1885.] Floods, their History and Relations. 1159 
essential element of scientific precision of investigation. It will 
be best, therefore, to confine ourselves to the results attained by 
the London Society of Psychic Research, since the experiments 
of this society have been conducted under strict test conditions, 
and the reputation of its members as working scientists gives a 
weight of credibility to their testimony. After the elimination of 
every imaginable source of error, results were attained which 
seem to prove incontestibly the direct intercommunication, of 
mind with mind. These results are given in full detail in the 
published Proceedings of the society, but can be only briefly 
glanced at here. They consist of what is called thought transfer, 
mesmeric experiments, phenomena of apparitions and other 
strange conditions of mental manifestation. 
In the thought transfer experiments we have striking evidence 
of the action of mind on mind without the aid of the senses. In 
these experiments objects, numbers, &c., were named, and draw- 
ings reproduced with no other guide than the mental concentra- 
tion of the persons who alone knew the character of the object 
or drawing. The successful results formed so large a percentage 
of the whole as to leave chance quite out of the category. There 
seemed no room for doubt that the thought in the mind of the 
impressing persons had directly acted on the mind of the sensi- 
tive, without possible sensory connection. In explanation of 
these and other phenomena, Messrs. Gurney and Meyers offer a 
theory of telepathy, or direct communication of mind with mind 
without sensory aid. But their theory is imperfect in that it lacks 
the conception of any physical medium of intercommunication as 
here advocated. 
(To be continued.) 
FLOODS, THEIR HISTORY AND RELATIONS. 
BY WILLIAM HOSEA BALLOU, 
LOODS vary in their intensity and duration according to 
their geographical range. There are two great flood ranges 
` in the United States lying nearly at right angles, one of duration 
and the other of intensity. The first is the Mississippi river and 
its confluents, and the second the Ohio and tributaries. 
The Mississippi and Missouri rivers lie in a north and south 
line, and their floods are continuous from early spring until the 
middle of July, on account of the slow advance of the sun’s heat 
VOL, XIX—NO. XII. 76 
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