July 22, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



41 



The treatment has not been carried on long enough to enable an 

 accurate estimate of its true value to be formed. 



Dr. H. C. Wood states that the method has been used in the Phila- 

 delphia Hospital in a large number of cases, and that a personal 

 inspection shows that the statements made by the French observer 

 are correct, and that there seems to be no doubt that under the 

 treatment there is rapid alteration of some cases of phthisis for the 

 better. Dr. Wood thinks that Bergeon is wrong in supposing that 

 tlie natural waters are superior to the artificial. In Philadelphia the 

 bottle is charged with ten grains each of chloride of sodium and 

 sulphide of sodium, and this answers for a number of patients. 

 The amount of sulphuretted hydrogen received by each patient is 

 unknown and very variable, and is verj' small. Dr. Wood thinks 

 that the evidence is already sufficient to indicate that we are in the 

 presence, of a very important addition to medical therapeutics, and 

 that it is of vital importance to decide the mode in which the treat- 

 ment acts. 



The experiments of Dujardin-Beaumetz show that the sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen is the medicinal agent, and not the carbonic-acid 

 gas. He thinks it improbable that the good achieved is the result 

 of any parasiticidal influence. There is, at present, no proof that 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, when it does good in phthisis, acts by killing 

 the bacilli, and there is still less proof that it in any way increases 

 the direct resistive powers of the individual to the action of the 

 bacilli. It is probable that Bergeon's plan is simply a means of 

 making an application of sulphur to the pulmonic mucous mem- 

 brane and tissue, and this view is confirmed by the benefit result- 

 ing from the treatment of asthma and pulmonic catarrh by the 

 same method. Dr. Wood had under his care a patient who had 

 met with a railway accident, followed by pleurisy and pneumonia, 

 whose symptoms led him to believe she would die. He employed 

 the gaseous injection, and at the time of his writing he considered 

 her as convalescent. In this case, although rectal injections were 

 at first employed, subsequently Dr. Wood gave by the mouth the 

 sulphuretted hydrogen in saturated solution artificially prepared, 

 and the effects were apparently the same. 



In order that the solution may be uniform in strength. Dr. Mar- 

 shall of the University of Pennsylvania has devised an apparatus 

 by which it may be made by the patient at his own home. The 

 liquid is sweetish, and not at all unpleasant to the taste. 



From the foregoing rhu7ni of what is being done abroad and in 

 this country in testing the efficacy of Bergeon's method, it will be 

 seen that the evidence is gradually accumulating to determine its 

 efficacy. It is still too early to declare that tuberculosis is curable, 

 and that the method by which the cure is to be effected has been 

 discovered ; at the same time much may be hoped for from a thera- 

 peutic agent which has the support of so many well-known authori- 

 ties in medical science. We deem the matter of sufficient import- 

 ance to bring it thus fully before our readers, and shall keep them 

 informed on the subject from time to time. 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 

 The Natural History of Error 



There is always a strong psychological interest in the study of 

 such phenomena as the English Psychic Research Society investi- 

 gate, apart from all considerations of the ultimate bearing on the 

 truth of any theor>'. No mattter whether houses really are 

 haunted, or the raps made by spirits, or thought transferred from 

 mind to mind ; it will be of great value to ascertain how belief 

 in these unusal manifestations arises and progresses, to be on the 

 alert for facts apparently favoring their genuineness but really 

 pointing to obscure psychological processes which might other- 

 wise be overlooked. These important side-issues and preliminary 

 investigations have been much neglected by the English society, 

 and it is an encouraging circumstance, that, in their most recent 

 issue, they make an important step towards making good this 

 neglect. 



Messrs. Richard Hodgson (now secretary of the American 

 society) and S. J. Davey contribute a highly important paper on 

 ' The Possibilities of Mal-Observation and Lapse of Memory from 

 a Practical Point of View.' Mr. Davey became interested in spirit- 

 ualistic phenomena several years ago, and was so deeply impressed 

 with what he saw, as to be on the high-road to conversion, when 



he gradually gained a truer insight, and through skill and prac- 

 tice can now perform many of the medium's favorite manifesta- 

 tions. His specialty is the slate-writing phenomena, — ' psycography ' 

 s the technical word, — and in these he has achieved great success, 

 his performance having been declared superior to Englinton's. Mr. 

 Davey, under the assumed name of Clifford, gave sittings to friends 

 of Mr. Hodgson and others : he did this, not as a medium, took no 

 fee, but simply posed as a phenomenon, asking his spectators 

 to watch him as they would a conjurer, and afterwards to send him 

 a detailed written account of what they had seen. These accounts 

 are all published, and are extremely instructive. What was really 

 done is here accurately known, and a comparison of this with the 

 accounts of the ' sitters ' at once shows how reputed marvels come 

 to being, simply by inaccurate description. One must remember, 

 too, that Mr. Davey was decidedly in a less advantageous position for 

 deceiving and exciting wonder than a professed medium ; for the 

 latter, at the worst, deals with a person who has a little belief in 

 the possibility of some supernatural agency, and this remnant of 

 belief induces a mental attitude that does not watch trifling move- 

 ments, slight delays, and so on. The witness of a conjurer's per- 

 formance has an interest in minimising the mystery of the tricks. 

 Some of Mr. Davey 's sitters had no notion that they were to wit- 

 ness mere slight of hand, others more or less strongly suspected it, 

 and a few were as much as informed of it beforehand. It is ex- 

 tremely interesting to see how the repo-t of each is modified by his 

 previous knowledge. One gentleman, whom Mr. Davey met at a 

 stance, spoke very disparagingly of the performances of an amateur 

 conjurer known as Mr. A., and remarked that Mrs. Sedgwick's at- 

 tempt to explain ' psycography ' by such powers were totally inade- 

 quate : after the performance, he declared that what he had just 

 seen through ' Mr. Clifford ' was more conclusive of the existence 

 of supernatural powers than the evidences furnished by a distin- 

 guished medium. The joke of the story is that the amateur con- 

 jurer Mr. A., ' Mr. Clifford,' and Mr. Davey are all one and the 

 same person. 



None of the ' sitters ' were able to explain how the thing was 

 done, though one gentleman ventured the information that he was 

 sure it was not done in such and such a way. Had he omitted the 

 'not,' he would have been nearer right than any. Some observed 

 a few points correctly, but most had simply to record what they 

 saw. On reading these reports, many a reader will imagine that 

 he would certainly not commit such an error in description ; this is 

 assuredly an illusion. Some of the reports are exceptionally good. 

 To describe accurately is a rare gift. It means scientific success. 

 It is possible only after repeatedly witnessing the same perform- 

 ance. This mal-observation is natural ; its absence is the ex- 

 ception. 



It is time to turn to Mr. Hodgson's analysis of the kinds of error 

 which these reports show. There are four convenient groups of 

 such errors. First, are errors of ' interpolation ; ' something is in- 

 serted as having happened which really did not happen : the subject 

 declares he examined slates when really he did no .such thing. Second, 

 errors of ' substitution ; ' the subject declares he examined the 

 slate in every detail, when really he only glanced at it. Third, errors of 

 'transposition,' in which the event is correctly described, but is de- 

 scribed as happening later or earlier than it really did (many a repu- 

 tation has been made by skilfully utilizing this tendency). Last, errors 

 of ' omission,' in which events apparently trifling are not noticed at 

 all. These it is the object of the medium to induce by distracting 

 the attention in one way or another ; and it is just through exag- 

 gerations and misrepresentations, which these erroneous tendencies 

 bring about, that the simple doings of the mediums become mar- 

 vels in the mouths of enthusiastic narrators. It is all a question of 

 attitude : what is utterly unimportant to observe, if the medium is 

 believed to be acting under the control of spirits, becomes the most 

 important, if he is regarded as a trickster. It has been a stumbling- 

 block to many minds to understand how mediums could acquire 

 such great reputations as wonder-workers, if they really did nothing 

 more than these simple tricks. The mystery of this falls away if 

 we remember that the power of accurate description is a rarity, 

 and that, as is here experimentally proven, the amount and kind of 

 distortion which mal-observation and errors of memor}' produce is 

 perfectly sufficient to make a spiritualistic marvel of a conjurer's trick. 



