172 
THE NATURALISTS’ JOURNAL. 
served, but that they were nothing more than the simple outcome of physical 
force applied in a certain way and under certain definite conditions. They would 
notice that the rods must always be forked or arched. A straight rod would 
give no indications, no matter by whom it was held. And again the extremi¬ 
ties of the two forked branches must be turther bent out at an angle, and be 
grasped in a particular way. These conditions imparted a special kind of 
leverage to the rod, so that the more firmly it was grasped, the more forcibly 
would it be deflected. He wished particularly to say that, in offering this 
purely mechanical solution of the so-called mystery, he did not, for a moment, 
wish to convey the reputed “ diviners ” were acting with conscious deception, 
or were trying to dupe their patrons. Not at all. They were themselves 
deceived, either through not knowing, or not applying their knowledge, of the 
physiological action of the muscles of the hand as then brought into play. 
When a monkey closed its hands, it closed all its fingers at once. It could 
not move them separately, and independently one of the other. The large flat 
muscle which controlled its fingers, moved them all at once. But not so in 
man. He could close his fingers separately. Now, given this independent, 
and often involuntary, action of the fingers, on the sriained fibres of the forked 
divining rod, added to that mental tension in the diviner which was likely to 
supervene under those conditions of searching for hidden springs, and you 
got exactly the mechanical power that was necessary to impart the motion to 
the rod. The more forcibly the diviner grasped the rod, the more forcibly did 
he thus give motion to it. The very power that he thought—that is, if he did 
not understand the dynamics of the case—ought to steady the rod and hold it 
rigid, was just the power that was setting it in motion. The reason why the 
rod moved with some men and not with others, was that some had much more 
mobile hands than others had. A pianist or violinist would generally find the 
rod move readily with him, because he was accustomed to the facile movement 
of his fingers separately. Mr. Collenette illustrated his theory by diagrams on 
the blackboard, and also by the various rods he had prepared—one of which 
was made of numerous strands of wire—and showed the movement he referred 
to. Many of the members also tried the experiment for themselves, with vary¬ 
ing degrees of success. In actual practice there would naturally be various 
more or less modifying features, but Mr. Collenette contended that the actua¬ 
ting principle was in every case the simple mechanical one he had explained. 
As regarded water being found by diviners, he said they were generally local 
men, who knew a great deal about the neighbourhood they practiced in, and 
who often unconsciously brought this knowledge to bear with very good results, 
at the same time that they thought the rod alone was leading them to the 
hidden sources. The processes of thought, as translated into muscular action, 
were far more complex than many people had an idea of. They often seemed 
so instantaneous and independent that we failed to realise the many separate 
and inter-acting elements of which they were made up. Mr. Allen then cited 
a case where a diviner in England w r ent over a field and indicated several posi¬ 
tions where the rod dipped and he said springs existed. These points were 
duly marked. The man was then blindfolded and turned round ; after which 
he was once more led over the same ground, but in no single instance did the 
rod again indicate the same sites. Mr. Marquand and several other members 
felt quite convinced that Mr. Collenette’s theory was the correct one, others, 
on the contrary, wdiile accepting it to some extent, considered that there were 
also some points for w'hich it did not fully account, and which they would like 
to have further elucidated on some future occasion. One special point being that ac¬ 
cording to this theory, the effect, when obvious at all, ought to be a cumulative 01 an 
increasing one, whereas, the motion of the rod in the hands of an expert, was 
said to fluctuate in a totally different way. Mr. Collenette thought this ob¬ 
jection might be adequately met by considering the changing mental conditions 
and the anxiety for success, on the part of the diviner engaged in the quest, 
which would be reflected through the muscles to the rod. 
