June 23, 



KNO^A^LEDGE 



51 



THOUGHT-READING. 



By the Editok. 

 •\T7E have received from several correspondents cora- 

 VV munications on the subject of Thought-Roadmg 

 and the Willing Game as now practised in parlours and 

 drawing-rooms. Several very remarkable narratives have 

 been sent to us, which we have been invited to publish, 

 along with the various theories suggested by the narrators, 

 these theories usually resolving themselves into a vague 

 impression that the observed results are due either to 

 electricity or to animal magnetism. 



Now, there can be no question that among the phenomena 

 observed during these experiments there are many which 

 are well worth scientific investigation. Even in cases 

 where there is wilful trickery, a degree of sensibility is 

 manifested by some among the "subjects" which is far 

 greater than had been previously imagined, at least by 

 those unacquainted with such remarkable instances as Dr 

 Carpenter and others have described in treatises on mental 

 physiologv. Take, for instance, such a case as the following, 

 described' by Prof. Barrett in the current number of the 

 Ninofeenth Century :— " A young lady could write words, 

 or even rudely copy sketches which had been shown to her 

 mother and not to he rself , the mother sitting behind her and 

 placing a finger on the girl's bare arm, even above the flexed 

 elbow." In this case careful experiments proved that indis- 

 cernible and probablv unconscious movements of the touch- 

 ing finger served to convey a sufficient guidance to the 

 girl's delicate skin and quick intelligence. But no one who 

 has examined such cases as this, and recognised the wide 

 range of difiference between one person and another m 

 sensibility to slight muscular impressions, can attach any 

 weight to the custoraarj- protestations in drawing-room 

 experiments. On the one hand, the person guiding asserts 

 that there has been no guiding, and probably often believes 

 that there has been none ; on the other, the person guided 

 is as ready to asseverate that there has been no guiding 

 influence whatever (and possibly may have recognised 

 none). But experiment shows that there has been. 



Thus, we must not be expected to find space for accounts 

 of remarkable cases of apparent mind reading or mind- 

 guiding,— generally sent without any of the details that 

 have scientific ^■alue, and without any attestation more 

 satisfactory than some remark that the writer hnovs there 

 was no trickery. Nor can we admit, as a scientific expla- 

 nation, the expression of a belief that there must have 

 been magnetism. As Professor Barrett remarks, the ex- 

 planation " It is magnetism," seems perfectly suflicient " to 

 many who, for a thousand pounds, could not write down a 

 single true sentence on the ascertained laws of magnetic 

 attraction;" while, "if one ventures euphemistically to 

 suggest this, they usually take refuge in 'animal mag- 

 netism,' a phrase so obviously ordained by Providence as a 

 safe retreat, that it would be brutal to drive them to bay 

 on it." 



But there is room for scientific research into this matter. 

 Some of the experiments already made under suitable test 

 conditions have led to results so remarkable, as to show 

 that the subj ct is well worth examining closely. Professor 

 Barrett, Mr. Edmund Gurney, and Mr. Frederic W. H. 

 Myers have been at some pains to collect evidence which 

 is, indeed, as yet incomplete, but still seems to indicate 

 a real power of mind on mind which, to say the least, 

 has not yet been explained. They attach somewhat more 

 weight, relatively, to the mind-reading side of tlie ques- 

 tion than I am disposed to do. It seems to me the real 

 point to be attended to is the power of mind in guiding 

 mind, not the aptitude of some minds to be guided— 



though, of course, both are parts of the same subject of 

 inquiry. There are cases in which mind-guiding seems the 

 prominent feature ; others, in which mind-reading seems 

 chiefly in question ; others, in whicli it is doubtful whether 

 one or the other has been principally at work. 



Take, for instance, the following case described by 

 Dickens in a letter to Forster. Dickens is here speaking of 

 a professional conjurer, and therefore trickery may have, 

 or rather must have, the fullest possible influence assigned 

 to it ; Vjut trickery will not explain the mental phenomena. 

 Dickens speaks of the man as " a perfectly original genius, 

 putting any sort of knowledge of legerdemain such as I 

 supposed that I possessed at utter defiance" : — 



" You are to observe," says Dickens, " that he was 

 loith the company, not in the least removed from them, 

 and that 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 words on half-sheets of paper. 

 One of the.<;o half-sheets he folded into two, and gave to 

 Catherine [Mrs. Dickens] to hold. 'MadauK-,' he says 

 aloud, 'will you think of any class of objects'!' 'I have 

 done so.' 'Of what class, madam'?' 'Animals.' 'Will 

 you think of a particular animal, madam V ' I have done 

 so.' ' Of what animair 'The lion.' ' Will you think of 

 another class of objects, madam r 'I have done so.' ' Of 

 what class r 'Flowers.' ' The particular flower 1' 'The 

 rose.' ' Will you open the paper you hold in your hand 1' 

 She opened it, and there was neatly and plainly written in 

 pencil : The Lioiu The Rose. Nothing whatever had led 

 up to these words, and they were the most distant con- 

 ceivable from Catherine's thoughts when she entered the 

 room." 



Unless we suppose that by some amazing feat of leger- 

 demain the conjuror, after Mrs. Dickens had named the 

 rose and the lion, substituted for the paper in her hand one 

 on which he had written those two words, doing this in 

 the momentary interval between her naming the rose, and 

 opening the paper in her hand, we must suppose that he 

 influenced her mind in some way (the determination of 

 which is what science yet has to seek) to think first of a 

 lion, then of a rose. The interpretation of the trick as a 

 feat of lefjcrdemain is, of course, quite out of the question. 

 There were thousands of objects of which ^Irs. Dickens 

 mi"ht have thought first, thousands of which she might 

 have thought next : therefore millions of combinations of 

 two objecte of which she might have thought. The con- 

 juror could not possibly, then, have had ready to hand, 

 anion" a multitude of papers, one containing in right order 

 the two Mrs. Dickens had selected. He could not possibly 

 have written those two names on a piece of paper in the 

 moment between her answering " the Rose " and opening 

 the paper in her hand at his request. Still less could he have 

 combined (in this momentary interval of time) the .iccoiu- 

 plishment of this foat, with the extraction of one paper 

 from her hand and the substitution of another, without any 

 knowledge of the change either on her part or on that of 

 the audience, including such a keen observer as her 1ms- 

 band It seems certain then that the conjuror guided her 

 mind by will power to think of the objects whose name* 

 he had already written on the paper. 

 (To he fonlinued.) 



Tkrbific TiiUNDKR-sTOBSi AT TlKRLiN.— A terrific- thnndemtorm 

 visito.l nerlin on Monday, tho 2911. ..It. Fro,n ''^'fl'"-^' '7° "»""';■. 

 ,m..t three tho firo bripndc wore su.nmono. .m fewor 'h"" ''^"''J 

 oiKht times to oxtinRuish fires catiscl by ''«''«'"";?• '"^''.^'"rr;! 

 no serious confl^prations. The storm was confinod to Borlin and .ta 

 immediate ncighbonrhood. 



