86 THE DIVINING ROD 



accurate report of the proceedings and their result in 

 the only serious attempt on record to test the virtues 

 of the divining rod. 



Mullins arrived at Osterley in the forenoon. He was 

 at perfect liberty to go about and inspect the field of 

 operations, and I think I remember being told he had 

 done so. After luncheon he presented himself to the 

 visitors and set to work. Sir James Crichton-Browne 

 took command of the inspecting staff. Mullins, having 

 a supply of light, forked hazel rods, rather thicker than 

 an ordinary drawing-pencil, and about a foot or fifteen 

 inches long, seized one of them with a prong in each 

 hand, and began to move about with the point of the 

 rod about a foot above the surface of the ground. At 

 two places on the gravel sweep in front of the house 

 the rod turned up, Mullins stopped, and told us that 

 a spring would be found at those points. The same 

 happened at more than one place in the park, where 

 the surface was grassy. He showed us how the rod 

 twisted so violently that, when he held it tight, it 

 broke in his hand. Asked what his sensations were, 

 he replied that when the rod turned up he felt a ' kind 

 of a shivering ' passing upwards along his spine. He 

 stood on a plate of thick glass, and explained to us 

 that the rod then gave no sign, which, in his view, 

 showed that the influence was electricity. Sir James 

 then proposed that Mullins should go through his 

 performance blindfold, to which the operator made 

 no objection. A large handkerchief was tied over his 

 eyes, and he made ready to begin again. 



