Feb. 29, 1872] 



NATURE 



343 



ETHNOLOGY AND SPIRITUALISM 



THE Academy of February 15 contains a review 

 by Mr. A. R. Wallace, of my '' Primitive Culture," 

 where he raises a point on wliich I wish to make some 

 further observations ; but inasmuch as the form of publica- 

 tion of that journal adapts it rather to criticism than to 

 correspondence, I ask leave to change the venue, and 

 make my remarks in the columns of Nature. 



In " Primitive Culture " (Vol. i., pp. 279-84), I have 

 given an account of the widespread popular belief in 

 " were-wolves," including under this heading the analogous 

 belief in man-hya;nas, man-tigers, &c. According to this 

 superstition, certain human beings are considered to be 

 temporarily transformed into wolves, hyasnas, or tigers, 

 and in these shapes to go about preying on mankind. 

 While expressing an opinion that " the origin of this idea 

 is by no means sufficiently explained," I have offered two 

 suggestions as bearing on its prevalence in the world : 

 first, that such notions are consistent with the famihar 

 doctrines of the lower culture as to transmigration of souls 

 and transformation of bodies ; second, that certain insane 

 persons do actually suffer under the delusion that this 

 transformation (the idea of which popular belief has put 

 into their minds) has really happened to themselves, and 

 they prowl about like wild beasts accordingly. Mr. 

 Wallace disapproves of this treatment of the sub- 

 ject, and propounds a view of his own, as follows : "A 

 recognition of the now well-established phenomena 

 of mesmerism would have enabled Mr. Tylor to 

 give a far more rational explanation of were-wolves 

 and analogous beliefs than he offers us. Were-wolves were 

 probably men who had exceptional power of acting upon 

 certain sensitive individuals, and could make them, when so 

 acted upon, believe t'ley saw what the mesmeriser pleased ; 

 and who used this power for bad purposes. This will ex- 

 plain most of the alleged facts, without resorting to the 

 short and easy method of rejecting them as the results of 

 mere morbid imagination and gross credulity." 



Let me now first observe that Mr. Wallace's explanation 

 does not supersede my suggestions ; indeed, he meets 

 neither of the points which I endeavour, however tenta- 

 tively, to deal with. He offers nothing like a reason why 

 knavish sorcerers in districts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 America should have all hit upon the device of imposing 

 the same peci;Iiar delusion upon their dupes ; nor does 

 he account for the fact, vouched for by satisfactory 

 evidence, that in certain cases the supposed were-wolf is 

 himself utterly persuaded of the reality of his own trans- 

 formation, and goes to execution believing in his offence. 

 The proofs are, I think, convincing, here as elsewhere in 

 the history of magic, that sorcerers were originally and 

 still are usually more or less believers in their own magical 

 pretensions — though very many used and use fraudulent 

 means to enhance their supposed powers ; and some, who 

 may be reckoned among the vilest of the human race, are 

 simply professional impostors. Yet Mr. Wallace's sug- 

 gestion, though it does not do away with the need of mine, 

 seems to me valuable as a well-directed attempt to explain 

 a part of the matter left untouched by me. His theory 

 that a were-wolf may be a person possessed of the pecu- 

 liar faculty exerted by mesmerists, of making others de- 

 lusively imagine that they see and hear what in fact does 

 not happen, is a theory at any rate plausible, and possibly 

 on the track of explaining much of the power belonging 

 to sorcerers, savage and other. (I may remark inci- 

 dentally that the power of mesmerists in producing 

 anesthesia and working on the imagination of their pa- 

 tients has never been contradicted by me.) Now, without 

 committing myself to Mr. Wallace's idea, beyond saying 

 that it is plausible and worth pursuing, I proceed to apply 

 it somewhat larther. Granting that a were-wolf, in virtue 

 of being a person capable of exerting mesmeric influence, 

 can delude people, and even assembhes of people, into 

 fancying that they perceive monstrous unrealities, the 



question arises, Was any one with this were-wolf-faculty 

 present in the room when Mrs. Guppy made her cele- 

 brated aerostatic entrance ? Is Mr. D. D. Home a were- 

 wolf? Is a professional "medium" usually or ever a 

 person who has the power of acting on the minds of 

 sensitive spectators, so as to make them believe they 

 see what he pleases ? Pursuing this subject yet a 

 step farther, I have now to call Mr. Wallace's at- 

 tention to an interesting fact. The sorcerers of 

 the Abipones of South America, who by mere roaring 

 within their tents threw the credulous savages into 

 agonies of panic terror, caused by vivid belief that tiger- 

 spots were in the act of coming on their (the sorcerers') 

 bodies, that their nails were growing into claws, that they 

 were actually transforming themselves into tigers, deadly 

 though invisible — these sorcerers were actually the pro- 

 fessional spiritualistic mediums of the tribe, part of whose 

 business it was to hold intercourse with the spirits of the 

 dead, causing them to appear visibly, or carrying on 

 audible dialogues with them behind a curtain. Mr. 

 Wallace, as the most eminent scientific man who has 

 taken up what are known as modern " spiritualistic 

 doctrines," no doubt has the ear of all who hold these 

 doctrines. I think it may bring about investigations 

 leading to valuable results if Mr. Wallace will inform 

 spiritualists with the weight of his authority that he 

 believes in the existence of a class of men who, in his 

 words, have exceptional power of acting upon certain 

 sensitive individuals, and can make them, when so acted 

 upon, believe they see what the mesmeriser pleases, and 

 who use this power for bad purposes. 



With reference to other parts of Mr. Wallace's review 

 of my work, I have to thank him for several valuable 

 comments, while, at the same time, 1 venture to express 

 an opinion that some of his objections to my ethnological 

 treatment ol spiritualism are unreasonable, and especially 

 I wonder that so serious a student of natural science 

 should make it a ground of complaint against me that in 

 treating of difficult and important problems I consider it 

 necessary to bring forward copious and widely distributed 

 evidence. But rejoinders to reviews are seldom desirable 

 in themselves, and my justification for the present note 

 lies in the importance of drawing attention to a matter 

 worth considering by persons on both sides of the 

 spiritualistic controversy. E. B. Tylor 



DREDGING EXPEDITIONS 



THE occasion of an American Dredging Expedition 

 recently starting, leads us to make the following re- 

 marks on such Expeditions in general, more especially 

 upon one whose programme has lately come to our ears. 



England has perhaps of all countries done the most 

 for dredging. We have only to point to such names as 

 Forbes, Ball, McAndrew, Wallich, Jeffreys, Wyville 

 Thomson, and Carpenter, as among the landmarks in 

 the cause. Indeed, for many years coast dredging has 

 been a popular amusement with the marine naturalist 

 and collector, and many a prize has been in this manner 

 turned up. 



In 1S68 Messrs. Carpenter, Thomson, and Jeffreys were 

 fortunate enough to obtain the use, free of expense, of a 

 Government steamer, and, armed with a substantial grant 

 from the Royal Society, tried their luck in the deep sea. 

 The following year the Government again gave them the 

 use of a vessel, and the Royal Society a further grant of 

 200/. Again in 1870 they went out at the country's ex- 

 pense. The great and important results obtained during 

 these cruises arc pretty well known to the scientific 

 world, and it is unnecessary to repeat them here. 



In the year last mentioned an unheard-of circum- 

 stance took place. An English yachtsman, Mr. Marshall 



