SCIENCE. 



47 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous communi- 

 cdtions.] 



Relief to the Jeannette. 

 To the Editor of " Science :" 



In compliance with your request concerning my views 

 of the present probable status of the Jeannette, and es- 

 pecially the subject of a relief party to be sent to her, I 

 would state that not desiring to renew at length the 

 reasons set forth in the New York Herald, of January 

 1 2th, I will confine myself mainly to the few but import- 

 ant motives which point to the necessity of such a step 

 in so far as they concern the interest of science. The 

 urgency of immediate succor has been so thoroughly 

 dwelt upon by yourself and others interested, that it can 

 receive but little addition at my hands ; suffice to say 

 that the greater majority of Arctic accidents to naval expe- 

 ditions, which would demand assistance, are of a violent 

 character, such as wreck, ice-pressure, besettal and aban- 

 donment, etc., and which show plainly that rescue 

 here, like that in all other zones, must be immediate to 

 be effective in such emergencies. Also the necessity of 

 replenishing the weakened portion of DeLong's crew, 

 should they have been unfortunate in securing a suffi- 

 cient supply of fresh meat can not be too strongly pre- 

 sented, for such a circumstance might fatally compro- 

 mise an otherwise successful termination of the voyage, 

 and just at the critical period of the undertaking. In a 

 scientific point of view the field en'ered by the 

 yeannetie, and which would be entered by her relief 

 ship (which should carry a full and complete scientific 

 corps) is one of the most interesting character. Nearly 

 all of the Arctic estuaries of the Atlantic, have been more 

 or less covered by the scientist and their fields of geo- 

 graphy, physical and otherwise, their geology and 

 minerology, their fauna and flora and many other kin- 

 dred and interesting sciences, form huge volumes in the 

 many libraries accessible to the student of these various 

 topics, but on the Pacific side the many branches of 

 science there presented form a vast field of investigation 

 and research almost yet untrodden. That Lieutenant 

 De Long's expedition could circumscribe, even in outline, 

 this great theatre of undeveloped scientific resources is 

 clearly impossible, and there have been but few prede- 

 cessors along his route to show anything of value to 

 those most deeply interested. 



Every civilized nation has taken a public pride in bring- 

 ing to light all the scientific knowledge attainable, per- 

 taining to its own domain and its adjacent waters, ac- 

 knowledging defeat and chagrin where it has been left 

 to those differing in blood and allegiance to accomplish. 

 It is only the savage, the barbarian, and semi-civilized 

 community, that can allow these peaceful invasions with- 

 out patriotic mortification or national chagrin. The 

 Pacific Polar Seas are adjacent to the colonies of our 

 own country and those of Russia. The latter has no 

 great seaports or readily available fitting points in 

 hei Pacific coast whence an expedition may sail. 

 With us, on the contrary, our Occidental shores are 

 studded with goodly sized cities, one of which for such 

 a purpose is as perfect as any in the world. It is there- 

 fore the plain duty of America to harvest this field, at 

 least, even if the grain must be sent abroad to be 

 ground. 



It has also been proposed to establish permanent sta- 

 tions in the Arctic for scientific purposes, all nations 

 uniting, forming a grand international chain, whose 

 united observations will settle many disputed, and proba- 

 bly bring forth and illustrate many new, theories in the 

 science of these zones, especially in the domain of me- 

 teorology, where continuous observations are so essential. 

 To cover the Alaskan coast would be the least that 



could be expected of us, and it is not at all doubtful 

 but that the British American shores belonging more 

 peculiarly to us, by reason of contiguity, than to Great 

 Britain, by reason of colonial possession, would be par- 

 tially assigned to us, at least in this scheme. The relief 

 party sent to the Jeanette could found this little colony, 

 herself make extended investigations, and subserve the 

 purpose of humanity by rescuing or relieving an expedi- 

 tion of our own countrymen under our own flag. 



In all cases of abandonment of vessels in Arctic 

 waters, the scientific collections have necessarily been 

 left, as nothing should burden the retreating crews, ex- 

 cept absolute necessaries, in a i ace for life where every 

 ounce of weight is of vital importance, and these collec- 

 tions are almost as good as lost when only feebly repre- 

 sented by their descriptions and imperfect sketches. Such 

 has been the fate of so many collections, rendering the 

 voyage, in a scientific sense, almost nil, so that the rescue 

 of an expedition, with such facilities of lesearch, should 

 meet the hearty encouragement of every scientist of 

 America. F. Schwatka. 



Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 

 January 29, 1881. 



HYPNOTISM. 

 To the Editor of " SCIENCE :" 



I doubt not that many of the readers of " SCIENCE " 

 who attended the recent lecture of Dr. Beard, before the 

 New York Academy of Sciences, will be surprised to read 

 the article which you have published on page 13, Vol. II. 

 It is not my purpose in this letter to defend the position of 

 Dr. Beard in this matter, for if he deems it necessary I 

 have no doubt he will give a satisfactory explanation of 

 the few minor points which have given rise to your sus- 

 picions as to the genuineness of the phenomena. The 

 circumstance of the person who was rendered deaf, 

 and who was roused from his trance in the surprising 

 manner which you describe, likewise aroused some ques- 

 tions in my own mind, as did also one or two other ex- 

 periments ; but instead of selecting these as a basis for ad- 

 verse criticism, it has seemed to me more in accord with 

 scientific methods to first inquire what explanation of 

 them Dr. Beard himself can give. 



The question before the general scientific world is not 

 whether we can pick out single points for criticism, but 

 whether the phenomena, as a whole, are genuine. The 

 study of trance is not one with which most of us can 

 claim familiarity, and although it is one which, more than 

 almost any other, demands very special training to 

 enable a person to profitably investigate the phenomena, 

 we seldom find a person, even among scientific men, who 

 has not his own ideas or theories or explanations about 

 it. For this reason, Dr. Beard's careful study of the sub- 

 ject probably will not be fully appreciated during this, in 

 some respects, conservative generation. Physical phe- 

 nomena may be tested ?.nd abstruse hypotheses framed to 

 explain them, and the world will accept the explanation ; 

 but in matters of trance, the clearest demonstrations can- 

 not shake deep-seated beliefs, or convince unreasoning 

 skeptics. 



What has been the attitude of scientific men in the 

 past toward this subject ? It has been one of disbelief and 

 nothing more. It is true that many of the phenomena (not 

 all of them) have been known for many years. Your state- 

 ment, however, that "nearly all our present knowledge 

 of the subject dates from Braid's book " was directly 

 contradicted by Dr. Beard in his lecture. Your assertion 

 is only true of the phenomena. Dr. Beard's object was 

 not to give an amusing exhibition of the phenomena of 

 trance before a scientific body, but to explain them ; the 

 experiments being merely illustrative of the subject. I 

 have still another criticism to make. You have as- 

 sumed that " two of the subjects were evidently trained 

 performers, if not professional actors." Admitting this 



