May 29, 1SS5.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



449 



^ .GAZiNEoFSCIENCE^^ 



PydNLYWORDED-EXACTLYDESCRIBED, 



LOXDOX: FRIDAY, 21 AY 2^, 1SS5. 



COXTEXTS OF No. 187. 



Muscle- Beading uid ThoD^ht-Read- 



ing 149 



The Philosophv of Clothing. IX. 



Bt W. Mattifu Willian s 450 



Robert's RuUd^ Machioe. Bv John 



Mar^, jun " 462 



The Voung Electrician, {tllut.) 



BvW.SUnffo 453 



Other Worlds than Ours 455 



Eo^neeriDg Construction at the 



Inventions Exhibition 4S7 



Tricyclos in 1SS5. By J. Bronmiog 459 

 First Star Lessons. Bv Richard A. 



Proctor 460 



Chapters on Modem Domestic 



Economy. (/Wm.) 460 



PAGB 



Editorial Gossip 162 



Reviews : — 



The Revised Version of the Bible 463 

 Europe. By Edward Clodd 163 



Correspondence : The Ruddy 

 Eclipsed Moon— Vltra-Gas-O'n 

 Termites — Duality of Brain — 

 Development — Gesture- Languape 

 — iiLxrye Kliot, &c 



On the Chanties Produced by Sla";- 

 netisation in the Len[:th of Rons 

 of Iron, Steel, and Nit-kel. By 

 Shelford BidweU, M.A., LL.B.... 



Our Whist Column 4H8 



Our Inventors* Column 470 



Our Chess Column 470 



465 



4G8 



JIUSCLE-READIXG AND THOUGHT- 

 READING. 

 By Richard A. Proctor. 



IT appears to me that the subject of thought-reading, 

 ■with many of its associated problem?, promises to be 

 interpreted successful!}- — up to a certain point — ere long. 

 I say "up to a certain point," because experience shows 

 that the solution of any given problem is never complete, 

 but always brings with it other problems, and problems 

 usually of greater difficulty. There can be no doubt that 

 the whole subject of thought-reading is full of difficulty. 

 Even the explanations which have been profl'ered by those 

 who will admit nothing but trickery, recognise wonderful, 

 one may say unheard-of, qualities. We are told, for 

 example, that thought-reading is merely muscle-reading, 

 and then that the muscle-reader can infer the shape, 

 colour, place, and nature of an article which the muscle- 

 read alone has in his thoughts ; and this too without any 

 consciousness on the part of the latter that he is thus con- 

 veying information. Anyone who has witnessed feats in 

 so-caUed thought-reading, and noted the rapidity with which 

 the results are obtained, will find this explanation not one 

 whit less wonderful than the explanation according to 

 which mind can influence (and be influenced by) mind, 

 without any recognisable appeal to the senses. Of course 

 there arc wonders in muscle reading which of themselves 

 are well worth studying as aflbrding curious evidence of 

 the range of varying capabUity among diftVient persons. 

 For instance. Professor Barrett relates a case of a young 

 lady who could write words, or even rudely copy sketches 

 which had been shown to her mother and not to herself, 

 the mother sitting Vjehind her and placing a finger on the 

 girl's bare arm, aVjove the flexed elbow. It was proved in 

 this case that slight movements of the touching finger — 

 movements certainly indiscernible and probably un- 

 conscious — conveyed a sufficient guidance to the girl's deli- 

 cate skin and quick intelligence. Such cases as this suffice 

 to show that the range of this muscle-reading power is 

 marvellous — from the power of recognising emotion as 

 expressed by hand-pressure to the power of writing words 



or delineating shapes from tho suggestions of more finger 

 touch. Certainly a wonderful power or quality, this of 

 muscle reading ; so wonderful that even in a case like this, 

 where it is stated tluit the evidence was decisive, one 

 would bo disposed to doubt whether the experimenters, 

 and the girl herself, were not in some way mi.sled, seeing 

 tliat thought-reading seems a simjiler cxiilanation than the 

 idea of direct guidance. Let any two persons try the 

 experiment ; let one hold a pencil, and in response to the 

 most anxious eil'orts of tho other to guide him or her 

 aright endeavour to write names or draw sketches 

 of things not otherwise known, and tho surprising 

 nature of this explanation will, I think, Ijo admitted. 1 

 am not myself wanting in sinsitiveness or quickness 

 to receive impressions. Nay, I am sometimes s-o (juick 

 to gather what is in the mind of others that f do 

 not find the idea of thought-reading altogether incredible, 

 even as measured by my own power ; but I am sure 

 that no amount of muscular indication, however care- 

 fully conveyed, would enable me to write the i-implest 

 word, or to draw tho simplest outline, at the sugge.stion of 

 another. When, tlierefore, Mr. Stuart Cumberland accom- 

 plishes feats, some of which are even more marvellous than 

 those of the young lady just mentioned, and when ho 

 assures that it is all done by muscle-reading (such reading 

 being sometimes conveyed along a wire or cord), I marvel 

 much more than I would if he asserted, as others have done, 

 that such feats are achieved through some power of thought- 

 reading, which is as yet not understood even by those who 

 possess it. I marvel so much, to say the truth, that I 

 reject his explanation as inadequate, believing that he 

 knows no more how he accomplishes his feats than those 

 know who have witnessed them. 



But there can be no doubt that other cases admit of no 

 such explanation, similar results being obtained without 

 contact of any sort, direct or indirect. There is a whole 

 class of cases, for example, of which a case noted by that 

 j close observer, Charles Dickens, is the type. The man 

 who exhibited the power in question was a professional 

 conjuror, so that trickery and acquired quickness of per- 

 ception and of action must have their fullest possible 

 allowance. " He was with the company," says Dickens, 

 " not in the least removed from them, and we occupied 

 the front row. He brought in some writing paper 

 with him as he entered, and a black-lead pencil ; 

 and he wrote some woi-ds on half-sheets of paper. One 

 of these half sheets he folded into two, and gave to 

 Mrs. Dickens to hold. 'Madame,' he says aloud, 'will 

 you think of any class of objects 1 ' 'I have done so.' 

 ' Of what class, madame ? ' 'Animals.' 'Will you think 

 of a particular animal, madame 1 ' ' I have done so.' ' Of 

 what animal ? ' ' The lion.' ' Will you think of another 

 class of objects, madame?' 'I have done so.' 'Of what 

 class ■? ' ' Plowerfi.' ' The particular flower ? ' ' The rose.' 

 ' Will you open the paper you hold in your hand ? ' She 

 opened it, and there was neatly and plainly written in 

 pencil : The Lion, The Rose. Nothing whatever led up to 

 these words, and they were the most distant conceivable 

 from Catherine's thoughts when she entered the room." 

 Now, in this case, be it noticed, we have a keen observer, 

 well acquainted with all the ways and devices of conjurors, 

 writing, immediately after the event, an account not in- 

 tended for publication : we are entitled to assume that 

 matters befel as they were here described. Again, the 

 case is not one of thought-reading by the performer, but 

 clearly of thought-guiding : in other words, Mns. Dickens 

 unconsciou-ly read the thoughts of the man, and took them 

 for her own. That there was thought-reading in this case. 

 somcv:here, is certain, unless we adopt the idea that Mr':, 



