Jan. 



188;-).] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



75 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCUICAL RESEAUCD. 



[1570] — For some time past a committee of the Society for 

 Psychical Research have been engaged in collecting cases wliero 

 the death (or some serious crisis iu the life) of one person has 

 apparently produced a distinct impression, cither of sight or 

 sound, or of more purely emotional sort, on the mind of some other 

 i'erson at a distance. The firsthand evidence for such instances of 

 -pontancous "telepathy " is much more abundant than was at all 

 generally recognised whca we begun our work. But in a subject 

 so remote from exact science, and specially exposed to dangers of 

 exaggerative memory and erroneous inference, it may reasonably 

 be demanded not only that the quality of the evidence shall bo as 

 good as possible, but that its quantity shall be overwhelming. The 

 proof must be largely cumulative, and it is impossible to lay down 

 any precise line at which it can be suid that a fair mind ought to 

 be convinced. Moreover, as facta multiply they shed light on one 

 another ; a hundred cases are far more instructive than twenty, 

 and a thonsand than a hundred. On every ground, then, wo are 

 aoxioQs to increase our store of first-class evidence on this head ; 

 and we hope that many of your readers may be able and willing to 

 help ns, either by commuricating personal experiences, or by 

 making our object known among their friends. I need liardlj- add 

 that any conditions which informants may attach to their communi- 

 cations will be carefully observed. 



Another necessary branch of our work is to discover what pro- 

 portion of the population has experienced purely subjective 

 hallucinations — have seen the figure of an absent friend, or heard 

 his voice, without the correspondence of any niarkcil event in the 

 life of the person whose presence was thus suggested. Till this 

 proportion is approximately ascertained, it cannot bo known how 

 far the correspondences in other cases may be accounted for as 

 due to chance alone. Here, then, we have to institute a sort of 

 census, for which many collectors are required. Help in this direc- 

 tion is easily given, and is specially useful. To those who offer it 

 I shall be happy to supply the necessary instructions and printed 

 forms to facilitate the work. 



Information in the various other branches of tlie Society's work 

 will also be welcome. In particular I may mention a kind of 

 evidence which there is reason to think that a considerable number 

 of the households of this country might be able to contribute, if 

 only the trial were made — records of experiments in thought-trans- 

 ference proper, the hona-fide transmission of ideas or sensations 

 from one person to another without contactor movement. Printed 

 forms for such records will also be supplied to those who desire 

 them. EoMUxn Girney. 



A SPIRITED APPEAL. 



[1571] — To all and several whom it may concern. What are the 

 Mediums, Clairvoyants, Thonght-readers, et id genus omne in 

 familiar intercourse with the " Speerits" about that they do not now 

 ; ome to the fore and show their muscles ? Would they but call up 

 the " Speerit " of that famed old Bow-street-Runncr Townsend, 

 find get "it" to point out the dynamiters, I will answer for it thej' 

 would sell a fine lot of high-priced tickets for their next si<ance. 



J. M. 



LETTERS RECEIVED AND SHORT ANSWERS. 



J. A. L. B. Because it is practically impossible to pull with pre- 

 cisely equal degrees of strength with both hands simultaneously. 

 If yon find that, at the first trial yon have pulled off the left hand 

 piece of the three ; on the second, you naturally direct your atten- 

 tion to the right hand bit; and, all unconsciously, you pull more 

 strongly with the right hand, employing the left rather to resist. 

 Lectures unfortunately permanently at an end. — P. Laxkester. It 

 arrived just too late for insertion this week. — Thos. J. Savage. I 

 wholly fail to see the force of your argument. No substantial 

 alteration can now take place in the Queen's profile during the next 

 fifteen years, and it will be ample time to discuss any change neces- 

 sary when there is a new issue of stamps. That, because a com- 

 paratively slight alteration in a lady's features may occur between 

 the ages of sixty-six and seventy-six, she should therefore con- 

 tinue to be represented as eighteen years old at the former age, 

 may be a logical deduction ; but, as I have said, I absolutely 

 fail to see it. Your sutrgestion that the money value of every 

 stamp should be very boldly inprcFsed upon its surface appears 

 to me much more sensible and practical. — Ign'oeaxce. It would 

 render a reply to your query considerably easier were you to state 

 exactly from what soil, stratum, or deposit you "exhumed an old 

 oak," because a tree deeply immersed in bog would presumably 

 be older than one but slightly covered with alluvium. As Sir 



Charles Lyell predicates the existence of man on the earth for at 

 least 100,000 years (and this is probably a considerable under- 

 statement of human anticpiity), there would bo nothing wonderful 

 in a semi-barbarous hunter shooting his flint-tipped arrow oidy 

 10,000 years since. — F. As it happened 1 did not see the paper to 

 wliich you refer until it was in print, it having been reproduced 

 verbatim from an American journal. Of course I know that Tilgnto 

 Forest, the scene of fiideon MantelTs imperishable laliours, 

 is iu Sussex, but an American author would probably bo 

 rather moro ignorant of British geography. — Alfred Sar- 

 GEAXT. Received ; but (I must reiterate) foreign to tho 

 purpose of a journal devoted to science. — C. H Thompson. 

 See paragraph in capital letters with which the heading of the 

 Correspondence column concludes. — Sigma inquires for chemical 

 means of sweetening rancid butter. — A. H. Mays. Quito nee(lles.sly 

 delayed through being addressed to tho Editor instead of to the 

 Publishers. JAS. W. Fraser. How can you CNpect mo to occupy 

 space with such a mere puzzle ? It is quite equivalent to tho old 

 Cambridge one of the man with tho absolutely spherical head, 

 surmounted by a conical cap of inlinito height. — Rev. J. M. iJitAcKKX- 

 BURY. Your letter is a profound puzzle to mo. I am assured by 

 " F. R. A. S." that he described the anorthoscopo from one con- 

 structed entirely by his own hands; in fact, ho lias shown me the- 

 instrument itself, in which the semblance of a hand of cards and of 

 a grotesque head were exhibited in succesi^ion in a very striking 

 manner. I do not know whether any optician now sells this piece of 

 apparatus. Can any correspondent say ? — P. J. Power. Yes. See 

 concluding paragraph iu capital letters of those which head the 

 Correspondence columns. — tl. W. T. You ask for what no single 

 book with which I am familiar contains. One that did would sell 

 like wildfire. — J. H. Robert.sox. The paragraph you quote is 

 curiously misleading. Siiperiiicumlicnt pressure might increase the 

 density of water enormously ; but, as you probably know, with 

 regard to a body within a sphere, the attraction of gravitation ii» 

 only that of the sphere upon which the attracted body rests ; the 

 attractive forces of any exterior spherical shell being practically 

 negligible — in fact, in one sense, exercised in a contrary direction. 

 A body in the centre of the earth wouldbe released from gravitation, 

 and have no tendency to move one way or the other. You will find 

 that all our regular staff of contributors do give the explanation of 

 the technical terms they employ. Thanks for good wishes. — Jos. 

 W. Alexaxder. The a'ther is certainly ncil a lluid, homogeneous or 

 otherwise ; in fact, its properties are of the most extraordinarily 

 opposed natures. Physicists do not now regard the rather as "a 

 comet retarder." Encke's is the only comet out of the large 

 number known which gives any indication of possible retardation 

 from this cause. By all means try a Krakatoa at the north pole. 

 Neither the time of rotation of Uranus, nor that of Neptune, is 

 definitely known. — J. E. Sauxders. Such tumuli are very far in- 

 deed from being uncommon. — H. To.mkv.s. — Your idea of commu- 

 nicating electrically with the inhabitants (if any) of the other 

 planets — presumably by the action of light or selenium — is a very 

 grand and gorgeous one; but do you imagine that English is 

 spoken in (say) Mereurj-, or that electrical knowledge is in an 

 advanced state in Mars ? — Scorpio. I can understand your dilli- 

 culty arising in the Arctic regions where there are six months day 

 and six months night ; but I confess that (save under circum- 

 stances which would appal Sir Wilfrid Lawson) I should think that 

 mere daylight would prevent any one from confusing 2 a.m. with 

 U h. or (as most people say at present) 2 p.m. — T. A. K. The 

 "Cambridge University Calendar" is published by Deightou, 

 Bell & Co., at Cambridge, and costs Cs. 6d. Information as to 

 the cost of living, i'c, up at the University, may be obtained 

 from "Our Sons: How to Start Them in Life," by Arthur King, 

 published by F. Warne & Co. I forget the price of this, but it is a 

 cheap book — half-a-crown or so. — Wsi. Uonsox. I neither can 

 nor will do more sums, or solve equations whose solution may be- 

 found in every shilling book on Algebra ever published ; 3'75 days 

 is the answer. I do not believe that there is any work extant for 

 teaching writing with the left hand. — .J. S. G. The articles on 

 " Learning to Swim " appeared in Vol. II. of Kxowledge, pp. 170, 

 212, and 308. — G. F. Picrox. The conductor of this journal has 

 never written one single line of the (alleged) " Correspondence 

 between Dr. Groth and Mr. R. A. Proctor." 



To DisTiXGiisii BiTTERiXE. — The following simple method has 

 been suggested for ajiproximately judging of the purity of a speci- 

 men of butter. Melt tho butter, and then cool it as rapidly as 

 possible by means of some ice-cylinder put into it. Lard, which ia 

 a copious constituent of butterine, will sink to the bottom, and any 

 genuine butter present will rise, while there will be a distinctly 

 visible zone or line of contact between the two. — American 

 Dru'j'jiat. 



