( 558 ) 
[September, 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
*** The Editor does not hold himself responsible for statements of fa&s or 
opinions expressed in Correspondence, or in Articles bearing the signature 
of their respe&ive authors. 
THE HISTORY OF MUSCLE-READING. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science . 
Sir, — Mr. Irving Bishop recently called upon me, while I was in 
London, and stated that from his childhood he had been accus- 
tomed to indulge in one of the modes of muscle- or body-reading ; 
that he had been wont to say so before his European audiences ; 
and that the extradl from my letter in your issue in July, to the effedt 
that he had learned what he knew of it from my investigations 
of “ Brown the mind-reader,” were inconsistent with the state- 
ments he had been making. 
In the paper on the “ Physiology of Mind-Reading ” which 
you published I stated at the outset that the trick had been known 
for a long time, and had been performed by different persons in 
different countries in different ways. It is not improbable, cer- 
tainly not impossible, that Mr. Bishop may have known of some 
of these methods before Brown the mind-reader swept across 
the American continent, carrying everything before him by his 
brilliant, and up to that time publicly unheard-of, demonstrations. 
The possibility that Mr. Bishop may have known some one of 
these methods before Brown’s public appearance may therefore 
be conceded. 
The fadts, however, are demonstrable that my exposure of 
Brown the mind-reader directed the attention of Mr. Bishop, as 
well as all others, to what before was scarcely known at all, even 
in limited circles ; and that after the publication of my researches, 
which made great excitement in America at the time, Mr. Bishop 
saw me in regard to them, and did not accept the explanation I 
had demonstrated. The method of mind-reading by the ear, 
without contact , subjedt and operator walking near together, the 
operator judging by the step of the subjedt, which Mr. Bishop 
now performs, was fully described in the supplementary letter of 
my article, which has not been published this side the Atlantic. 
This interesting phase of mind-reading was developed originally 
