116 



SCIEWCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 209 



numbers was ' transferred,' twenty or thirty 

 friends were asked to put prescribed questions 

 and tabulate the results. The results obtained 

 were entirely confirmatory of the so-called num- 

 ber-habit, and "it is clear that this varying pre- 

 dilection for different numbers materially vitiates 

 all reasoning based on the assumption that we 

 shall indifferently choose any number." Not 

 only are particular numbers favored, but there 

 are decided tendencies to select numbers on 

 certain principles : here, again, the results first 

 reached by Dr. Minot are corroborated. For ex- 

 ample : in 1,120 trials in which multiples of ten 

 would have been selected 109 times by the action 

 of chance, they were actually selected 307 times. 

 When persons were asked to choose a number (no 

 limits being set), it was found, that, in 172 trials, 

 84 chose numbers under 20 ; and 59 of these, num- 

 bers under 10. Yet, if you set 1,000 as the limit 

 unconsciously implied by each person, numbers 

 under 20 would occur only 3.26, and under 10 only 

 1.54 times. Again : when limits were set to the 

 numbers to be thought of, there was a strong dis- 

 position to avoid early numbers, and select those 

 near the farthest limits. The table recording the 

 result of the numbers persons are most likely to 

 choose is very suggestive, and should be com- 

 pared with the tables given in Dr. Minot's report. 



In short, as was recognized long ago by some 

 psychologists and writers on probabilities, the 

 human mind is not calculated to act like a die-box 

 or a raffling-wheel, and to have numbers chosen is 

 a different thing from having them drawn. In 

 fact, it is possible to suggest a certain kind of 

 number-preference by the framing of the question. 

 When the question read, ' Choose a number con- 

 taining three figures,' the digit 3 occurred more 

 than twice as often as it should have done by the 

 action of chance. Of course, this phenomenon is 

 not confined to numbers : guessing letters of the 

 alphabet, names of people and towns, and the 

 like, would be very apt to be unusually successful 

 by reason of independent similar brain- function- 

 ing. In choosing letters, three tendencies are ob- 

 served : 1", to choose A, B, and C (of 172 people, 

 37 chose A, 31 B, and 14 C) ; 2", to choose one's 

 own initial (this was done 27 times in 172 cases) ; 

 %°, to choose Z (12 times in 172 cases). 



The arguments in favor of supersensory thought- 

 transferrence would apply as well to the common 

 simultaneous discovery of new points in science 

 by widely separated observers, or even to the 

 similarity in customs of unrelated savage tribes 

 (which Mr. Tylor so interestingly describes and so 

 rationally explains), as to the number-coincidences 

 of the usual ' telepathic ' experiments. The same 

 causes that led to the development of the decimal 



system, or to the selection of certain numbers as 

 sacred or ill-omened, are still active in creating 

 the preference for certain numbers which is so 

 easily overlooked. Experiments taking this factor 

 into account can be devised, and, when the results 

 still leave a residue of unexplained phenomena, 

 it is time enough to begin to consider the remote 

 possibility of real telepathy. J. J. 



18 BOTANY A SUITABLE STUDY FOR 

 YOUNG MEN 9' 



An idea seems to exist in the minds of some 

 young men that botany is not a manly study ; 

 that it is merely one of the ornamental branches, 

 suitable enough for young ladies and effeminate 

 youths, but not adapted for able-bodied and vigor- 

 ous-brained young men who wish to make the 

 best use of their powers. I wish to show that 

 this idea is wholly unfounded, but that, on the 

 contrary, botany ought to be ranked as one of the 

 most useful and most manly of studies, and an 

 important, if not an indispensable, part of a 

 well-rounded education. In support of this view, 

 these four good and cogent reasons can be ad- 

 duced : — 



1. The study of botany is an admirable mental 

 discipline. Any education is defective which in- 

 cludes no training in the scientific method of 

 study ; that is, in developing the powers of care- 

 ful, minute observation and comparison in some 

 department of nature. By this means is acquired 

 the habit of investigation, or the seeking-out of 

 nature's mysteries by the use of one's own senses, 

 instead of trusting wholly to the observations of 

 others. This method of study may be learned 

 through any branch of science ; but botany pre- 

 sents this advantage, tliat it can be pursued with 

 less inconvenience and less expense than any 

 other. The mental training which botany affords 

 is very thorough. The details of plant-structure 

 are infinite, and essential peculiarities are often so 

 hidden as to be recognized only by the most mi- 

 nute investigation. This involves the use of the 

 microscope, which every educated man ought to 

 understand, since it reveals to the eye a newly 

 discovered and wonderful world, — a world of 

 which our grandfathers had but the faintest 

 glimpses, but which is scarcely inferior in interest 

 to that larger world which the unaided eye can 

 see. After this training of the powers of per- 

 ception and comparison, comes the process of 

 generalization, whereby the laws of vegetable life 

 are determined from the study of plant forms and 

 modes of growth. Thus is acquired the habit of 



1 From the first number of The Swiss Cross. 



