SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 The attitude of Professor Newcomb towards 

 the alleged discoveries in regard to thought-trans- 

 f errence is one of extreme intellectual dissent, and 

 will necessarily accentuate the impression of ex- 

 ceedingly great conservatism, which already pre- 

 vails in regard to the American society for 

 psychical research. His presidential address was 

 essentially a frank though delicate denial, not 

 only of the results concerning telepathy claimed 

 by the English society, but also of the utility 

 of pursuing any investigations upon the subject 

 further. There appear, however, certain flaws 

 in his argument, which are sufficient to prevent 

 one from bluntly adopting his conclusion. He 

 places much emphasis, for instance, on the ex- 

 treme rarity of thought-transferrence in the ordi- 

 nary course of life, and implies somewhat sar- 

 castically that it ought to be much more frequent. 

 To a physiologist, however, the possibilities appear 

 differently : it is quite conceivable that telepathic 

 irritations are extremely feeble, and are accord- 

 ingly usually completely obliterated by the ordi- 

 nary and much stronger irritations of daily life ; 

 just as the feeble sensations from the stars are 

 obliterated by sunlight, so that, as aptly remarked 

 by Dr. Bowditch, a man conscious only during the 

 day would not discover the stars. Again, he 

 states that telepathy is communication between 

 two minds without the intervention of any physi- 

 cal agency. This certainly cannot be accepted as 

 a correct definition ; for telepathy means com- 

 munication through other than the usually known 

 sensory processes, and there is nothing in the 

 hypothesis to exclude all physical agencies. So 

 long as the physicists have to acknowledge action 

 at a distance of gravity and electric induction, it 

 is certainly no dishonor to any intellect to accede 

 to the possibility of the action at a distance of 

 mind, sufficiently to consider that possibility 

 worthy of investigation, even though he has 

 little expectation (and most scientific men have 

 very little) of a positive result. We have alluded 

 to the weak points of Professor Newcomb's ad- 

 dress : the two strongest points are in criticism 

 of the work of the English society. He finds 



No. 156. — 1886. 



fault very justly with their failure to ascertain 

 the influence of varying conditions on thought- 

 transferrence ; and he further makes the very 

 acute observation that in the reproductions of the 

 drawings, though the lines are faulty, they always 

 join perfectly, as would be the case with the work 

 of a poor draughtsman who could see ; and this, too, 

 in the drawings made blindfold. The inference, 

 which Professor Newcomb refrains from making, 

 is, of course, that the person did see, and there 

 was some trickery. By way of general criticism 

 of the English society's work, we may frankly 

 say that it is like that of amateurs and enthusiasts, 

 and bears the character of such work, especially 

 because it fails to deal rigidly and skilfully with 

 the problems as they appear to professional physi- 

 ologists and psychologists. 



The twentieth annual report of the Massa- 

 chusetts commissioners of inland fisheries gives 

 some facts of interest on the fisheries of that state. 

 In many places, where the culture of land-locked 

 salmon had been deemed a failure, the fish has 

 appeared in numbers. Of the river-salmon there 

 has been an increased run in the Merrimack River 

 the past year, and, were it not for the depredations 

 that have been committed, the river would now 

 be self-sustaining. In Maine the salmon-fisheries 

 have been greatly increased, and the catch for the 

 past season is said to be the largest for fifty years. 

 Shad-hatching was continued at North Andover, 

 with good results. The river was found to be full 

 of male shad from one to two years old. These 

 young males return with the mature females, 

 while the females do not return till they are three 

 or four years old. Owing to the prejudice that 

 existed, the artificial hatching of shad was aban- 

 doned for several years, with the result, that, on 

 the Connecticut River, the value of the shad- 

 fisheries fell off more than fifty per cent on the 

 upper waters, and twenty-five on the lower. The 

 resumption of hatching, however, has prevented 

 further decrease, and an improvement is expected 

 next year. Hitherto but little has been done for 

 the cultivation of the carp in Massachusetts, 

 under the impression that the state was too far 

 north for such to be successful. That the idea is 

 erroneous is clearly shown by several large ponds 

 in the state, already heavily stocked with this fish. 



