610 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 201. 



although briefly. To enter at length on a 

 still debatable subject would be unduly to 

 insist an a topic which — as Wallace, Lodge 

 and Barrett have already shown — though 

 not unfitted for discussion at these meet- 

 ings, does not j^et enlist the interest of the 

 majority of my scientific brethren. To ig- 

 nore the subject would be an act of coward- 

 ice — an act of cowardice I feel no tempta- 

 tion to commit. 



To stop short in any research that bids 

 fair to widen the gates of knowledge, to re- 

 coil from fear of diflBculty or adverse criti- 

 cism, is to bring reproach on science. There 

 is nothing for the investigator to do but to 

 go straight on; 'to explore up and down, 

 inch by inch, with the taper his reason ;' to 

 follow the light wherever it may lead, even 

 should it at times resemble a will-o'-the- 

 wisp. I have nothing to retract. I adhere 

 to my already published statements. In- 

 deed, I might add much thereto. I regret 

 only a certain crudity in those eai-ly exposi- 

 tions which, no doubt justly, militated 

 against their acceptance by the scientific 

 world. My own knowledge at that time 

 scareelj' extended beyond the fact that cer- 

 tain phenomena new to science had as- 

 suredly occurred, and were attested by my 

 own sober senses and, better still, by auto- 

 matic record. I was like some two-dimen- 

 sional being who might stand at the singular 

 point of a Riemann's surface, and thus find 

 himself in infinitesimal and inexplicable 

 contact with a j)lane of existence not his 

 own. 



I think I see a little farther now. I have 

 glimpses of something like coherence among 

 the strange elusive phenomena; of some- 

 thing like continuity between those unex- 

 plained forces and laws already known. 

 This advance is largely due to the labors 

 of another association of which I have also 

 this year the honor to be President — the 

 Society for Psychical Research. And were 

 I now introducing for the first time these 



inquiries to the world of science I should 

 choose a starting-point different from that 

 of old. It would be well to begin with 

 telepathy; with the fundamental law, as I 

 believe it to be, that thoughts and images 

 may be transferred from one mind to an- 

 other without the agency of the recognized 

 organs of sense — that knowledge may enter 

 the human mind without being communi- 

 cated in any hitherto known or recognized 

 ways. 



Although the inquiry has elicited impor- 

 tant facts with reference to the mind, it has 

 not yet reached the scientific stage of cer- 

 tainty which would entitle it to be usefully 

 brought before one of our Sections. I will, 

 therefore, confine myself to pointing out the 

 direction in which scientific investigation 

 can legitimately advance. If telepathy 

 take place we have two physical facts — the 

 physical change in the brain of A, the sug- 

 gester, and the analogous physical change 

 in the brain of B, the recipient of the sug- 

 gestion. Between these two physical events 

 there must exist a train of physical causes. 

 Whenever the connecting sequence of inter- 

 mediate causes begins to be revealed, the 

 inquiry will then come within the range of 

 one of the Sections of the British Associa- 

 tion. Such a sequence can only occur 

 through an intervening medium. All the 

 phenomena of the universe are presumably 

 in some way continuous, and it is un- 

 scientific to call in the aid of mysterious 

 agencies when, with every fresh advance in 

 knowledge, it is shown that ether vibrations 

 have powers and attributes abundantly 

 equal to any demand — even to the trans- 

 mission of thought. It is supposed by 

 some physiologists that the essential cells 

 of nerves do not actually touch, but are 

 separated by a narrow gap which widens in 

 sleep, while it narrows almost to extinction 

 during mental activity. This condition is 

 so singularly like that of a Branly or Lodge 

 coherer as to suggest a further analogy. 



