40 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. IV., No. 75. 



this is a very useful and much-needed text- 

 book, and will exert a strong influence to ex- 

 tend the knowledge of the correct method of 

 the comparison and combination of observa- 

 tions, which is so essential, not only to the 

 progress of astronomy and geodesy, but to 

 physics and chemistry as well, and to every 

 branch of science which deals with refined 

 measurements of quantity of any kind by the 

 help of instruments of precision. 



THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RE- 

 SEARCH. 



Proceedings of the Society for psychical research. 

 Vol. i. (containing parts i.-iv.). London, 

 Trubner fr Co., 1883. 337 p. 8°. 



The four reports of the Society for psychical 

 research which have been issued at intervals 

 during 1882 and 1883 have now appeared in 

 the form of a handsome volume, and it cannot 

 be denied that the}' constitute a formidable 

 body of evidence in favor of certain beliefs 

 which have hitherto been looked upon with 

 peculiar suspicion and distrust. A brief re- 

 sume* of the testimony does not do it justice, 

 for it derives its weight from the cumulative 

 effect of its large amount. No one who is in- 

 terested in bringing fresh regions of ignorance 

 under the domain of scientific investigation 

 should fail to read the proceedings for him- 

 self. 



The society was organized on Feb. 20, 1882 ; 

 but several of its members had been engaged 

 in private research in the same direction for 

 some years before. Its object was stated to 

 be the investigation of an important bod}' of 

 remarkable phenomena, resting upon the testi- 

 mony of man} 7 competent witnesses, including 

 observations recently made by scientific men of 

 eminence in various countries, and prima facie 

 inexplicable on any generally recognized hy- 

 pothesis. The distinction of its founders is 

 such as to completely dissociate it from the 

 race of the long-haired, and to insure at once 

 respectful consideration for whatever facts it 

 vouches for. They include such names as 

 Balfour Stewart, Arthur Balfour, Professor Bar- 

 rett, Edmund Gurney, F. W. H. Myers, Arch- 

 bishop French, and Professor Henry Sidgwick 

 (the president) . The members are not com- 

 mitted to any theory, and are not advocates 

 of any cause. It is their intention to remove, 

 if possible, what they justly say is a great 

 scandal, — the existing state of absolute doubt 

 as to whether phenomena testified to by a large 



number of generally credible witnesses, and of 

 great scientific importance if true, can be prop- 

 erly authenticated or not. Their experiments 

 are conducted with the most rigid precautions 

 against deception and mistake, and, what is 

 equally important, recorded with scientific pre- 

 cision. Six committees were formed for the 

 consideration respectively of thought-reading, 

 mesmerism, Reichenbach's experiments in re- 

 gard to a peculiar sensitiveness to electric cur- 

 rents, apparitions and haunted houses, physical 

 phenomena, and the collection and collation 

 of existing materials bearing on the history 

 of these subjects. Of their several reports, 

 those of the committee on thought-reading, or 

 thought-transferrence, as they call it later, are 

 the most striking. The signification of the 

 term ' thought-transferrence ' is limited to the 

 communication of a vivid impression or a dis- 

 tinct idea from one mind to another, without the 

 intervening help of the recognized organs of 

 sensation. No account is taken, very naturally, 

 of experiments in which there is physical con- 

 tact between the persons concerned, or in which 

 there is the slightest possibility of conveying 

 information by sight or hearing. The extreme 

 perfection to which a code of signals may be 

 brought leads the committee to distrust all 

 observations where two particular persons are 

 necessary for the results obtained. Their most 

 remarkable subjects for thought-transferrence 

 have been found in a family in Derbyshire, that 

 of Mr. Creery, a clergyman of high character, 

 whose integrity has, as it happens, been excep- 

 tionally tested. He has five daughters, of ages 

 between eleven and eighteen, all thoroughly 

 healthy, and as free as possible from morbid or 

 hysterical symptoms. All of these children 

 except the youngest are able to designate cor- 

 rectly, without contact or sign, an object fixed 

 on in the child's absence, — not, indeed, every 

 time, but far more frequently than probability 

 would allow as the result of chance. The child, 

 on returning to the room, stands close to the 

 door, amid absolute silence, with her eyes on 

 the ground : often she does not return, but 

 guesses from the adjoining room, with the door 

 closed. The children have been experimented 

 upon at their home by the committee, by Pro- 

 fessor Barrett, by Mr. and Mrs. Sidgwick, and 

 by Professor Balfour Stewart, as well as at 

 the houses of different members of the com- 

 mittee at Cambridge and at Dublin. The ob- 

 jects guessed have been chiefly cards from a 

 full pack, and numbers between ten and one 

 hundred ; but remarkable success has been 

 obtained, also, in guessing names chosen at 

 random, as in the following list : — 



