310 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



brains, and thus produce thought-transference, which, he 

 suggests, might be termed a kind of " induction of thought," 

 and he thinks this is supported by the experiences of most 

 people, and especially " by the ascertained facts of clairvoyance 

 and mesmerisml^ This letter was signed " M." 



In the next issue of Nature was a letter signed " F. R. S.," 

 objecting to M." for speaking, in a scientific journal, of the 

 facts of mesmerism and clairvoyance as being " ascertained,'* 

 adding, however, that they ought to be thoroughly investigated, 

 that he is prepared to do so if he can find suitable material, 

 and that he will give wide publicly to his results. He then 

 says, " If the phenomena should admit of repetition I should 

 have them witnessed and attested to by a selected number 

 of the leading scientific men of the day." He therefore 

 begs for assistance in carrying out his experiments, letters 

 to be addressed c/o the Editor oi Nature, 



To this request I replied, pointing out to him that many 

 scientific men, such as Dr. EUiotson, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. 

 Haddock had thoroughly examined and tested mesmerism 

 and clairvoyance, getting only abuse or ridicule, and that he 

 was rather sanguine in thinking that any experiments of his 

 would convince the scientific world, or that they would even 

 condescend to witness and test them, and referred to my 

 own experience with Tyndall and Carpenter, and those of 

 Crookes with the Royal Society. This brought me the fol- 

 lowing letter from Romanes, and I have now little doubt 

 that " M." of the first communication to Nature was my friend 

 Mivart, as I do not know any other man likely to have 

 written on such a subject, and to have spoken in such an 

 assured way of clairvoyance, which was, of course, a com- 

 paratively small matter after his experiences above related. 

 It is rather curious that these two men should have been 

 thus brought together without knowing it, and in relation 

 to a subject as to which neither of them made any public 

 acknowledgment of what he believed. The majority of 

 their readers, I have no doubt, look upon them as biologists, 

 and have no idea that they were also inquirers into 

 spiritualism. 



