542 
The Transfer of Sensation. , [September, 
now done, to regard matter as else than the mainspring,-— 
the only direct and sufficient cause of each one and all of 
the vital phenomena, — else than the ever-potent force at 
work in and through both the organic and inorganic worlds : 
and as such doomed, in virtue of natural law, to realise, ever 
and anon, that sublime adaptation of means to the end, at 
once sustaining, perfecting, and all-wise : so I say to degrade 
matter is to stem the tide of truth, of progess, and humanity. 
Matter and force stand now, as they ever have done and will 
continue to stand, in the near relation to each other of cause 
and effeCt, and so it is they cannot be separated from each 
other.” Surely after such a confession of faith we need not 
expeCt Dr. Davey to err in the direction of the occult and 
the mystical ! 
The woman upon whom the observations have been made 
is a Mrs. Croad, of Clifton ; she became totally blind in 
1870, deaf in 1871, and is moreover partially paralysed. 
In the experiments performed, in the presence of Drs. 
Davey, Andrews, and Elliott, every precaution seems to have 
been taken. The blindness of the patient was not taken for 
granted, but she was thoroughly blindfolded. Although “the 
eyelids of Mrs. Croad have been for many years persistently 
closed by a spasmodic aCtion of the muscles,” a pad of 
cotton-wool was placed over each orbit; “ the face was then 
covered by a large and thickly-folded neckerchief : this was 
tied securely at the back part of the head, and — even more 
than this — more cotton-wool was pushed up towards the 
eyes on either side of the nose. Not content, however, the 
aid of two fingers of a bystander were called into requisition, 
and with these a continued pressure was kept up outside and 
over the neckerchief and wool, and above the closed eyes.” 
Moreover the room was on two occasions very thoroughly 
darkened. Under these circumstances the experiments were 
conducted, and, as far as can be judged by anyone not 
actually present, the results must be accepted as decisive 
proof that the fingers were doing duty for the eyes. On a 
pidture card or a photograph being handed to her, she 
“ places it on or about the chin or mouth, and perhaps draws 
it across the forehead, but the minute examination of the 
card is apparently the work of the fingers of the right hand. 
These several adts are, for the most part, followed by a quiet 
and intense thought, a well-marked concentration of mind 
on the pidture, when, after a short time, she writes on a slate 
kept near her a description — sometimes a full and detailed 
one — of the card, its colouring', and the several objedts 
thereon. Occasionally her rapid and precise perception — 
