Mat 22, 18S5.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



443 



this view ; but it is no longer tenable, as the evidence in favour of 

 its existence has Erraduallv been broken down, more exact research 

 having eliminated errors which at tirst sight passed \innoticcd. 



The elaborate experiments of Baron Uciohenbnch — whose "sensi- 

 tives" were said to St'f this fluid issuing like a lambent display of 

 colour from the tips of the fingers and the surfaces of magnets 

 and crystals, created much astonishment at the time. 



But the investigations of Braid and others have proved that the 

 same phenomena may be witnessed in the absence of such bodies 

 if the sensitives bo previously led to expect them. Further that 

 the nurd, as they were called, are quite invisible, even in the pre- 

 sence of these objects, if care be taken to avoid rousing the 

 expectations of the sensitive. 



Towards the latter end of 1881 we repeated a form of experiment 

 which had previously been recorded by the late Professor Gregory 

 in his interesting work on "Animal Magnetism." 



Three tumblers containing water were placed on a table, and the 

 mesmerised subject, standing at the further end of the room with 

 his back to the table, was carefully watched by some sceptical 

 friends, while we held our hands over one of the tumblers. 



After some little time we asked the subject to taste the water 

 contained in each of the tumblers, and to let us know whether ho 

 could distinguish any one from the others. IIo did so, and the 

 result was striking enough ; for immediately on tasting the water 

 contained in the "mesmerised" tumbler ho selected it as being 

 different from the rest, possessing, he said, a marked flavour which 

 he could not describe. 



Repeated trials were not less successful, and the uniformity of 

 the results obtained under varying conditions seemed to justify tho 

 belief that something had emanated from our fingers and had 

 manifested itself to the hypnotised subject. 



It never once occurred to us that we were dealing with a typical 

 case of thought-reading, and only lately did we make certain that 

 by contriving to remain ignorant as to which tumbler he h.is 

 "influenced," the operator reduces the results from certainty to 

 mere guesa-work. 



On the whole, it appears to be tolerably certain that the fluid 

 hypothesis has a very doubtful foundation in fact. 



Turning now our attention to the second theory, we shall, as we 

 venture to think, find an explanation of all the phenomena which 

 are included in the term " thought-reading." 



In the pin-finding experiment we have to deal with muscle- 

 reading in its simplest form, direct contact existing between the 

 medium and the pin-finder. 



As the sprightly gyrations of the table were proved by Faraday 

 to be due to involuntary muscular contractions in the hands of 

 persons seated or standing around it — so the mighty pin-hunter in 

 search of his prey is urged on in the right track by the unconscious 

 exertions of his medium. We have tried this sort of thing, and 

 have always found that the right direction is the direction of least 

 resistance. With a little practice, the pin-hunter soon learns to 

 appreciate the efforts which are being made to keep him in the pin- 

 path. This, of course, may take place 'without conscious effort, 

 just as the sleep-walker learns to avoid obstacles with which he 

 may be brought in contact during his nocturnal wanderings. 



Coming now to that more difficult class of cases where no contact 

 exists between the oracle and his medium, we find that the same 

 principle prevails. Direct contact there is not, but it is still 

 possible, through the agency of senses other than those of touch 

 and effort, to glean information as to the thoughts of others. The 

 sense of sight, happily named by Herbert Spencer the "anticipa- 

 tory touch," together with the senses of hearing and smell, may 

 become the gateways of our knowledge as to the thoughts of 

 others. 



On the one hand we have the " oracle " trying hard " to make 

 his mind a blank," and thus by checking the outflow of ideas ren- 

 dering himself more sensitive to impressions from without. On 

 the other we have the medium or mediums, their whole attention 

 concentrated on the form of task which has been agreed upon in 

 the absence of the "oracle," and which they ore resolved he shall 

 carry out. In at least four cases out of five he does so if practice 

 has made him at all proficient. And why ? 



The lower animals communicate their ideas and emotions to one 

 another mainly by muscular signals or gestures, and although this 

 faculty has to a great extent become latent in man, as his more 

 varied ideas require a more varied outlet of expression — namely, 

 language — nevertheless they, and more especially our emotions, 

 find utterance in unspoken signs. 



With regard to the latter. Dr. Mandsley has observed that " the 

 special muscular action is not merely an exponent of the passion, 

 but an essential part of it," and Darwin held a similar view. 

 Spencer, indeed, in this connection has attempted to show the 

 rationale of these muscular contractions. In describing the pas- 

 sion of anger, he says that it is seen " in a general tension of the 



muscular system, in gnashing of teeth and protrusion of claws, in 

 dilated eyes and nostrils, in growls; and these are weak forms of 

 the actions which acconipuiiy the killing of prey." 



Whether this remark is capable of a still wider interpretation wo 

 cannot now sto]) to inciuire. The fact stands out clear and decided 

 that we are able in great meaaurcto express our ideas and emotions 

 to one another by means of muscular symbols. 



John Bulwer, a writer of tho seventoentli contmy, expressed 

 his opinion that " the lineaments of tho liiidy doe disclose the dis- 

 position and inclination of tho niindo in geiierall ; but the motions 

 doe not only so, but. doe further di.scloso the present luiniour and 

 state of tho minde and will, for as the tongue speakcth to the ciu-e, 

 so gesture speaketh to tho eye." Again, in addressing hiiiiHoIf to 

 deaf mutes, he says : " What though you cannot cxpresso your 

 mindes in those verball contrivances of man's invention, yet you 

 want not speech, who have your whole body for a tongue, having 

 a language more natural and signilicani, which is common to you 

 with us, to wit, gesture; tho generall and univorsall language of 

 human nature." The child, before it has acquired a full command 

 of language, excels the adult in the interpretation of these 

 symbols, but the latter may, through practice, recover this faculty 

 to an astonishing degree. 



Many, doubtless, who have taken an active part in these thought- 

 reading seances, and others who have witnessed them under con- 

 ditions which entirely shut out tho idea of intentional deceit, will 

 say that the subject of these operations is not conscious of receiv- 

 ing, and consequently acting upon, information derived from others. 

 They may even argue that knowledge is nul derivt^d froni any such 

 source, for how can a man know that of which he is not conscious f 



The objection, however, is (|uito superficial. We do not contend 

 that consciousness is involved — indeed, our existing knowledge of 

 mind in the lower animals (if that can bo called knowledge which 

 is derived from a comparison of objective phenomena in lower 

 grades of life with those which accompany our own physical 

 states) makes it probable that muscular groups for appropriate 

 signalling by gesture were developed in connection with our ideas 

 before the ancestors of mankind were shaped by eircumsfance into 

 the present form, and, consequently, before the embryo thought 

 struggled into conscious activity. We should not, then, expect to 

 find an inseparable connection between " idio-motor " action and 

 consciousness, but rather tho reverse. And we should just antici- 

 pate what we actually find to be the case. So closely, indeed, are 

 our ideas connected with the mechanism which presides over the 

 movements of our muscles, that various actions are constantly being 

 prompted by them without the intervention of consciousness. 



It is very possible, then, that impressions received by the sense 

 organs — so slight in themselves as to bo incapable of exciting 

 consciousness in an individual, might be transmitted to the grey 

 matter of the brain, and thereby give rise to "idio-motor" action 

 of the kind just indicated. A physiologist might even be tempted 

 to speak of it as a reflex action, in which case consciousness is still 

 less likely to be involved ; but we should be afraid to push the 

 matter so far. 



It is, at all events, evident that the above objection would 

 prevent us fnmi entertaining, not this theory only, but any theory 

 which might be put forward to explain the phenomena of thought- 

 reading, for if the knowledge in question were not derived through 

 sense-organs because it did not involve consciousness, neither could 

 it be knowledge if derived from any other source. However, as we 

 have seen, it is not necessary that the thought-reader should have 

 any knowledge of the mental states which impel him to perform 

 the tasks which have been arranged by other minds than his own. 



N. Gordon Munro. 



REAL AND APPARENT BREADTH OF WAVES. 

 [1711]— In the passage quoted and objected to by " Excelsior" 

 (1696), is it not assumed that in each case tho number of waves 

 actually passing the olscirer during the 65 seconds is 360, but that 

 his unconscious change of position misleads him as to the space 

 over which they are distributed? While " Excelsior " seems to 

 assume that the number of waves passing the start inrj -point is con- 

 stant, and cnnsequently that the number seen by the observer must 

 vary when he is in motion. W. H. G. 



"LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS." 



[1712] — Cuique in sud arte credilur. Errjo — " if I should rush in 

 where angels," &c., "it is to be feared I shall only," &o. Never- 

 theless, as a mere juryman, I should maintain that the learned 

 judge has charged against the evidence in two points on p. 258. 



1. " The mere continuance, therefore, of processes, which, on 

 the earth, we associate with the existence of life, in reality proves 

 nothing as to the contended existence of life on Mars." 



