726 
From the Debatable Land. 
[December, 
But we will not drag our readers any further through this I 
writer’s outbreaks, vitiated as they are by the fundamental i 
assumption that to inflict pain in pursuit of knowledge is 
“ murder in the second degree,” whilst under other circum- 
stances it is lawful, or at least venial. Will the time ever 
come when the “ emancipation ” of vegetables will be as 
furiously advocated ? 
V. FROM THE DEBATEABLE LAND. 
S EBATEABLE LAND ? Between the physical and 
the psychical, possibly the metaphysical. We feel 
it our duty to notice certain experimental results 
obtained by eminent men, surrounded by sceptical witnesses, 
and employing all the precautions which science can suggest. 
Yet the phenomena obtained were of such a nature that 
unless some subtle source of error is detected we must await 
an important extension, and perhaps a rectification of our 
knowledge not merely in biology, but also in chemistry and 
physics. Let us venture to say that the new discoveries 
awaiting us seem likely to reinforce certain views still 
received by official savants with ridicule or with the con- 
spiracy of silence. 
Most of our readers will have heard of, perhaps witnessed, 
the experiments which some time ago were frequently 
exhibited under the absurd name of “ eleCtro-biology,” which 
has since been modified in certain quarters into “ biology.” 
Without describing the well-known modus operandi in these 
performances, it will be sufficient to say that the subject was, 
for the time being, completely governed by the mind of the 
operator. If the latter handed him a lump of tallow, with 
the assurance that it was a piece of sugar, or a peach, the 
subjeCt ate it with evident relish. We once witnessed an 
experiment where such a subject, an unwholesome-looking 
lad, was told that he was in a dark cellar. Although the 
room was brilliantly lighted, and though a candle was held 
close to his face, yet the pupils of his eyes remained widely ; 
expanded, like those of a person in utter darkness. We 
accepted this phenomenon as proof that the lad was not a 
