Octobek 17, 18S4.] 



SCIENCE 



373 



dence. The search after haunted houses is of a 

 different kind, but the result must be equally in- 

 conclusive : all that can be discovered is cases 

 in which the cause of some apparently singular 

 phenomena happened to be uncliscoverable. 

 The idea seemingly entertained by the psy- 

 chists — that the residuum, after they have elim- 

 inated all cases in which the natural causes 

 could be found, must be genuine — has no logi- 

 cal foundation. One can hardly lie on his bed 

 awake an hour after midnight without hearing 

 some sound the cause of which it is beyond his 

 power to guess ; and we do not see any essen- 

 tial distinction between this case and that of a 

 haunted house. 



The general question at issue is, whether there 

 is any such process as what the psychists very 

 happily denominate ' telepathy,' which may 

 be defined as feeling at a distance without the 

 intervention of any physical agent. And just 

 here we have the real point at issue between 

 them and those people ' of the earth, earthy,' 

 who think their work is all nonsense. The real 

 questions are two in number, — 



First, Can the mind be influenced by things 

 external to itself in any other way than by such 

 things acting physically upon the nervous sys- 

 tem? Second, Can the mind, by airy act of the 

 will, produce any effect outside of itself, except 

 through the agency of the organs of motion of 

 the body itself acting according to physical 

 laws? 



The two questions may, perhaps, be com- 

 bined into one by inquiring whether it is possi- 

 ble that mind can affect mind otherwise than by 

 some physical connection between the nervous 

 systems with which the two minds are associ- 

 ated. That there is a natural tendency to be- 

 lieve in the possibility of the so-called telepathy 

 is, no doubt, well known to all who have con- 

 sidered the subject. The frequently expressed 

 view that the mesmerizer influences his subject 

 by the mere act of his will, and especially the 

 readiness with which this view is received, may 

 be cited as an example. But it is none the 

 less true that the longer we live, the more evi- 

 dence we see that there is no such action. It 

 is true that this evidence is negative, and so 

 ma}' always lack something of being conclu- 

 sive ; yet the more closely we look into the 

 case, the less foundation we can see for any 

 positive belief in telepathy. We must remem- 

 ber that the physical connection through which 

 one mind affects another may be of the most 

 delicate kind ; may, in fact, nearly evade all 

 investigation. The slightest look, an un appre- 

 ciable motion of the muscles of the mouth or 

 eyes, made perceptible through the light which 



is reflected to the eye of the second person, 

 constitute a physical connection. Now, since 

 in the operations of mesmerism the subject is 

 always within easy sight or hearing of the oper- 

 ator, there is always room for the action of a 

 plrysical cause between the two through the 

 intervention of light or sound. Telepathy be- 

 tween the two could be proved only by finding 

 that the subject was affected by the mesmerizer 

 when the latter was not within sight or hearing 

 or knowledge of the former. 



The Society for psychical research has pub- 

 lished in its proceedings very detailed accounts 

 of a number of investigations undertaken by 

 its committees and members, some of which 

 are very striking. The report of the committee 

 on haunted houses, however, can hardly be 

 regarded by lookers-on as any thing better than 

 very scientific children's ghost-stories. The 

 extraordinary cases of events or accidents 

 happening to one person being reproduced in 

 the imaginations or visions of others at a dis- 

 tance, are nothing more than recitals of what 

 we know, from the theory of probabilities, 

 must be very frequent occurrences. A fea- 

 ture of these coincidences which ought not 

 to have escaped the notice of the society is, 

 that the} 7 have no feature in common by which 

 they can be traced to the action of a general 

 cause, and do not even tend to show that there 

 are particular persons who possess the faculty 

 of being influenced by telepathy. A very 

 striking case is that which most of our readers 

 ma} 7 have seen, in which a lady awoke under 

 the impression that she had received a blow in 

 the mouth at the very time when her husband, 

 a mile or two away, actually did receive such 

 a blow. Now, if this lady had repeatedly felt 

 her husband's impressions in this way, or if it 

 could be shown that a blow in the mouth or 

 on any other part of the person often makes 

 itself felt by telepathy, the case would be better 

 worth inquiring into ; but there is no common 

 feature of this kind in the cases as reported, 

 and the} 7 thus fail to supply good evidence that 

 they are any thing more than mere chance coin- 

 cidences. 



The only case that looks at all strong in 

 favor of telepathy is that in which one person 

 is made to draw figures similar to those thought 

 of by another in his neighborhood. If any of 

 the members of our home society can succeed 

 in making this mechanism work, they will have 

 something of great interest to show the critical 

 observer. But we apprehend that the incred- 

 ulous will, under almost any circumstances, 

 require stronger evidence than any which he 

 has any prospect of getting, to make him 



