476 Further Experiments [October, 



again. Careful experiments were made to measure the 

 force both of gravitation and of levitation thus communi- 

 cated to the substances under trial, and an ingenious plan 

 was adopted by which Count de Gasparin was enabled to 

 obtain a rough numerical estimate of the power of the 

 psychic force in each individual. The author finally arrived 

 at the conclusion that all these phenomena are to be 

 accounted for by the action of natural causes, and do not 

 require the supposition of miracles nor the intervention of 

 spirits or diabolical influences. He considers it as a fact 

 fully established by his experiments, that the will, in certain 

 states of the organism, can act at a distance on inert matter, 

 and most of his work is devoted to ascertaining the laws and 

 conditions under which this action manifests itself. 



In 1855, M. Thury, a Professor at the Academy of 

 Geneva, published a work,* in which he passed in review 

 Count de Gasparin's experiments, and entered into full 

 details of researches he had been simultaneously carrying 

 on. Here, also, the trials were made with private friends, 

 and were conducted with all the care which a scientific man 

 could bring to bear on the subject. Space will not allow me 

 to quote the valuable numerical results obtained by 

 M. Thury, but from the following headings of some of his 

 chapters 5 it will be seen that the enquiry was not conducted 

 superficially : — Facts which Establish the Reality of the 

 New Phenomenon ; Mechanical Action rendered Impossible; 

 Movements effected without Contact ; The Causes ; Condi- 

 tions requisite for the Production and Action of the Force ; 

 Conditions for the Action with Respect to the Operators ; 

 The Will ; Is a Plurality of Operators Necessary ? Pre- 

 liminary Requisites ; Mental Condition of the Operators ; 

 Meteorological Conditions; Conditions with Respect to the 

 Instruments Operated upon ; Conditions relative to the 

 Mode of Action of the Operators on the Instruments ; 

 Action of Substances interposed ; Production and Trans- 

 mission of the Force ; Examination of the Assigned 

 Causes ; Fraud; Unconscious Muscular Action produced in 

 a particular Nervous State; Electricity; Nervo-magnetism; 

 M. de Gasparin's Theory of a Special Fluid; General Ques- 

 tion as to the Action of Mind on Matter. 1st Proposition ; In 

 the ordinary conditions of the body the will only acts directly 

 within the sphere of the organism. 2nd Proposition : 

 Within the organism itself there are a series of mediate 

 acts. 3rd Proposition : The substance on which the mind 



* Geneva; Librairie Allemancle de J. Kessmann. 1855. 



