SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



From a circular signed by Elliott B. Page, 

 F.T.S., general secretary for America, it seems 

 that the American board of control of the 

 Theosophical society held a session at Cin- 

 cinnati on July 4, and, presumably among 

 other business, passed a resolution to the effect 

 " that the Theosophical society shall assume 

 and exercise supervision of the American 

 society for psychical research." This board 

 of control thereupon ' authorized and required ' 

 one of their number. Professor Elliott Coues, the 

 well-known ghost-smeller, " to act as censor 

 of the said American society for psj'chical re- 

 search, and to publicly review and criticise 

 any and all of the proceedings, transactions, 

 bulletins, or other printed matter which the 

 said society may publish, at his judgment and 

 discretion." The board further "expressly 

 requires him, when any fact in psychic science 

 shall have been satisfactorily established by 

 the American society for psychical research, 

 to explain such fact to the said [American] 

 society according to the doctrines, and upon 

 the principles of psychic science, of which the 

 Theosophical society is the custodian in the 

 United States." 



The labor of sifting the evidence in regard 

 to ps3'chical phenomena is no mean one ; and 

 we feel sure that the managers of the Ameri- 

 can society for psychical research will feel 

 deeply indebted that one so well posted in the 

 phenomena of the occult world should have 

 been appointed to the duty of aiding them, 

 pointing out their errors when they may have 

 gone astray, and informing them when they 

 have made a discovery. To be sure, on ac- 

 count of our kindly feeling toward Professor 

 Coues, we declined last winter to publish some 

 of his statements in regard to ghosts which 



No. ISO. — 1885. 



he had seen, felt, heard, and smelled, but 

 which were afterward published by our less 

 thoughtful contemporary. The nation. Pos- 

 sibly the members of the Theosophical society 

 ma}' have seen more ghosts than have been 

 favored to our vision, and, considering them- 

 selves well posted, have felt justified and called 

 upon to put forward Professor Coues as a 

 public censor. Now, what body will come 

 forward to ' assume and exercise ' supervision 

 of the American board of control of the 

 Theosophical society? 



Although the conflict over the evolution of 

 man is practically ended so far as the general 

 question in the opinion of scientific biologists 

 is concerned, yet the special question through 

 what series of forms man has been evolved is 

 still unsettled. In regard to the descent not 

 only of the vertebrates and the various classes 

 of vertebrates, but also of the various orders 

 of mammals, our knowledge has been rapidly 

 extended, and we can now outline with some 

 degree of accuracy the genealogical history of 

 the higher animals. Of some forms we can 

 give with remarkable precision the exact an- 

 cestry for some distance, but man is not one 

 of these forms. The origin of a species may 

 be ascertained either by direct observation or 

 by inference : the former is the method of 

 paleontology ; the latter, of embryology and 

 morphology. Since the paleontologist has as 

 yet gathered no material to trace the immedi- 

 ate ancestry of man, we are obliged to trust to 

 the indications of the embryologist, who finds 

 in the foetal structures hints of ancestral 

 organization, which, properly utilized, guide 

 investigation to sure results. A most inter- 

 esting step in advance is the discovery by Pro- 

 fessor Fol, noted in another column, that the 

 human embryo has four temporary caudal ver- 

 tebrae, which must be interpreted as proof that 

 man is derived from a long-tailed animal. 

 Evidence is thus accumulating that the human 



