92 



SCIEXCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 156 



of the digit to be guessed. This confirmed the 

 conclusion otherwise reached, that this case of 

 success, called case E in the first report of the 

 committee on thought-transferrence, was the 

 effect of coincidence. Tt was further shown that 

 this same person had marked preferences for 

 certain digits, as is seen in the following table : — 



Digit 12 3 4 5 6 7890 



Number of times guessed.... 97 93 122 117 106 101 112 90 85 78 



The order of preference then was, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 

 1, 8, 9, 0. Moreover, in this series, 532 odd num- 

 bers stand against 478 even ones. That the num- 

 ber-habit, or the tendency to guess certain digits 

 over-often, is actual and constant, was proven by 

 the fact that these idiosyncrasies were shown in 

 each set of 100, although made at various times. 

 Similar examinations of the digits guessed by other 

 experimenters showed in every case a more or less 

 marked and constant number-habit, distinct for 

 each individual, thus giving more evidence that in 

 every instance there had been an absence of mind- 

 reading. Putting about 9,000 guesses by thirteen 

 persons together, and averaging them, it was found 

 that the digits are to be ranked in the following- 

 order of preference, which is certainly very curious : 

 3, 5, 4, 6, 2, 7, 8, 9, 1, 0. About as many prefer 

 odd as even numbers ; but most persons prefer 

 one or the other. Thus one guesses 466 odd and 

 534 even, but another 526 odd and 574 even. It 

 is evident that the power of unconscious habit 

 extends into details the most minute, and plays a 

 much greater role in our mental life than is com- 

 monly admitted. 



Professor Royce, on behalf of the committee on 

 apparitions, announced the completion of a cir- 

 cular asking for the communication of stories to 

 the committee. The speaker's remarks well ex- 

 pressed the attitude of the committee, which is 

 sufficiently unlike that of the corresponding Eng- 

 lish committee to deserve mention. The starting- 

 point is the viewing of the experiences in question 

 as actual psychological facts ; in going further, 

 the tendency will be, at least on Professor Royce's 

 part, to study how far these experiences are gov- 

 erned by the dictates of folk-lore, and to elim- 

 inate those stories which belong in the already 

 well-known class of hallucinations. The search 

 for an objective basis for the experience, for a 

 specific external cause, is incidental only, and 

 must follow after the exclusion of cases explicable 

 by folk-lore hallucinations, etc. The English in- 

 vestigators wish too obviously and too eagerly to 

 demonstrate the objective foundation of appari- 

 tions, and so have quite omitted to subject their 

 material to the study which must come first, if 

 the work is to be sound. Apparently they already 



accept an apparition seen by several persons as a 

 bona-fide ghost, at least very probably. It need 

 hardly be pointed out that the position taken by 

 Professor Royce is much higher, his attitude more 

 scientific, than this. The result of the commit- 

 tees' labor will therefore be awaited with great 

 interest. 



The meeting closed with some remarkable ex- 

 periments by Dr. William James, who mesmerized 

 Mr. Carnegie, one of the committee on hypnotism. 

 While the latter was in the trance, Dr. James told 

 him he could not see the chairman, with the effect 

 of rendering him blind to that officer. Placing a 

 prism in front of Mr. Carnegie's eye, so as to 

 produce two images on his retina, Dr. James 

 asked what he saw. The answer showed that he 

 saw only one chairman, and therefore remained 

 blind to one of the two images. This is believed 

 to be quite a new fact in hypnotism. To show 

 that although the subject adopts any suggestions 

 made to him as to his sensory images, no matter 

 how false the suggestion, yet he has extreme 

 delicacy of perception, the following experiment 

 was made : the subject was made to see an imagi- 

 nary photograph of President Cleveland on a 

 blank sheet of paper ; the photograph was made, 

 in the subject's vision, to leave the sheet of paper 

 and travel round the room ; behind Mr. Carnegie's 

 back the paper was turned upside down ; the 

 photograph was now made to seem to Mr. Car- 

 negie to return to the paper, which was handed 

 to him ; he immediately turned it about to its 

 previous position. Thus an hypnotic subject can 

 be made to believe in a sensation which is unreal, 

 and yet can distinguish between the two ends of 

 a blank piece of paper. Of course, the interest of 

 these experiments is genuine only for those who 

 have faith in the honesty of the two gentlemen. 

 Those who do not wish to believe, may remain 

 agnostic ; but even they have to submit to the 

 truth when experiments are made with animals. 

 It may be added incidentally that Dr. Minot, in 

 his studies on the growth of animals, habitually, 

 he informs me, hypnotized his hens upon the 

 scale-pan to keep them still while being weighed, 

 — a useful practical application of hypnotism. 



V. P. 



THE AMERICAN ENGINEERS' MEETING. 



The annual meeting of the American society of 

 civil engineers was held in New York, Jan. 20-21. 

 The last meeting of this society was held at Deer 

 Park, Md., on June 24-26. At that meeting, it 

 was reported, more business was transacted and 

 more discussion elicited than at any previous con- 

 vention of the society. It was a meeting in a 



