48 A. G. Bell—Eaxploring for an imbedded bullet 
reply we were requested to make the experiment upon the per- 
son of the President next morning. 
On Monday morning (August lst, 1881) we accordingly re- 
moved our apparatus to the Executive Mansion. 
The late President Garfield—During the former experiment 
(July 26) a sudden sonorous effect had been observed upon 
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not perfectly balanced, and any irregularity of this kind 
ploring instrument should have been at that very time so near 
the suspected seat of the ball, and this led to the thought that 
Pe after all the bullet bad been the cause of the sound. 
felt confident that the new instrument (fig. 18) would at 
once decide the question, for the extreme hearing distance of 
the former apparatus (fig. 18) was only 6, and the apparatus 
shown in fig. 18 was so superior in this respect that if the 
sound had really been due to the bullet we should obtain with 
the new instrument distinct and well-marked effects. When 
the new explorer (fig. 18) was passed over the suspected spot 
nothing was heard excepting a slight pulsating sound as the 
instrument was moved to and fro. This was evidence to me 
that the former sound had been of accidental origin, whether 
the bullet was there or not. With the view of eliminating any 
error of observation cansed by the pulsations due simply to 
the movement of the instrument, I lifted the latter (without 
changing the inclination of the coils) to a height of about 50 
centimeters above the body of the President, and moved it to 
and fro in as nearly as possible the same way I had done at the 
lower elevation. 
presumed that if the pulsations heard were due simply to 
the movement of the instrument, they should occur with equal 
strength at the two elevations; but if any portion of the sonor- 
ous effect was due to the influence of the bullet, the pulsations 
at the two elevations would be different in intensity. I was 
struck by the fact that, although the sonorous pulsations were 
very feeble, they were sensibly louder when the instrument 
was close to the surface of the body than when it was raised. 
Continuing the exploration, I found a considerable area over 
which similar effects were noticed, but upon carrying the in- 
