December 10, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



527 



denly manifest all the signs of intoxication. Dr. 

 Crothers concludes,!", that symptoms of alcoholic 

 poisoning cannot be trusted as evidence of the 

 immediate use of alcohol ; 2'', that the excessive 

 use of alcohol leaves a permanent defect or im- 

 press on the brain, which will go down into the 

 future with great certainty. The author says that 

 he presents these facts as a sort of preliminary 

 survey of a comparatively unknown field. The 

 subject is of so great and so far-reaching interest, 

 that we trust the survey will be speedily pushed 

 to completion. 



At the last general meeting of the English 

 society for psychical research there was some 

 discussion over Mr. Myers's paper on multiplex 

 personality, which was published in the Nineteenth 

 century for November, and an extended account 

 was given by Mr. Myers of some observations 

 made by Mr. Gurney, Dr. A. T. Myers, and him- 

 self at a meeting in Paris of the Societede psychol- 

 ogic physiologique. At their conclusion, Prof. 

 Henry Sidgwick, who was occupying the chair, 

 made some remarks on the general subject of 

 psychical research, which, both because of their 

 import and the distinguished reputation of the 

 speaker, will undoubtedly carry much weight 

 and attract very general attention among scien- 

 tific men. Professor Sidgwick said that the soci- 

 ety for psychical research had now reached an 

 important crisis. The vrork pre^iared by Messrs. 

 Gurney, Myers, and Podmore, entitled ' Phantasms 

 of the living," — of which we will give our readers 

 an extended notice shortly, — was about to be put 

 in the hands of the public ; and for the first time 

 the scientific world would have before it in com- 

 plete form the grounds for the ' momentous con- 

 clusion ' announced some time ago by the authors 

 of the book, and in which he (Professor Sidgwick) 

 was entirely disposed to concur, — the italics are 

 our own, — that the mental state of one person 

 might affect another otherwise than through the 

 recognized channels of communication by the 

 senses, and even at a distance so great as to ren- 

 der a physical mode of communication very diffi- 

 cult to conceive. 



Were this result to be generally accepted by 

 scientists. Professor Sidgwick continued, even 

 those now most opposed to psychical research 

 would admit the great importance of the achieve- 

 ments. However, he did not anticipate any such 



sudden conquest of the scientific world, though he 

 thought that this failure to convince would result 

 only from paying no attention to either the evi- 

 dence or the reasoning of the authors of ' Phan- 

 tasms of the living.' Undoubtedly some, not a 

 few perhaps, would read the book and remain un- 

 convinced. Professor Sidgwick cited as ground 

 for this expectation the " thoughtful and in- 

 structive address of Prof. Simon Newcomb, pres- 

 ident of the American society for psychical re- 

 search, published last summer. Professor New- 

 comb had undoubtedly given serious and candid 

 attention to the subject before pronouncing the 

 discouraging opinion that the work of his society 

 had " almost entirely removed any ground which 

 might have existed for believing thought-trans- 

 ferrence a reality." While welcoming this candid 

 criticism from Professor Newcomb and others. 

 Professor Sidgwick could not accept it as valid, 

 for it mainly rested on the fact that the English 

 society had constructed no theory of thought- 

 transferrence. 



To this Professor Sidgwick answered, and we 

 think his answer fully meets the objection, that 

 the establishment of the fact of thought-transfer- 

 rence, and the framing a theory to account for 

 and explain that fact, are two very different 

 things. The one cannot be legitimately rejected 

 because the other is not immediately forthcoming. 

 Still the crucial point is to exclude, in the experi- 

 ments, all communications through the recognized 

 channels of sense; and Professor Sidgwick ex- 

 pressed the hope that Professor Newcomb, and 

 any others who shared his opinion, would indi- 

 cate exactly how, in their view, the expei'iments 

 could be made more conclusive. Professor Sidg- 

 wick's entire address was calm and judicial, and 

 his avowal of his belief in the possibility of 

 thought-transferrence, while guarded, is a serious 

 blow to those who have been doubting the value 

 of the very carefully and conscientiously con- 

 ducted investigations and experiments of the 

 English society for psychical research. 



That Pasteur's views are not accepted by all 

 was shown by the criticism passed upon his recent 

 report which was read at the Academy of sciences, 

 and to which our Paris letter alludes in this num- 

 ber of Science. In Pasteur's report there were in- 

 cluded 1,700 French who have been inoculated 

 for rabies. M. Colin, a veterinary sm-geon, takes 



