June 15, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



535 



occasion he enabled her to describe a particular 

 room, which she had never entered, but which 

 she described in perfect conformitj^ with his 

 recollection of it. It then occurred to him to 

 imagine a large open umbrella as lying on a 

 table in this room, whereupon the ladj' imme- 

 diatelj- exclaimed , ' I see a large open um- 

 brella on the table.' " 



Now, the fircts which these gentlemen are 

 trj-ing to establish are entirely antagonistic to 

 modern physiological views, as I have writ- 

 ten elsewhere {Neiv-Yorh medical record). It 

 is now believed that the senses were devel- 

 oped in order to enable the animal to adjust 

 itself better to its environment. They were 

 evolved primarilj' by the environment rather 

 than for it. And in the historj' of animal 

 evolution there are absoluteh' no data to en- 

 able us to _aceount for the existence of super- 

 or exti'a-sensorj' perceptive powers. If such 

 powers do exist, we must seriously alter oui' 

 views of evolution as regards physiological 

 functions. Their existence is therefore ante- 

 cedently most improbable, and the evidence 

 for the same demands the most rigid scrutiny. 

 So far, it by no means carries conviction. 

 Messrs. Gurney and Myers give us specimen 

 stories which are, for a large part, told by 

 women, or even by children. Some of them 

 are legendarj", the incidents dating back a cen- 

 tmy. The authors, perhaps, allow for uncon- 

 scious exaggeration, but it does not appear 

 so. They certainlj^ do not, in their estimate, 

 allow for the element of coincidence. Thou- 

 sands of 'impressions, dreams,' etc., occur 

 daily : we only hear of those which appear to 

 be true. 



Finallj'', and it is this point which I espe- 

 cially wish to bi'ing out, the London quasi- 

 scientists do not appear to be aware that there 

 is most likely such a thing as an enormous ex- 

 altation of the sense of vision. This possi- 

 bility ought certainlj- to be taken into account 

 in studying the class of phenomena under con- 

 sideration. 



As evidence of this power of visual exal- 

 tation, I beg to relate the following experi- 

 ment : — 



In the summer of 1881, the late Dr. George 

 M. Beard, Dr. William J. Morton, editor of 

 the Journal of nervous and mental diseases^ 

 of this citj', and myself, called bj' appointment 

 upon a Mr. Carpenter, who was a professional 

 mesmerizer, then stopping in this cit}-. Our 

 object was to test the alleged power of Mrs. 

 Carpenter, his wife, to read and see objects 

 when blind-folded. Mr. Carpenter was a man 

 of much intelligence, and, I believe, honest. 



though necessarily using a little humbug to 

 give more effect to his dramatic performances. 

 He knew perfectlv well that mesmerism was 

 merely a morbid psychological condition, not 

 involving anj' occult force. His wife was a 

 lady of about thirtj' years of age, of very 

 pleasing appearance, intelligent, refined in 

 manner, and evidentlj' of a highlj' sensitive 

 organization. She was easily susceptible to 

 her husband's influence, and could be hynpo- 

 tized by him. In the hypnotic condition, 

 at certain times, her visual sense appeared 

 to be enormouslv exalted. Dr. Beard had, 

 on several occasions, under suitable tests, 

 seen her read cards with ej'es closed and 

 bandaged. Sometimes, however, she had 

 failed. 



On the present occasion we were ushered 

 into the large back-room of a New- York 

 boarding-house, Mrs. Carpenter and her hus- 

 band being the only persons present besides 

 ourselves. It was broad daylight, and there 

 was no attempt to darkeu the room. Mr. 

 Carpenter hypnotized his wife so that, while 

 perfectly conscious of every thing, she could 

 not open her eyes. Her eyes were then ban- 

 daged with four handkerchiefs. Two were 

 folded, and laid as pads over each eye ; the 

 others were tied around the head. In addi- 

 tion, a strap was tied around just below the 

 nose. (I have bandaged my own eyes in this 

 fashion, and found that I could not distinguish 

 hght from darkness.) Mrs. Carpenter was 

 placed in a chair at one end of the room. Mr. 

 Carpenter's eyes were then bandaged, and he 

 was placed at the other end of the room, so as 

 to prevent an}- possible collusion. A pack of 

 cards which had been brought by Dr. Beard 

 was shuffled, and placed, with faces down, 

 upon a table beside Mrs. C. One of us then 

 took a card, and handed it to her. She held it 

 in one or both hands before her eyes, sometimes 

 pressing it upon her forehead. No questions 

 were asked by any one. Her husband remained 

 silent. She would first tell the color (red or 

 black) , then the kind (diamonds, spades, etc.) , 

 then the number of spots. Sometimes she 

 did it quickly, sometimes slowly : occasionally 

 she failed. Sometimes she could only tell the 

 denomination, and could not count the spots. 

 Dr. Morton had brought in his pocket a pri- 

 vate dinner-card with ' B. No. 9 ' printed 

 upon it. No one but himself had ever seen it 

 in his possession before. Mrs. C. took this 

 in her hand, and read it. The picture-cards 

 were sometimes distinguished also. The let- 

 ters and figures looked, she said, much magni- 

 fied. It generally' required several seconds 



