Alfred Russel Wallace 



examine the whole question and see whether such a thing 

 as " thought transference," independently of the recognised 

 channels of sense, did really exist. This was the first time 

 evidence of this kind had been brought before a scientific 

 society, and a protracted discussion followed. The paper 

 also dealt with certain so-called spiritualistic phenomena, 

 which at the time Prof. Barrett was disposed to attri- 

 bute to hallucination and '' thought-transference." The 

 introduction of this topic led the discussion away from 

 the substance of the paper, and Prof. Barrett's plea 

 for a committee of investigation on thought-transference 

 fell through. So strong was the feeling against the 

 paper in official scientific circles at the time, that even 

 an abstract was refused publication in the Report of 

 the British Association, and it was not until the Society 

 for Psychical Kesearch was founded that the paper was 

 published, in the first volume of its Proceedings. It was 

 the need of a scientific society to collect, sift and discuss 

 and publish the evidence on behalf of such supernormal 

 phenomena as Prof. Barrett described at the British Asso- 

 ciation that induced him to call a conference in London at 

 the close of 1881, which led to the foundation of the Society 

 for Psychical Eesearch early in 1882. 



Wallace, in his letter to Prof. Barrett which follows, 

 refers to Eeichenbach's experiments with certain sensi- 

 tives who declared they saw luminosity from the poles of 

 a magnet after they had been for some time in a perfectly 

 darkened room. Acting on Wallace's suggestion, Prof. 

 Barrett constructed a perfectly darkened room and em- 

 ployed a large electro -magnet, the current for which 

 could be made or broken by an assistant outside without 

 the knowledge of those present in the darkened room. 

 Under these circumstances, and taking every precaution to 

 prevent any knowledge of when the magnet was made 

 active by the current, Prof. Barrett found that two or 

 three persons, out of a large number with whom he ex- 

 perimented, saw a luminosity streaming from the poles of 

 the magnet directly the current was put on. An article 

 of Prof. Barrett's on the subject, with the details of the 



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