Oct. 17, 1884.] 



♦ KNO\A/LEDGE ♦ 



327 



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I 



brain. Possibly such motions may play a part in the creation of 

 thought and emotion, but 1 incline to tho idea that behind the 

 brain there must be an intelligence, a soul, to take cognisance of 

 and to control these motions. 



The body during life is always dying, the lost materials being as 

 constantly renewed. At death the elements of which it is com- 

 posed, may according to its disposal, from a few moments to a 

 lengthened period, form parts of the bodies of numberless plants 

 and animals, including man himself. Xever permanent, but under- 

 going diffusion from birth to death and after, the belief in the 

 resurrection of the body cannot be entertained. 



If there bo a mortal soul, or no immortal soul, death ends all. 



If, on the other hand, there be an immortal soul, the belief 

 generally accepted, the offspring partly of early training, and one 

 supported too by the inborn craving man has for knowledge, a 

 powerful argument in favour of the belief, pointing as it does to 

 some benefit or use which is to be made of such acquirements here- 

 after; the question arises, what becomes of this soul ? 



For my part, I think it has a future untramelled by a material 

 body, with enlarged powers of intellect, locomotion, and senses. 

 But at best this is only speculation — an opinion ; we have nothing 

 to guide us. 



Referring to the incident that gave rise to Mr. Thome's letter, I 

 do not see how the experience of an apparently drowned man can 

 throw any light upon the question of a future state. This man, 

 after suffering from the drowning process, in from one and a half 

 to three or four minutes becomes oblivions. He is asphyxiated. 

 Thought and consciousness are at an end, he knows and feels 

 nothing whatever. He appears to be stone dead, but he is really 

 alive ; asphyxia being only an abnormal phase of life. 



For six or eight hours out of the twenty-four, when in health, 

 we are all, during sound sleep, putting aside the suffering attending 

 drowning, and the cessation of the heart's action, in the same state 

 — that is, absolutely without thought and consciousness, knowing 

 and feeling nothing whatever. 



How can a person in such a condition obtain anyiusight into any 

 subject, much less in one so abstruse as the unknown attributes of 

 a future life ? 



What we want is what we shall never get — the experience of 

 some one who has passed the portal we call death, not that of one 

 who has only approached it, practically as unconscious as a sound 

 sleeper. 



Whether science will ever directly satisfy the natural curiosity 

 all feci regarding the after-life, who can tell ? There appears 

 little hope of any direct evidence on the subject ever manifesting 

 itself. It seems rather destined to remain enveloped in mystery. 



EVE-WITXESS. 



[1458] — Of course, the obvious rejily to Mr. Selwyn Thome's 

 letter (1136) is, that the man was never really dead. But, admitting 

 the supposition that, had he died, he would have been unconscious 

 of any further sensation, it would hardly have proved there is no 

 life after death. Tho instance given rather proves that sensation 

 can be totally suspended for a time, and reproduced with all its 

 former effects. Tho majority of religious systems which deal with 

 the question of a life after death, provide a material body of some 

 kind in which the spirit may dwell, and on which it may exercise 

 its influence. 



Most thinking men of the present day, irrespective of creed, are 

 divided into two classes — materialists and spiritualists — those 

 who believe that matter itself contains the power which alters its 

 form, and those who believe that matter itself is dead, and the 

 power -which gives it motion and life is outside. The materialist 

 merely sees in the human body a combination of particles which 

 produces what is called life, and as soon as that particular combi- 

 nation is broken up, life is destroyed. The spiritualist, on the other 

 hand, sees a force acting on a certain combination of particles, and 

 so long as that combination continues, so long does tho force act 

 on it. When the combination is broken up, the force ceases to act. 

 But some spiritualists further believe that the same force, after 

 remaining dormant in the meanwhile, may, at some future time, 

 act on a similar combination of particles, and resuscitate in the 

 new combination sensations which were felt in the former com- 

 bination. 



Xothing can be proved for or against either supposition. For 

 my own part I find it easier to believe in spirit acting on matter, 

 than in matter endued with life ; and, with the imperfect knowledge 

 I have of science, there appears to me an impassable gulf between 

 so-called dead and living matter ; for physicists tell me that the 

 composition of a man's body, just killed by a bullet in his heart, is 

 the same as it was a moment before, when he was full of life and 

 strength. I can understand a watch stopping when the mainspring 

 is broken, because the power in the mainspring is an external power, 

 transmitted to it when the watch was wound up. But, unless some 



external power winds up a man in the same way, I cannot under- 

 stand why stopping the action of the heart should destroy life in 

 tho rest of the body. Life is not sensation, life is not consciousness, 

 and life is not intelligence. All these and each can be destroyed 

 and life continue ; but once destroy life and it cannot be restored. 

 Sensation may come back, consciousness may be renewed, and 

 intelligence may return after many years' absence, but on this 

 earth, except by a miracle, life once lost can never be found again. 



Jos. W. Alexander. 



[1150] — Admitting the hypothesis that the man was really 

 dead, and that his spirit existed for awhile apart from his body, is 

 it in accordance — I will not say with psychological, a science but 

 little understood — but with physiological teaching, to suppose that 

 a brain dead to all thoughts and nerves, dead to all sensations, 

 could reproduce the thoughts or emotions experienced in a spiritual 

 state of existence ? A. E. S. 



DEATH BY LIGHTNING. 



[1460] — On reading the paper in Knowledge, p. 258, which pur- 

 ports to be derived from one by Dr. J. Rouyer in La Nature, it 

 appears to me that some of the statements are much at variance 

 with all that we know of the effects of lightning. 



I do not at all dispute the correctness of the assertion that in 

 many of these cases death is so sudden that the attitude of the 

 moment when death occurs is retained for a time after. But I 

 think No. 4 is very doubtful, and No. 8 is so entirely improbable 

 (viz., the sudden resolution into a heap of ashes) that it would 

 have been well to add a note to the effect that the statement must 

 be taken cum grano ^alis, and then that it would be difficidt to 

 swallow. Geo. D. Brown, F.L.S. 



THE "WESTMINSTER.PAPERS." 



[1461] — At p. 287 of Knowledge a question is asked as to 

 whether the " Westminster Papers" are now procurable, &c. The 

 last issue was dated April 1, 1879, the publishers being the Civil 

 Service Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, 8, Salisburj-- 

 cotirt. Fleet-street, and Kent & Co., Paternoster-row. I cannot say 

 whether all or any parts of these papers are now procurable. I 

 possess the whole series of eleven volumes, and value them too 

 much to be induced to part with them, except at a price that would 

 probably be prohibitive. 



I should think it will be difficult to purchase a complete set. 



Geo. D. Brown. 



ANIMAL (?) AND MINERAL MAGNETISM. 



[1462] — As is well known, Reichenbach describes an experiment 

 in which the needle of a compass was moved by the finger of a so- 

 called " sensitive," merely pointed at it, and he argues from this a 

 connection between mineral and animal magnetism. The possibihty 

 of such a thing has been strenuously denied by the scientific 

 world in general, and I am far from maintaining it ; but there is a 

 somewhat similar experiment which I have frequently performed, 

 and which may have tempted Reichenbach to a rash conclusion. 

 It is this : By passing my finger (sometimes only once) over the 

 glass cover of the compass, and in contact with it, one end of the 

 needle may be made to adhere to the glass. If now my finger is 

 brought near it when in this position, the needle will certainly be 

 moved, that is to say, it will be repelled from my finger. 



I should imagine that this phenomenon admits of a very simple 

 scientific explanation. I presume that the needle adheres to the 

 glass because the latter has been electrified by the previous friction, 

 and that then the change of temperature produced by the 

 proximity of the finger repels the needle- Is this a correct and 

 sufficient explanation ? Certainly the finger does not act as a 

 magnet, for it repels equally either end of the needle. 



It seems to me that the experiment is interesting, if only as 

 tending to explain how the idea of '" animal magnetism " may have 

 originated. A. Eubule-Evans. 



BREEDING IN AND IN. 



[1463] — Some weeks ago an article appeared in your paper which 

 broached the theory that the poor unfortunates to whom sight 

 with its boundless joys, and speech in which to give them utterance, 

 are denied, owe their ills to the thoughtlessness or sin of their 

 parents marrying within the proscribed degrees. I have come 

 across some facts, probably known long since, bearing if not upon 

 this issue, still upon one having an analogy to it. 



At farmyards cats are absolutely necessary. One well-known to 

 me in boyhood became the home of a splendid tortoiseshell cat. 

 She found no rivals. In the country dogs and lads often form 



