314 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 353 



I should know when I saw it. But I had no clew to the name of 

 house or street, till at last it struck me to test the value of the 

 crystal as a means of recalling forgotten knowledge. A very short 

 inspection supplied me with ' H. House ' in gray letters on a white 

 ground, and, having nothing better to suggest from any other 

 source, I risked posting my letter to the address so strangely sup- 

 plied. A day or two brought me an answer, headed ' H. House ' 

 in gray letters on a white ground." Again, " the question of 

 association, as in all cases of memory, plays an active part in this 

 class of crystal-vision. One of my earliest experiences was of a 

 picture perplexing and wholly unexpected, — a quaint oak chair, an 

 old hand, a worn black coat-sleeve resting on the arm of the 

 chair, — slowly recognized as a recollection of a room in a country 

 vicarage, which I had not entered and but seldom recalled since I 

 was a child of ten. But whence came this vision ? What associa- 

 tion has conjured up this picture ? What have I done to-day ? 

 ... At length the clew is found. I have to-day been reading 

 Dante, first enjoyed with the help of our dear old vicar many a year 

 ago." After these instances (and there are many more in some of 

 which the crystal is purposely resorted to, and often successfully, 

 to see if there be any unconscious information regarding the where- 

 abouts of a missing prescription or a lost key), we may agree with 

 the writer, that " one result of crystal-gazing is to teach one to 

 abjure the verb ' to forget ' in all its moods and tenses." 



Examples of the objectification of recent sensations are given, 

 but the point is clear enough without instances. Although the 

 author regards recent impressions as a less important element of 

 her dream life and her visualizations than older experiences, she 

 can none the less create a group of figures, and put them in the 

 crystal to see what they will do ; " and so far is one's conscious a 

 stranger to one's unconscious Ego, that I sometimes find their 

 little drama so startling and unexpected that I watch the scene 

 with curiosity and surprise." One more instance may be added. 

 The author wanted the date of Ptolemy Philadelphus, felt sure that 

 she knew it and connected it with some important event, but could 

 not recall it. The crystal showed her an old man, " dressed like a 

 Lyceum Shylock," and writing on a big book with massive clasps. 

 Wondering who he was, she decided to carry out a suggestion, and 

 look at the image through a magnifying-glass. The glass revealed 

 the characters as Greek, though the only characters recognized 

 were the numerals "LXX." Then it flashed on my mind that he 

 was one of the Jewish elders at work on the Septuagint, and that 

 its date, 277 B.C., would serve equally well for Ptolemy Philadel- 

 phus. It may be worth while to add, though the fact was not in 

 my conscious memory at the moment, that I had once learned a 

 chronology on a mnemonic system which substituted letters for 

 figures, and that the inemorza technica for this date was, " Now 

 Jewish elders indite a Greek copy." 



Our author adds a possible third class of crystal-visions, con- 

 cerning which she speaks with becoming caution and uncertainty ; 

 namely, those that may be connected with telepathy, clairvoyance, 

 and other doubtful faculties. It is true that historically this use of 

 crystal-vision is the most important ; and, if we could credit the 

 evidence of wonderful facts revealed by this means, we would in- 

 deed have to call in other means of explanation than those science 

 affords. But the methods of using this form of vision for purposes 

 of more or less conscious deception are so various, and lie so close 

 at hand (indeed, our author cites some pertinent cases in which 

 prophetic powers ascribed, alleged to a crystal- seer, were shown to 

 be groundless by the exercise of very ordinary precautions), that 

 we need hardly have recourse to untoward hypotheses as yet. As 

 is well remarked, " it is easy to see how visions of this kind, occur- 

 ring in the age of superstition, almost irresistibly suggested the 

 theory of spirit-visitation. The percipient, receiving information 

 which he did not recognize as already in his own mind, would in- 

 evitably suppose it to be derived from some invisible and unknown 

 source external to himself." A large class of prophecies, too, aid 

 in their own fulfilment ; and, in brief, this aspect of the topic pre- 

 sents nothing peculiar to itself, and may be dismissed with the 

 mention of it already made. 



We have illustrated in this study the subtilty of the relation be- 

 tween the conscious and the unconscious mental processes. We 

 see what a small proportion of the endless impressions that stream 



in upon us through the avenues of sense are consciously added to- 

 our mental storehouse, and what a very much larger portion must 

 be at the service of those lower strata of consciousness that at 

 times rise so unexpectedly and so mysteriously into the focus of 

 attention. And finally, just as much of the mystery that sur- 

 rounded the mesmeric phenomena fell away when men looked for 

 their explanation, not in some peculiar gift of the mesmerist, but in 

 the psychophysic constitution of the subject, so the phenomena 

 connected with crystal-vision become psychologically rational when 

 we seek their explanation, not in the magic properties of the crys- 

 tal, but in the mind of the seer. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The American Institute Fair in this city, which will close in a 

 few weeks, is well worth a visit from any person interested in the 

 progress made from year to year in applied science. The electrical 

 and mechanical exhibits are especially good. 



— The will of Henry J. Steere, one of the wealthiest men in 

 Providence, who died recently, gives away directly and in trust the 

 sum total of $[,139,000. The Rhode Island Historical Society 

 gets $10,000; the Tabor College in Iowa, $50,000; and Roanoke 

 College at Salem, Va., $25,000. 



— Dr. Frank S. Billings, late in charge of the patho-biological 

 laboratory of the State University of Nebraska, has removed to 

 Chicago, 111., to resume the study of the non-recurrent diseases of 

 children, — scarlet-fever, mumps, measles, and whooping-cough. 

 Dr. Billings has fitted up a laboratory at 3600 Michigan Avenue, 

 in which he proposes to prepare virus for the inoculation of swine 

 against hog cholera, and to continue the study of that subject. The 

 importance of such a laboratory to the stock-breeders of the country 

 may be great. 



— Leo Lesquereux, the Nestor of botanists in the United States 

 and a well-known student of paleontology, died recently at his 

 home in Columbus, O., at the age of eighty-two. Lesquereux was 

 born at Fleurier, near Neufchatel, in 1806. He was educated in 

 Neufchatel, and later occupied chairs at several European educa- 

 tional institutions. At twenty-five he became totally deaf. In 184S 

 he came to this country, influenced to this step by Agassiz. His 

 works on the mosses of North America in conjunction with Mr. 

 James, and on the fossil botany of the same region, are perhaps 

 the best known. 



— Mr. Henry O. Avery, in a letter to Building on the efflores- 

 cence on bricks, says, " During a recent trip abroad, I noticed in 

 several countries a common occurrence of exuding salts on the 

 surface of brick constructions. On questioning several foreign^ 

 architects about the cause and remedy, there seemed to be a variety 

 of opinions, and from the seeming contradictions I will note dowr^ 

 some : i. Sulphate of magnesia, due to the presence of iron pyrites 

 (sulphide of iron) in the clay. The action of sulphurous acid gen- 

 erated in the combustion of bituminous coal on the magnesia in 

 the clay changes the pyrites to a sulphate of magnesia. 2. Car- 

 bonate of soda, probably caused by the lime of the mortar acting 

 upon a silicate of soda in the brick. 3. Carbonate of lime, formed 

 by the leaching of lime from mortar, carbonated by the carbonic 

 acid in the air. 4. Silicate of soda, caused by using salt clay taken 

 near the sea. There is a common theory that the trouble is mostly 

 due to the action of mortar and the brick together ; yet the ' Epsom 

 salts ' have been known to appear in ornamental parapet walls 

 where there was no mortar, cement, or grouting of any kind. Some 

 say that bricks burned with wood-fire were exempt from the nui- 

 sance, but historical architectural records of Boston speak of ' white 

 saline coatings ' one hundred years ago, when wood only was used 

 for burning bricks. As to remedies, several are mentioned. The 

 commonest is water and muriatic acid ; but this does not always 

 decompose the sulphate of soda, and will not prevent it exuding 

 again. Oil in mortar, carefully laid, is supposed to prevent ' salt- 

 petring,' one gallon to a cask of lime, or two if cement is used ; but 

 this has failed as often as it has succeeded. English architects 

 quite frequently employ a solution of fatty matter, quicklime, and 

 cement-powder ; and the French and Swiss masons, a mortar 



