June 23, 1881] 



NATURE 



171 



of the Atlantic as far south as the Ashley River in South 

 Carolina. The Esquimaux race no doubt accompanied 

 these animals into the Gulf States, just as it did in 

 France as far south as the Pyrenees. By the deposit of 

 this vast pile of moraine matter, sand, clay, scratched 

 rocks and huge boulders, the valleys by which our rivers 

 had previously flowed into Lake Erie were filled up so that 

 the waters were turned southward into the Ohio." 



" THOUGHT-READING" 



'T'HE public mind has of late been somewhat agitated 

 ■•• by the doings of a Mr. Bishop, who has come before 

 the world of London society in a capacity no less startling 

 than that of a professed reader of thought. Armed with 

 a favourable letter of introduction from Dr. W. B. Car- 

 penter, he has not only taken by storm the general public 

 and daily press, but also succeeded in convening an 

 assembly of scientific men to witness his performance, 

 which in point of numbers and importance resembled in 

 miniature a soiree of the Royal Society, while still more 

 recently he has had the honour of exhibiting his powers 

 before the Heir Apparent to the Crown. There is no 

 doubt that Mr. Bishop owes this wide and sudden cele- 

 brity to the patronage which was extended to him by the 

 great opponent of all humbug ; and although Dr. Car- 

 penter doubtless intended his letter to exert a salutary 

 influence by recommending Mr. Bishop to the attention 

 of the credulous, it is to be regretted that it served to 

 recommend him also to the attention of the scientific. 

 This is to be regretted, because the result was to endow 

 the powers which were afterwards exhibited with a 

 fictitious degree of importance in the eyes of the public, 

 and also to bring a large number of distinguished men 

 into the somewhat undignified position of acting the 

 stalking-horse to Mr. Bishop's notoriety. But however 

 this may be, it seemed to Prof. Croom Robertson worth 

 while to make a more careful trial of Mr. Bishop's powers 

 than waspossible in the first cro.vded assembly, and he 

 therefore' invited Mr. Francis Gallon, Prof. E. R. Lan- 

 kester, and myself, who were all present on the first occa- 

 sion, to join him in an investigation. When we had 

 assented to the proposal, Mr. Bishop was invited to meet 

 us at Prof Croom Robertson's house. He immediately 

 accepted the invitation, and it is but just to state that 

 throughout the investigation which followed he placed 

 himself entirely in our hands, and with the utmost good 

 nature submitted to all our requirements. He professes 

 that he is himself ignorant of his modus operandi, and 

 merely desires that this should be adequately investigated 

 and satisfactorily explained. 



Two meetings were arranged. At the first, which was 

 held on May 2S, Prof. Lankester was not able to attend, and 

 his place was taken by Mr. Leslie Stephen. Mr. Alfred 

 Sidgwick was also present. At the second meeting, held 

 on June 11, there were present as before. Prof. Croom 

 Robertson, Mr. F. Galton, and myself, but Mr. Leslie 

 Stephen and Mr. Alfred Sidgwick were absent, while 

 Prof. Lankester was present. The room in which both 

 meetings were held was a double drawing-room of 

 the ordinary shape of those which usually have folding- 

 doors ; here however the folding-doors were absent. The 

 extreme length of the room was 36 feet, the width of 

 its front part was 19 feet, and of its back part 12 

 feet. 



First, Iilr. Bishop was taken out of the room by me to 

 the hall down stairs, where I blindfolded him with a 

 handkerchief ; and, in order to do so securely, I thrust 

 pieces of cotton-wool beneath the handkerchief below the 

 eyes. In all the subsequent experiments Mr. Bishop was 

 blindfolded, and in the same manner. While I was doing 

 this, Mr. Sidgwick was hiding a small object beneath one 

 of the several rugs in the drawing-room ; it having been 



previously arranged that he was to choose any object 

 he liked for this purpose, and to conceal it in any part of 

 the drawing-room which his fancy might select. When he 

 had done this the drawing-room door was opened and 

 the word "Ready" called. I then led Mr. Bishop up 

 stairs, and handed him over to Mr. Sidgwick, who at 

 that moment was standing in the middle line between the 

 two drawing-rooms, with his back to the rug in question, 

 and at a distance from it of about 15 feet. Mr. Bishop 

 then took the left hand of Mr. Sidgwick, placed it on his 

 (Mr. Bishop's) forehead, and requested him to think con- 

 tinuously of the place where the object was concealed. 

 After standing motionless for about ten seconds Mr. 

 Bishop suddenly faced round, walked briskly with Mr. 

 Sidgwick in a direct line to the rug, stooped down, raised 

 the corner of the rug, and picked up the object. In doing 

 all this there was not the slightest hesitation, so that to 

 all appearance it seemed as if Mr. Bishop knew as well 

 as IVir. Sidgwick the precise spot where the object was 

 lying. 



This is Mr. Bishop's favourite experiment; so I may 

 give some of our other observations relating to it before 

 passing on to the variations which we introduced. It 

 was soon found that he succeeded much better with some 

 of us than with others ; so at the second meeting, in order 

 to make a numerical comparison, he was requested to try 

 two experiments with each of the four persons who were 

 present. With Mr. Galton, Prof. Robertson, and Prof. 

 Lankester he failed utterly, while with myself he suc- 

 ceeded once perfectly and the second time approximately. 

 For on the first occasion I concealed a pocket-matchbox 

 upon the top of a book behind the leather lap of a book- shelf. 

 After feeling along the rows of books for some time he 

 drew out the one on which the matchbox was lying. In 

 the second experiment I placed a visiting-card on 

 the key-board of a grand piano and closed the cover. 

 After going about the room in various directions for 

 a considerable time he eventually localised the piano, 

 and brought his finger to rest upon its upper sur- 

 face about six inches from the place where the card 

 was lying. It will thus be seen that his success with 

 me, although so much better than with any of the other 

 three persons present that evening, was not so immediate 

 and precise as it had been with Mr. Sidgwick the evening 

 before. It has also to be mentioned that in one of the 

 experiments which he tried with Prof. Robertson the 

 evening before, he was, after a good deal of feeling about, 

 successful in localising a particular spot on an ordinary 

 chair which Prof. Robertson had selected as the spot to 

 be found. From this it will be seen that it made no 

 difference whether a particular article or a particular spot 

 was thought of ; for if the subject thought of was a certain 

 square inch of surface upon any table, chair, or other 

 object in the room, Mr- Bishop, in his successful experi- 

 ments, would place his finger upon that spot. Neither 

 did it make any difference whether the article or place 

 thought of was at a high or a low elevation. Thus, for 

 instance, in one of the experiments I placed a small 

 pencil-case high up in the chandelier of one of the 

 drawing-rooms. There was first a great deal of walk- 

 ing about in various directions, examining tables, book- 

 shelves, &c., so that it was thought that the experiment 

 was about to prove a failure. (It may here be mentioned 

 parenthetically that in all the' experiments tracings were 

 taken of the routes which Mr. Bishop traversed, but it seems 

 needless to occupy space with recording the analysis o 

 these results.) Then, while feeling over the surface of a 

 tabl- in the other drawing-room, and not far frorn the 

 corresponding chandelier, Mr. Bishop suddenly pointed 

 at arm's length vertically to the ceiling. He remained 

 motionless in this position for a few seconds, and then 

 set off at a brisk pace in a straight line to the other 

 drawing-room, until he came beneath the other chandelier. 

 As his finger was all this time pointing to the ceiling, it 



