TIIO UGHT-EEADING. 



321 



critic, present during the whole course of the experi- 

 ment, would have carried away a far more vivid 

 impression of their genuineness than the bare printed 

 record can possibly convey. Of more real importance 

 is the hypothesis of exalted sensibility of the ordinary 

 sense organs. We could discover no indication of this 

 in any of its known forms ; but by way of precaution, 

 as has been already stated, we commonly avoided 

 even whispering any word, number, or name that we 

 had selected ; and the position of the excluded child, 

 when the door was opened, would in every case have 

 satisfied the most exacting critic. The explanation 

 which might be sought in unconscious indications 

 given by the sitters, and especially in the movement 

 of the lips, has been already adverted to. Coming as 

 we did to this investigation with considerable previous 

 experience of the same kind, we were throughout 

 strictly on our guard against giving such indications 

 ourselves ; the possibility of their being given by the 

 family was, of course, excluded where the family were 

 ignorant of the selected word or thing ; and on the 

 remaining occasions our perpetual vigilant watch 

 never detected a trace of anything of the kind. The 

 absolute docility of the children both the guesser 

 and the others in taking any position in the room 

 that we indicated, was naturally an assistance to our 

 precautions. It may be further mentioned that, on a 

 previous visit made by one of us, the child called the 

 required name through the shut door, or from an ad- 

 joining room, having thus been completely isolated 



