128 



♦ KNOWLEDGE <» 



[JuLV 21, 1882. 



-ional fariuors. The fino weather continued thi-ough 

 s.itunlay and on till Sunday night, when the rain began 

 mil continued, witli the disastrous results above described. 

 I hope this Note may induce others to repeat luy obser- 

 wition by looking for these fairy rings, and, when tliey 

 lind them, inquiring whetlier any kind of lieap of vege- 

 table matter formerly occupied the area included within 

 their circuit. 



THOUGHT-READING. 



By tuk Editor, 



Sl'PPO.'^lNCi trickery eliminated by the various tests 

 employed by Professor liarrett and his co! leagues, 

 the point to bo determined would be, of course, the method 

 l>y which the person qviestioned was led to a correct reply. 

 It must be remembered that the necessity of guarding 

 i-ainst trickery interfered to some degree with the prose- 



■ ution of a systematic inquiry into the laws underlying 

 the observed phenomena. It is unfortunate that in in- 



■ [uiries of the sort this diliiculty always arises. Thus the 

 leal phenomena underlying so-called mesnierism are full 

 of interest, and might be readily made the subject 

 i«f scientific inquiry, were it not for the trickery prac- 

 tised by many professed mesmerists, who, to impress 

 :iudiences, pretend to do what, in reality, is outside their 

 [lowers. In fact, the most satisfactory experiments in mes- 

 merism or hypnotism, or whatever we choose to call the 

 mental phenomena involved, arc actually those performed 

 on animals, simply because animals cannot be persuaded to 

 1»- tricky " subjects." That thought-reading should in like 

 manner be tested by experiments on animals may seem a 

 wild and fanciful idea ; yet the responses of the Mastilf 

 Kepler, d( scribed in the series of papers on " Intelligence 

 in Animals (Vol. 1.), show that a dog may possess a 

 powir of reading his master's thoughts nkin to that which, 



in the Thought-Keading hypothesis, is possessed by some of 

 ourselves. 



To return to Professor J5arrett's inquiries : — 

 " We endeavoured," he says, " to gather such indications 

 ;is we could of the way in which the impression flashed on 

 the mind of the child. The first question concerns the 

 respective parts in the phenomena played by mental <//« 

 Mid mental rar. Among the experiments which we 

 counted as failures were very many where the number or 

 ■mrd selected was guessed, as it were, piecemeal. For 

 instance, the number 3.5 was selected, and the guesses were 

 t."* and 1.3. So .")" was attempted as 47 and 4.5. So with 

 cards : the seven of diamonds being chosen, the guesses 

 were six of diamonds and seven of hearts ; the three of 

 spades being chosen, the guesses were queen of spades and 

 three of diamonds. These cases seem somewhat in favour 

 •f mental eye, the similarity in sound between three and 

 thirty in 4. '5 and .3.5, or between five and fifty in 4.5 and 

 •57, not Uring extremely strong ; while the picture of the 

 three or the five is identical in either pair. A stronger 

 argument on the same side is the fre<iucnt guessing of 

 king for knave, and vice versA. On the other hand, 

 names of apjiroximatc sound (also reckoned as failures) 

 were often given instead of the true one ; as ' Chester ' for 

 Leicester, 'Biggis' for Billings. Frogmore was guessed 

 first as ' Freemore ;' Snelgrove was given as ' Singroro,' 

 the last part of the name was soon giv(;n as ' grover,' and 

 the attempt was then abandoned ; the child remarking 

 afterwards that she thouglit of 'Snail ' as the first syllabKf, 

 Wut it had seemed to her too ridiculous. One of us has, 

 moreover, successfully obtained from the maid-servant a 



German word of which she could have formed no visual 

 image. The children's own account is usually to the cflect 

 that they ' seem to see ' the thing ; but this, perhaps, does 

 not come to much, as a known object, however suggested, 

 is sure to be instantly visualised. Another question would 

 be as to the eflect of greater or less di.stiinco between the 

 sitters and the guesser, and of the inter\ ciition of obstacles. 

 It will have been seen that, in the exiuiiments con- 

 ducted by one of us on a former occasion, the inter- 

 vention of a door or wall seemed to make no differ- 

 ence. It would be interesting, again, to discover whether 

 numerical increase in the observers increa-ses the cflect, and 

 how far the presence of special persons is inllueutial. In 

 our experience the presence of the father — though by no 

 means essential, and very often dispensed with — seems 

 decidedly to increase the peicentage of successes. A still 

 more interesting and important question concerns such 

 conditions of success and failure as may lie in the circum- 

 stances, disposition, general capacity, and mood of the 

 subject, including such points as consanguinity and fami- 

 liarity with members of the circle, and also in the temper 

 and manner of the latter. We are dealing, not with 

 chemical substances, but with childish minds, liable to be 

 reduced to shyness and confusion by anything in the aspect 

 or demeanour of visitors which insjnres distaste or alarm. 

 The importance of a ' childly way with children,' and the 

 slightness of the diflerences of manner which will either 

 paralyse them into stupidity or evoke unexpected intel- 

 ligence and power, are comnionjilaces to anyon(! whose 

 duties have lain among them ; and attention to such 

 points m.ay be as prime a factor of success in these 

 delicate experiments as any other. The delicacy of the 

 conditions was illustrated in our own inquiry partly by 

 the inexplicable fluctuations of success and failure 

 allbcting the whole household, partly by the wide dif- 

 ference observed in the cajiacities of particular members 

 of it from day to day. The common notion that sim- 

 plicity, and even comparative blankness of mind, are 

 important conditions, seems somewhat doubtfully borne 

 out by our experience ; but of the favourable efrect of 

 freedom from constraint, and of a spice of pleasurable 

 excitement, we can speak with entire assurance. The par- 

 ticular ill-success of a sitting which we held one close 

 afternoon was attributed by the children them.selves — and 

 it seemed to us correctly — to inertness after thc^ir early 

 dinner. We could find no resemblances between these 

 phenomena and those known as mesmeric ; inasmuch as a 

 perfectly normal state on t\\n jiart of the subject seemed 

 our first prerequisite. Nor did wo find any evidence that 

 'strength of will' has any particular cilect, except so far as 

 both subject and circle may exercise it in patient attention. 

 On one or two occasions it seemed of advantage to obtain 

 vivid simultaneous realisation of the desired word on the 

 part of all the sitters ; which is most easily tiflected if some 

 one slowly and gently claps time, and all mentally summon 

 up the word with the beats." 



This last ob.servation is significant, and if it could be 

 confirmed by a sufficient series of experiments, would go 

 far to establish tlie theory that mind can act on mind at a 

 distance — that is, without actual contact by which mind 

 impressions can be conveyed by a sort of unintended 

 signalling. 



On this point, and especially on the theoiy of brain- 

 waves, which has' been suggested in explanation of the 

 numerous stories related of apparitions seen by friends at 

 a distance at the time of the death of tlie persons so seen, 

 or of some serious accident befalling them, we shall have 

 a few words to say in our next. 



(To he continued.) 



