Jtme 12, 1884] 



NA TURE 



M5 



consider the bright ring they then saw as new. On looking over 

 my note-book I find I observed indications of such a bright ring 

 extending inwards as far as the limb of ball. The exact words 

 are, "I see a brighter line here," with a sketch according in 

 position with the position of the ring shown by Messrs. Henry. 

 The date of this observation is November 28, 1881, nh. 35m. 

 to uh. 55m. I had noticed a great difference in comparing this 

 observation with the fine sketch (given in " Instruments and 

 Publications of the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1845-1876") by 

 Trouvelot, made with the large telescope at Washington in 1875. 

 In this sketch this edge, that I saw bright and that Messrs. 

 Henry show brighter, is shown as dull and breaking up. It is 

 true that Trouvelot saw and sketched the other side of the rings, 

 but that will scarcely account for what is certainly a great differ- 

 ence. In the text relating to this drawing of Trouvelot's this 

 occurs : "Of this and the succeeding figures it may in general 

 be said that nothing is laid down which was not seen by more 

 than one observer. The exception to this is in the case of the 

 notches represented on the inside of the outer ring of Saturn, 

 which were seen by M. Trouvelot with the 15-inch telescope of 

 Harvard College Observatory, and again in Washington, and of 

 whose existence he has no doubt." 



It will be extremely interesting to know what M. Trouvelot 

 can now see with the same instruments, as the evidence of rapid 

 change is very strong. A. Ainslie Common 



June 



An Experiment in Thought-Transference 



Those of your readers who are interested in the subject of 

 thought-transference, now being investigated, may be glad to 

 hear of a little experiment which I recently tried here. The 

 series of experiments was originated and carried on in this city 

 by Mr. Malcolm Guthrie, and he has prevailed on me, on Dr. 

 Herdman, and on one or two other more or less scientific wit- 

 nesses, to be present on several occasions, to critically examine 

 the conditions, and to impose any fresh ones that we thought 

 desirable. I need not enter into particulars, but I will just say 

 that the conditions under which apparent transference of thought 

 occurs from one or more persons, steadfastly thinking, to another 

 in the same room blindfold and wholly disconnected from the 

 others, seem to me absolutely satisfactory, and such as to pre- 

 clude the possibility of conscious collusion on the one hand or 

 unconscious muscular indication on the other. 



One evening last week after two thinkers, or agents, had been 

 several times successful in instilling the idea of some object or 

 drawing, at which they were looking, into the mind of the blind- 

 fold person, or percipient, I brought into the room a double 

 opaque sheet of thick paper with a square drawn on one side and 

 a cross or X on the other, and silently arranged it between the 

 two agents so that each looked on one side without any notion 

 of what was on the other. The percipient was not informed in 

 any way that a novel modification was being made ; and, as 

 usual, there was no contact of any sort or kind, a clear space of 

 several feet existing between each of the three people. I thought 

 that by this variation I should decide whether either of the two 

 agents was more active than the other ; or, supposing them about 

 equal, whether two ideas in two separate minds could be fused 

 into one by the percipient. In a very short time the percipient 

 made the following remarks, every one else being silent : " The 

 thing won't keep still." " I seem to see things moving about." 

 " First I see a thing up there, and then one down there." " I 

 can't see either distinctly." The object was then hidden, and the 

 percipient was told to take off the bandage and to draw the im- 

 pression in her mind on a sheet of paper. She drew a square, 

 and then said, "There was the other thing as well," and 

 drew a cross inside the square from corner to corner, saying 

 afterwards, "I don't know what made me put it inside." 



The experiment is no more conclusive at evidence than fifty 

 others that I have seen at Mr. Guthrie's, but it seems to me 

 somewhat interesting that two minds should produce a discon- 

 nected sort of impression on the mind of the percipient, quite 

 different from that which we had formerly obtained when two 

 agents were both looking at the same thing. Once, for instance, 

 when the object was a rude drawing of the main lines in a 

 Union Jack, the figure was reproduced by the percipient as a 

 whole without misgiving ; except, indeed, that she expressed 

 a doubt as to whether its middle horizontal line were present or 

 not, and ultimately omitted it. Oliver J. Lodge 



University College, Liverpool, June 5 



The Earthquake 



Shortly after the shock of April 22 (which, by the way, was 

 felt here and in Doughty Street by people in bed at the time) I 

 commenced to collect evidence for the preparation of a detailed 

 report, at first with the object of placing the materials at the 

 disposal of any individual or Society that might be willing to 

 take the matter up, as I felt certain that such a visitation would 

 not be allowed to pass without attracting the attention of scien- 

 tific men. It afterwards occurred to me that, as the focus of 

 the disturbance was in East Essex, the most appropriate Society 

 to undertake the publication of the report would be the Essex 

 Field Club, within whose province the subject fairly comes. 

 Having secured the assistance of one of our members, Mr. 

 William White, I brought the matter before the meeting of the 

 Club on April 26, and, a week later, took the opportunity of 

 going over the districts most affected, taking notes and measure- 

 ments of the angles of cracks, twists of chimneys, the positions 

 of stopped clocks, and collecting all other information bearing 

 upon this which is certainly the most serious earthquake that has 

 been recorded in Britain. On this journey I was accompanied 

 by Mr. T. V. Holmes (late of the Geological Survey) and Mr. 

 William Cole (Hon. Sec. of the Club) ; Dr. Henry Laver and 

 Mr. J. C. Shenstone, of Colchester, giving us the benefit of their 

 local knowledge as guides. Starting from Colchester, we visited 

 Wivenhoe, Rowhedge, East Donyland, Abberton, Peldon, 

 West and East Mersea, Langenhoe, Fingringhoe, and the inter- 

 mediate hamlets. 



Hearing that my friend Mr. G. J. Symons had also been over 

 the ground, I communicated with him, and he kindly agreed to 

 place the whole of his materials, consisting of field-notes, maps, 

 correspondence, and newspaper reports, at my disposal as soon 

 as he had completed a short report which he was preparing for 

 his Monthly Meteorological Magazine, and which appears in the 

 May number of that excellent periodical. Mr. E. B. Knobel 

 (Sec. R.A.S. ), having also visited the district, has favoured me 

 with some notes and observations, and the local press having 

 taken the matter up on our behalf, a set of queries applying for 

 information on the most essential points has been freely circu- 

 lated throughout the county. As the result of our joint labours, 

 I now possess a vast amount of material that requires reducing 

 (both literally and in the astronomical sense), and upon which 

 I have been engaged for the past few weeks ; but as the com- 

 plete discussion of all the facts will take a considerable time, I 

 refrain for the present from expressing any views either in con- 

 firmation of or in opposition to those already put forward by 

 your correspondents. In the meantime I will ask permission to 

 appeal either directly or through your columns for further in- 

 formation from scientific observers. R. Meldola 



21, John Street, Bedford Row, June 7 



I NOTICE that in Mr. Topley's account of the earthquake in 

 your issue of May I (p. 17) there is no record of its having been 

 felt in any part of Surrey. In order that those interested may 

 fill in further points, I send you the inclosed interesting letter I 

 have received from Mrs. Bernard. I may also add that it was 

 felt near Farnboro' on the South- Western line of railway. 



Deepdale, Reigate, June 6 H. H. Godwin-Austen 



' ' Overross, Ros.', Herefordshire, June 2 



"I only felt it slightly, but quite decidedly. We were at 

 Bentsbrook on the Holmwood at the time. The house is rather 

 high, and I was sitting up in bed in an upstairs bed-room, when 

 at about 9.30 or perhaps a little sooner, I distinctly felt the bed 

 shake (from head to foot, I think west to east, not across) two or 

 three times, and after a pause shake again in the same way. I had 

 no watch to see the exact time, but I had heard the clock strike nine, 

 and guessed it was about twenty or twenty-five minutes past. I did 

 not see any furniture move, it was too slight for that. But I re- 

 marked on it to a servant who came up a short time after, and 

 said I feared there had been a dynamite explosion in London. 

 I was very much interested to see ' Earthquake in England ' in 

 the paper next morning, and to think that I had felt it so far off. 

 Mr. Charles Chaldecott (the doctor at Dorking) told m-! another 

 lady, I think in Dorking, had felt it too. 



" K. M. Bernard " 



Kohlrausch's Meter-Bridge 



Mr. Glazebrook, in commenting at the Physical Society on 

 my use of Kohlrausch's meter-bridge with the telephone for the 



