November 2, 1899] 



NATURE 



ided to the best place for sinking for water. Further, 

 It the sensation enables him to judge the depth as 

 well as the quantity of water which is to be obtained. 

 The twig serves as a kind of indicator ; it is not abso- 

 lutely essential, but he prefers to go to work in the 

 recognised way ; he believes " using a rod is the most 

 successful and satisfactory to the public." So he cuts a 

 forked stick of white thorn or hazel, as he finds these 

 woods best. Ash is too sensitive, oak too sluggish, so 

 the depth is over- or under-rated with these woods, while 

 willow is too soft, so that it turns loo easily and becomes 

 eless. The depth of the water is estimated from the 

 iction or velocity of the rod and the amount of pressure 

 upon the body . . . the yield by the strength and number 

 of strata or streams which converge to the Spring Head. 

 . . . The principle of its action is as a steam gauge on a 

 boiler or engine, indicating the amount of pressure of the 

 steam." 



Mr. Tompkins apparently is convinced of the certainty 

 of the method, for he says 



" I should like to mention the fact that I have never 

 had an engagement in which I have not found a spring 

 if one existed." 



Mr. Tompkins cites X-rays as an instance where a 

 genuine physical agent exists where only a few years 

 ago such action would have been considered impossible 

 by scientific men ; why, therefore, should there not be an 

 emanation or " an efifluvia" from the running water which 

 might be detected by a sensitive person ? I will make Mr. 

 7"ompkins a present of another analogy even more to the 

 point. Gravitation, which on a large scale is of the most 

 stupendous importance, so much so that even chemical 

 energy sinks into insignificance by comparison, is yet so 

 feeble when exerted between moderate quantities of matter 

 that it could never have been discovered in the laboratory, 

 and even now, with all our delicate instruments, is not 

 provided against as a disturbing factor. By specially 

 refined means, however, it can be detected and measured 

 in the laboratory. Why should there not be an influence 

 rising vertically from running water which we cannot 

 detect in the laboratory, but which a few sensitive people 

 might feel ? We know that quite ordinary people can 

 detect and be greatly affected by the difference in the air 

 of two neighbouring places — one bracing, one relaxing — 

 which cannot be directly traced to a chemical or physical 

 cause.. Again, it is maintained that there are people who 

 are instantly aware if a cat is in the room, even though 

 no one in the room may have seen or heard it, and who 

 cannot remain unless the poor beast is removed. I am 

 not referring to those who only find this out after they 

 have seen the cat ; that is merely an excess of affectation 

 which should have been spanked out of them when they 

 were young. The first sort, if they really exist, are 

 certainly incredibly sensitive and are far more, worthy of 

 being considered supernatural beings than even Mr. 

 Tompkins, if we may judge him by his book. It is 

 hardly logical, therefore, to assert that a specially sen- 

 sitive person cannot possibly be affected by the existence 

 of water near or below him, but it is very difficult to see 

 by what process the emanation is constrained to move 

 vertically. Any one would have expected that if the 

 *' Spring Head " were, say, 50 feet down, there would be 

 a greater effect upon the diviner at, say, 10 feet away 

 NO. 1566, VOL. 61] 



from the vertical, but upon the ground, than exactly over 

 it, and, say, 20 feet above the ground ; but no, for Mr. 

 Beaven, of Hereford, in a> letter quoted, states that Mr. 

 Tompkins in one case located a spring when on the top 

 of a monument, while in another case he actually 



"had to climb to the top of a haystack to locate the 

 exact spot where a downward shaft would disclose the 

 spring." 



Again Mr. Tompkins on one occasion, much to the 

 surprise of the owner, found indications of water crossing 

 under a lawn where as a fact a water-pipe had been laid. 

 Do the effluvia escape through the metal, or did Mr. 

 Tompkins feel the presence of the metal itself? One of 

 Mr. Tompkins' strongest arguments is that he adopts 

 the professional custom of the water-finder, which is 

 "No water, no pay," even though, to use his own 

 words, 



"to-day his name stands boldly before the British Public 

 — in fact absolutely alone — as the only discoverer and 

 guarantor of the ' Head of the Spring.'" 



There seem really to be two questions: (i) Can the 

 water-finder by his sensations, whether with or with- 

 out a divining rod, indicate the position and yield of a 

 hidden spring without employing any knowledge of geo- 

 logical conditions or experience as to the lie and appear- 

 ance of the land ? (2) if so, has the divining-rod anything 

 to do with his success ? Of course, if he succeeds in con- 

 sequence of mere reasoning based upon geological know- 

 ledge or experience, while none the less useful to the 

 public, he is, as far as divining is concerned, a fraud. 



Reasoning beings would require very strong evidence 

 to be absolutely satisfied that the first question can be 

 answered in the affirmative. Yet a gentleman known to 

 me personally, with mechanical and scientific ability and 

 plenty of common sense, is persuaded from what he has 

 seen that a water-finder (in this case not Mr. Tompkins) 

 can locate hidden water, and that he does so by feeling 

 a sensation. This water-finder asserts freely that the 

 divining-rod has nothing to do with the business at all. 

 This gentleman's son, formerly a student at the Royal 

 School of Mines, now a professional engineer, in whose 

 ability and honesty I have absolute faith, went round 

 with the water-finder, and noticed that he, too, was 

 cognisant of some sensation when the water-finder 

 found indications of water. Mr. Tompkins quotes, and 

 I suppose correctly quotes, a letter from the Chairman 

 of the Quarter Sessions for Herefordshire to the County 

 Council Times, in which he states that out of curiosity 

 he went round with a water-diviner and found that he 

 could use the rod successfully himself. While he has 

 no occasion to do this professionally, he now uses it to 

 discover leaks in the embankment of a large piece of 

 water on his estate caused by rats or rabbits which he 

 could not easily find otherwise. Scores of examples 

 might be given. 



As 1 have stated, it does not seem a logical position to 

 take up to say that the gift as distinct from the art is 

 impossible, even though we may require a better quality 

 rather than quantity of evidence than is available to be 

 satisfied as to its reality. But the gift, if it exists, is not 

 sufficiently dramatic to impress the public. It is here, to 

 my mind, that the rod comes in. The forked twig, held 



