierefore 

 tlicre are at least three more Clubs 

 in his hand. 



Trick 9. — Z, knowing that there 

 are three more Clubs in .I's hand, 

 knows also that A holds only two 

 more trumps ; and if he has noted 

 tlie card played by 1' at trick 5, he 

 can infer that both these trumps 

 must be smaller than the Five. 

 It is evident, therefore, that in 

 this illustrative hand A derivoa no 



And A and B ' 



advantage whatsoever from his 

 use of the penultimate signal in 

 Clubs. All that he does is that 

 at a critical stage of the game he 

 ^— ^ gives hifi advor.'^ary, Z, detailed in- 



the odd trick, formation as to the position of 

 three of the remaining Clabs and 

 two of the smallest trumps ; and, so far as we can see, -4'a publi* 

 intimation as to these facts leaves Z without excuse for his lead of 

 a Heart at the ninth trick, whereby he affords A and B the oppor- 

 tunity, of which they skilfully avail themselves, of pulling a lost 

 game out of the fire. 



But further, .4 has dropped the Eight of Hearts to the eighth 

 trick, B the Nine, and Y the Ten. Therefore the Knave of Hearts 

 is marked in Y'a hand; and both A and B are void of the suit. 

 Moreover, B returned the Nine of his partner's suit at the sixth 

 trick, and hence he cannot have more than one Club remaining in 

 his hand. Consequently, when Z leads to the ninth trick, he knows 

 that B most probably holds four of the remaining trumps, together 

 with one Club. Therefore he may count Y'a hand to consist of the 

 Knave of Hearts, together with three trumps and one Club. If 

 that Club be the winning Club, Y and Z will win the odd trick 

 whatever Z may now lead. The same thing is true if T hold the 

 King and Ten of trumps. But if the winning Club be with A, Z's 

 remaining chances of scoring the odd trick are that among his 

 three trumps Y holds either the King or the Ten and the Nine. 

 Hence, if Z lead the long Spade he gives Y the double chance, 

 either of discarding in the event of his holding a losing Club, or, in 

 the event of his holding the command of the Club suit, of over- 

 trumping A. In other word.9, the lead of Z's long Spade places Y 

 in the best possible position for winning the odd trick, whilst the 

 lead of the Heart transfers to -4 and B the complete control of all 

 the conditions under which they can save and win the game. 



Lastly, it needs no proof that at every stage of a game of Whist, 

 and most of all at its most critical stage, the direction of the play 

 ought to be left to the partner who has the greater trump strength. 

 Hence, as the Knave of Hearts may be fairly assumed to be in Y'a 

 hand after his lead of the Queen at the fourth trick, it is evident 

 that Z ought to have led a small Heart rather than his King of 

 Hearts at the eighth trick. 



Society for Psychical Research. — A general meeting of this 

 society was held at 11, Chandos-street, Cavendish-square, on the 

 afternoon of November 22nd. The President, Professor Henry 

 Sedgwick, opened the proceedings with a few remarks, in which he 

 emphasised the importance of extending the area of experiments 

 on thought-transference, in order to multiply the number of persons 

 of unblemished character whicli those who deny the genuineness 

 of the phenomena must logically conclude to be " in the trick." 

 Mr. F. W. H. Myers then congratulated the society on the exten- 

 sion which had actually taken place, and which had shown the 

 faculties involved in thought-transference to be much commoner 

 than had been at first supposed, and he described in detail a series 

 of experiments made by himself and Mr. E. Gurney, in conjunction 

 with Mr. Malcolm Guthrie, J. P., of Liverpool, on the communica- 

 tion of tastes. These trials had the advantage that the knowledge 

 of the impression to be communicated was confined to those tliree 

 gentlemen, and the hypothesis of collusion by a code of signals was 

 thus excluded. The experimenters used a great variety of substances, 

 and in a large majority of cases the substance which one or other of 

 them had in his moutli was correctly named or described by the 

 "subjects." Mr. Guthrie followed with an interesting account of 

 the manner in wliich the experiments with these particular 

 "subjects" had originated; and he exhibited a large number of 

 diagrams, which they had been enabled accurately to represent by 

 a transference of the impression of the original from tlie mind or 

 brain of the experimenter without spoken words or contact of any 

 sort. Many of these results had been obtained by Mr. Guthrie 

 himself, others by some member of the investigating committee of 

 the Society for Psychical Research, when expermienting alone with 

 one of the " subjects," information by collusion beinsr thus as effec- 

 tually precluded as information through the ordinary sensory 

 channels. Professor Balfour Stewart then pointed out how illogical 

 is the rejection of these facts as contradictory of known biological 

 laws, they being clearly only an extension of science, such as has 

 been again and again exemplified in its other branches. Finally, 

 Professor Barrett described some trials which showed the extra- 

 ordinary degree to which muscle-reading could be carried, and also 

 recounted a long series of very careful experiments strikingly- 

 exhibiting tho power which a mesmerist can sometimes exercise 

 over a " subject " by silent willing. Other papers were deferred 

 for want of time. 



