330 



NATURE STUDIES. 



vivid simultaneous realisation of the desired word on 

 the part of all the sitters ; which is most easily effected if 

 some one slowly and gently claps time, and all mentally 

 summon up the word with the beats." 



This last observation is significant, and if it could 

 be confirmed by a sufficient series of experiments, 

 would go far to establish the 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 theory 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 the person so seen, or of some serious accident 

 befalling them, we shall have a few words to say 

 further on. 



In endeavouring to explain those phenomena which 

 come out, after careful elimination of doubtful cases, 

 we must be careful to avoid equally undue confidence 

 and scepticism. For my own part, I am disposed to 

 agree with Professor Barrett in considering that the 

 assumption of a priori impossibility is more to bo 

 deprecated in the present state of our knowledge of 

 Nature. There is very little fear that science will 

 accept any wild hypothesis in explanation even of 

 phenomena most unlike those which have hitherto 

 been brought within its sphere; for the corrective 

 capacity of science, already strongly developed, in- 

 creases daily. On the other hand, there is always 



