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SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

OF

PHILADELPHIA.

PAPERS OF 1875.

 

MIND READING.
READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION MAY 12th, 1875.

BY PROF. PERSIFOR FRAZER, Jr.

 

The following is a list of the Papers read before the Association :

I871. Conzgﬁulsoiy Education. By Lorin Blodget.
Arhitration as a Remedy for Strihes. By Eckley B. Coxe.
The Revised Statutes ofPennsylvania. By R. C. McMurtrie.
Local Taxation. By Thomas Cochran.
Infant lV/ortality. By Dr. J. S. Parry.
1872. Statute Law and Common Law. and the Proposed Revision in Penn-
sylvania. By E. Spencer Miller. . ‘
Apprentices/12)). By James S. Whitney.
The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania. By
Francis Jordan.
Vaccination. By Dr J. S. Parry.
The Census. By Lorin Blodget. ’
1873. The Tax System ofPennsylvania. By Cyrus Elder.
The W'orh of the Constitutional Convention. By A. Sydney Biddle.
What shall Philadeljblzia do with its Pauper: .9 By Dr. Ray. '
Proportional Representation. . By 8. Dana. Horton.
Statistics Relating to the Births, Deaths, Marriages, etc., in Philadelphia.
By John Stockton-Hough, M. D.
On the Value of Original Scientiﬁc Research. By Dr. Ruschenberger.
0n the Relative Inﬂuence of City and Country Life, on Alorality, Area/”z,
' Fecundz'gr, Longevity and ﬁlortality. By John Stockton-Hough, M. D. .
1874. The Public School System of Philadelphia. By James S. \Nhitney.
The Utility of Government Geological Surveys. By Prof. J. P. Lesley.
The Law of Partnership. By J. G. Rosengarten.
.Methodsof Valuation of Real. Estate for Taxation. By Thomas Cochran.
The [limits of Cremation. By Persifor Frazer, Jr.
Outline: of Penology. By Joseph R.. Chandler.
187 5. Brain Disease, and Modern Living. Dr. Ray.
Aﬁ/giene of the Eye, Considered with Reference to the Children in our
Schbols. By Dr. F. D. Castle. , , '
The Relative Morals of City and Country. ’ By Wm. S. Peirce,
‘ , . Silk Culture and Bronze Industry. Dr. Saml. Chamberlaine. .-
g :._,,';.Mind Reading, etc. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. '.

     

 

   

 

 

. x. 71‘ ff"
. v \
1 ‘ ,, ‘3. y
.
; V
'9 ‘
‘ ,.‘ st .
. A 3 . »
‘ A,“ ,
‘ q ;,\

   

 

MIND READING.

 

Often, on the surface ofa stream of water which is rapidly flowing
towards a narrow deﬁle, aﬂoating log will be carried so as to present
its side to the current, and after bounding and rebounding on the
obstructions, it will glide back in an eddy, to re-enter the channel
again at some point higher up and renew its attempt at passage.
Perhaps its branches and twigs spread out so much that its tran-
sit is impossible except in one deﬁnite position, in which case
it may thus be thrown again and again against the gorge and
returned; or it may be wedged for a time across the rivulet and
remain a long time ﬁxed stationary, until some fortuitous change
in the conditions (such as the increase of the force of the water,
the impact of some other ﬂoating body, etc.), ﬁnally accords 'it
a passage.

The case is very similar with many perplexing problems which
have never ceased to occupy the attention of mankind—questions
which the perennial ﬂow of experiences, constituting the widen-
ing river of human knowledge, have brought nearer and nearer to
their elucidation, but which when almost within reach have been
suddenly checked, or which some inconsistent newly acquired facts
have driven back further from our ken than ever. Again and again
have the ever-changing events of the life of civilization brought
such questions back to the ﬁrst barrier in ever~varied positions
and relations. Some have yielded to the unknown forces which
guide the general current and have been born into our knowledge.
We say we know them. But how vastly many more remain as un-
divined to-day as they were in the times of the Rameses, build-
ing continually,——-to carry out the similejust employed,-—an indeﬁ-
nitely enormous raft like that famous one of the Red river, which .
may extend as far back into the unknown country which is the

I

4 [Wind Reading.

source of our developmental force as the placid sheet on which
we float stretches on to the unknown ocean of our destiny.1 Such
questions cannot be abandoned and disregarded by the common
consent of mankind. They are integral parts of the whole net-
work of existence. Organic nature struggles to evolve them by
the force of man’s understanding, as the organs of the body are
evolved by the processes of life. If this force be too feeble the
embryo still remains—still seeks, by the irritation which its effort
at development creates, a stimulus adequate to its disinthralment.

In the history of the race, then, repeated reappearances of
mysteries are so familiar as hardly to need citation. They are
recorded under different names and in different phases, with all
kinds of explanations and hypotheses, upheld with all degrees of
of belief on the part of their chroniclers—as a general rule their
dogmatism and conviction of the truth of their own theories be-
ing weaker in proportion to the recency of the age.

The fact of these inevitable resurrections has an important
bearing on human psychology, for it shows that the contemplation
of these objects is a condition of mental existence. .

Among the most persistent of these revisitants of the pale
glimpses of the moon is the idea of the active participation in the
affairs of men of disembodied spirits, z'. e. of men and women,
minus all that we are positive that men and women possess. It
may be said that no people ever existed, in a state of civilization
enabling them to form any abstract ideas, to whom this notion of
spirits was not familiar in some form or other. The earliest records
of our race present this belief, not in its incipiency, but in the full
noon-tide of its existence. Wherever we turn we ﬁnd this faith.
It is almost common to our race, and this of itself inclines some
conservative people to yield to it unquestioning acceptance.

It has been often objected to the idea of the formationiof the
globe from a molten sphere, that the earliest known rocks, and
therefore those which are chronologically the nearest to the

 

1 “ Every day reveals to us new channels in the courses of nature; but as we
trace them back to their source we ﬁnd them to be the branches of one great
current, which forces everything before it onward and straight forward into the
universal ocean—Me and of all ﬁling: and the beginning of the new ; that great
' reservoir from which the elements of all things are derived and to which they
all return,” etc., etc. Clark .' “ [Wind in Nature.”

Mind Reading. _ 5

angina! rock, are nevertheless of clearly sedimentary origin,2 and
it may be similarly objected to any hypothesis which would
derive a belief so ancient and wide-spread from a natural attempt
of the human mind to classify all phenomena—even the uncom-
prehended—that the very earliest information we have of our
species includes as one of its most fundamental characters, the
recognition of an unseen world peopled by intelligent beings;
and moreover that in no instance, among the numerous savage
tribes with which ethnologists have made us acquainted, do we
ﬁnd any exception to the rule. On the contrary, it may be said
that so far‘from a state of doubt or disbelief in such a world being
the normal condition of man, such doubt never exists among the
people least removed by culture from our original state, and
seems to require a considerable civilization in order to secure
even a foot-hold.

And yet the cultivated mind cannot help reﬂecting on the
phenomena upon which these existences are predicated, and seek-
ing to bring them under some still more general head with other
phenomena satisfactorily understood, 1'. e., to push classiﬁcation
of phenomena to its limits.

It is sufﬁciently admitted that the primitive worship of the
unknown was a worship of an indeﬁnite number of bad or good
spirits, each of which had special contro1 over one kind of force.
The power of generalization whereby the superstitious barbarian
connected together such different evils as famine, pestilence and
war, and ascribed them to the agency of the same demon, is of far
later growth than their reference to many unknown agencies. In
fact, the culmination of this doctrine in the replacement of the
thousands of gods of the Rig Veda by a select few, shows a con-
siderable advance in intellectual culture, and an application of the
principles of true inductive philosophy.

The different degrees of power which the superhuman beings
were supposed to possess were as various as the attributes by which
they were known—from the almost inﬁnite power of Brahma,
and the very great power of Zeus, (limited however by his own

human imperfections,) to the limited capacity for interference in

__________________.___——————
2 “ The alternations of argillaceous, chloritic, and other schists with quartzites,

limestones, gneiss, and the other azoic rocks, prove that all were once sediment-
ary beds.” Manual of Geology, J. D. Dana.

)

 

6 [Mind Reading.

human affairs of the imps and elfs and the Mephistophilean Devil,
In fact, tired of bowing his head in awe before the mute and
motionless Creations of his fancy, and yet too much the slave of
fear to cast off their fetters altogether, a distinctly humorous vein
was gradually introduced into hiJman mythology whereby men
were represented oftentimes as outwitting, subduing, imprisoning,
and even sometimes chastising these superiorintellects and forces.
Such for example are the stories of casting out devils, wrestling
with angels, banning witches and evil spirits by the sign of the
cross and by horse-shoes, imprisoning the Devil in a charmed circle
till he agreed to exercise his power for the advantage of-the human
gaoler; cheating the Angel of Death; bottling up the genii {com-
manding the services of fairies by the possession of amulets, talis-
mans, etc., etc. i

All these fables are are but the buds and leaves and twigs of a
tree indigenous to man’s mind. Its original germ may be said to
be an unfortunate tendency to self-deception, the last obstacle.
to progress which the master-mind in science succeeds in over-
coming. The savage worships the wind because he cannot under—
stand the cause of the force it exhibits. But though he cannot un-
derstand the cause, he gives it a name, and this name becomes to
him afterwards a living entity. The case is very parallel with the
more subtle disputations of those metaphysicians who handle
“ consciousness,” and “ will” as if each were a separate existence,

independent of the body or of the other manifestations of organic
life.3

 

 

3'“ There is no force in the reason alleged by‘Descartes to prove the indepen-
dence of our free actions by a pretended lively internal sentiment. It is as if
the needle should take pleasule 1n turning to the north: for it would suppose
that it turned independently of any other cause, not perceiving the‘insensible
motions of magnetic n1atter.”—Lezémtz

“En tout ce que je puis di1e a ceux qui croirent qu ’ils peuvent parler, se
tai1e, en un mot, agir en vertu d’une libre decision de l ame, c ’est qu ’ils 1e-
vent les yeux ouverts. ”—Spmoza.

* * * “ Abstractions were made from the concrete by the active
mind; and the abstractions being thus converted into objective realities, were
looked upon and applied as actual entities in nature. ”

“ Anaximander, looking into his own mind and ﬁnding an imbecility there,
gave to it the name of the Infinite, and transferringit outwards was thenceforth
quite content to pronounce it the true origin of all things; whilst Pythagoras,

I

[Mind Reading. 7

This habit of giving names to things we do not comprehend,
joined with our prudent habit of propitiating the entire unknown
under one general designation, in view of possible contingencies,
may be safely considered the integral factors of all our supersti-
tions—and of much more beside that is not generally included
under that term.

But on the other hand there is a numerous class of thinkers who
will not consider problems the elements to the solution of which
are not felt to be at hand. It is a charge, unjustly made to be
sure, yet like all sweeping charges easy of expression, one which
has come to be one of the rallying cries of the adherents ofthose
isms which are excluded by scientiﬁc men from the catalogue of
their ﬁelds of inquiry, that the latter are as much afraid of seeing
phenomena as are the most fanatical upholdersof mystery and
faith. And it is true that certain classes of phenomena have been
shunned by the orthodox from their general resemblance to cher-
ished mysteries, and the fear that they may be explained by natu-
ral laws now known; and also by a scattering few in the army of
science for fear that they camzoz‘ be thus resolved.‘

Without entering upon the intensely interesting inquiries as to
the origin and growth of ancient creeds and superstitions, either
generally or in detail, it may be permitted to note at random a
few circumstances usually surrounding narratives of unusual events.

going still further into the unmeaning, proclaimed numbers, which are mere
arbitrary symbols, to be actual existences and the origin of things.”-—Maua’s-
lay .' “Plt'irsz'ology and Pathology of :72: Mind.”

“ In the common metaphysical conception of sensation as a certain constant
faculty, what happens is this: the abstraction from the particular is converted
into an objective entity which thenceforth tyrannizes over the understanding.”
——-Ioz’d. p. 91.

“ Those who are metaphysically minded have done with idea, as they have
done with sensation: they have converted a general term, summing up a great
number of various phenomena, into an actual entity, and thenceforth allowed it
- to tyrannize over the thoughts.’ ’—[éz’a’. p. I I0.

4There is some difﬁculty in understanding why those who are willing to
accept all the Scriptural miracles without doubt or hesitancy, should join in pro-
nouncing similar miracles, attested by apparently trustworthy sources, impossi-
ble. There is a vagueness about the boundary which separates the time when
miracles were from that when they were not possible, which such persons
would do well to dispel. '

8 [Wind Readmg'.

Probably each of us remembers being carried along spell-bound
by the skillful narrator of some mysterious tale. The eyes are
strained on the speaker, the features motionless, the breath held
back that the movement may not confuse the ideas by sending
two impressions to the brain. Our whole existence seems divided
between the conscious act of learning and the unconscious print~
ing off of the matter in the brain, as the telegraphic tremors of the
auditory nerves keep the copy supplied. If the conclusion leaves
the narration still a mystery, how solemnly we look. The mind
wanders over and over the thread of the story, seeking egress from
the darkness, and ﬁnding none, we move off slowly and reﬂect-
ively, leaving the reverberations of the recital as a whole (and
abstracted from its details) still resounding, though in feeble and
feebler cadences, through the soul.5 Every such deep impression
derived from a tale well told intensiﬁes the emotional and stimu-
lates the reflective capacities within us.

Nothing is so captivating as mystery, provided we ﬁnd our-
selves ambuscaded byit, as it were, without having known it.6 To
say that we cannot go far either in the direction of cause or effect
without coming to the inscrutable, produces no more effect than
to say that every one can look into inﬁnite space from his door-
step; but to ﬁnd a mystery among the affairs of everyday life, is
like discovering a fathomless pit in one’s cellar.

In turning over the many compendiums of strange events which
have been published, it is striking to observe that certain kinds
of things usually happen together. The dead arise from their
graves, generally about midnight, almost always habited in
white. They glide without noise while in sight, but frequently
are heard to tread heavily, Clank chains, etc., when not within
the ﬁeld of view. They prefer dimly lighted chambers and

 

5Moreover the sensation itself may persist for a while after the cause of it
has disappeared, as when an image of the sun remains after we have ceased to .
look at‘ it, or the roar of-the cannon abides in the ears after the ﬁring has
ceased. Such persistence of action in the ganglionic cell will serve to convey
a notion of the condition of things when there is hallucination otherwisecaused.”

Mandy/6y: “P/zysz'alogy and Patﬁology of tile Mild,” p. 100.

6The passion of surprise or wonder from miracles being an agreeable emotion,
gives a sensible tendency toward the belief of those events from which it is de-
rived. H'ume’r Essays .' “ Miracles.” V

i I

M'ﬂa’ Reading. 9

dark copses, and almost always vanish before a bright light or the
return of day.

To be sure there are all sorts of ghosts, but this represents the
normal, old-fashioned kind ofapparition. '

Now, that the conditions which are favorable to the production
of these spectres are just those which are unfavorable to the proper
use of the sense of sight, by means of which we derive our princi-
pal ideas of substance, is one which it would be difﬁcult to explain,
except on the theory that the climax of the mystery was to be sup-
plied by the imagination. So strictly in conformity-with the laws
of our bodily organs are these conditions, that absolute darkness is
almost as unusualaconcomitant of spectral visions as bright illumi-
nation; and the reason of this would seem to be that in the former
case the whole burden of conceiving and maintaining the decep-
tion falls upon the imagination, which in most persons and in most
states it is incapable of accomplishing; whereas, the attention being
really chained by an actual though ill-deﬁned object, the imagi-
nation ﬁlls out the details without difﬁculty. With the prevalence
of traditions relating to this kind of phenomena—traditions
which were perhaps ﬁrst conﬁned to the simplest modes of such
manifestations, but afterwards became more and more elaborate
~—there is little difﬁculty in accounting, for the uniformity of sur-
roundings of these ghosts. What is called the association of ideas,
and the physiological psychologist calls the “intuitive motor resi-
dua,”7 through acquired habit, must of necessity be responsible
for this lack of variety.

An unusual noise summons up a remembrance of the story of an
unusual sound and its connected supernatural cause, though we

may not be conscious of them. This mental action is similar
to the effect of a pleasant taste to excite the appetite, and con-

versely the appetite to call up visions of a delicious repast.

The fact that the ghostly uniform is usually white suggests as
reasons, ﬁrst, that this is likely to be the color which most attracts
the eye in feeble light; and, secondly, custom teaches us to ex-
pect more dead men than any other class of visitants, because this
can prove no alibis, and the robes of the dead are generally white.
Midnight is the hour of appearance, because this period is farthest

7 Maudsley.

 

IO v ﬂlz'lzd Reading.

from the day, a period when the bright illumination of objects
leaves nothing to the fancy. It is not improbable that the origin
of the idea that these objects glide without noise, may be partly
due to the fact that to be far enough off to be indistinct they must
‘ be too far to be clearly heard; or else it may be connected with
the gradual passage across the eye of an imaginary picture, as is
the case in dreams.

Countless numbers of inexplicable events are veriﬁed on unim-
peachable evidence. These phenomena concern various parts of
Nature, from those which affect the upper regions of the atmos-
phere or interstellar space itself, sensible to a number of per-
sons at the same time, and which are only connected with
our consciousness through the medium of our observation, to
those which, interweave themselves inextricably with our subjec-
tive existence, and whose very appearance bears some relation
to the state of our physical being.

The former kind we have no difﬁculty in agreeing about, though
we may not be able to explain them; and if those whose personal
experiences have not permitted them to verify the latter, doubt
their existence, or at least refuse to refer the cause to some stupend-
ous power overreaching the universe, their action will be justiﬁed
by the common practice of mankind.

Thus various and contradictory opinions are held respecting
the true cause of the Solar Corona, the Zodiacal Light, and even
the Aurora Borealis; yet that the cause or causes of these phenom-
ena are intimately connected with the laws of Nature already
known to us, no one doubts. And even if the causes were other
laws as yet unknown to us, no one would hesitate to believe the
universality of the action. But the case is different when, start-
ing with phenomena to the successful production of which certain
individuals are necessary, we are asked to extend our belief in their
cause to a different kind of existence from any that we know, and
ﬁnally to accept a cosmogony as intricate, as arbitrary and as unsat-

isfactory as any from which science is engaged in delivering us.8

——-———————-———-————-————_—_______
8 See the “ Defense of Modern Spiritualism,” by Alfred R. Wallace, F. R. S.,

with a preface by Epes Sargent, Boston, 1874 (p. 52), where as one argument
in favor of the doctrines of the Spiritualists, it is urged that they render the tra-
ditions of primitive mankind literally possible. Should this be a ground in
their favor? '

114772417 Reading. . I I

The epidemic of mesmerism and “electro-biology ” had already
spread over the country before spiritualism, and not only were
the conditions under which the unexplained effects were produced
allied to those of the later mystery, but the effects themselves
nearly resembled each other. In both cases the means of com-

munication were through a person who was peculiarly ﬁtted for
the exhibition of such phenomena (whether called subject or

medium), and the success of the experiments depended upon the
bodily condition of the person, the atmospheric changes, etc.;
but the revelations were, if anything, a reading of the mind of
one person by another.

A very striking instance of the manner in which this power of
clairvoyance is limited, was related to me by a gentleman of un-
doubted candor and trained power of judgment. A young girl
who was subject to epileptic ﬁts9 possessed the power, when in a
state of trance, of describing distant events and places. Upon
one occasion a lady, unknown to her previously, received an ac-
curate and detailed description of the house in which she lived,
the surroundings, interior, etc. In the course of the narrative
the girl described a gentleman in the house whom the lady had
no difﬁculty in recognizing as her husband. His movements
were detailed, his departure from the house, the route that
he took along the streets, etc. Finally he was declared to have
entered a house, which from its position was recognized as that
of the gentleman’s mother. He was said to enter a room and to
have met persons there whose description tallied exactly with the
appearance of the occupants of the house. In the greatest sur-
prise the lady went home, and on meeting her husband informed
him that she had been enabled to follow him in his movements
during that evening by the help ofa clairvoyant. But on repeat-
ing the description, he assured her that he had been in quite
another part of the city.

Nevertheless the impression had been sharply ﬁxed in the lady’s
mind that her husband Izaa’ gone just where he was described to
have gone. Here seemed to be one of those instances which are
too numerous and well authenticated to discredit, where the ideas

.'__..._____—__———_.— .—

 

9Maudsley regards epilepsy as “in great part a true sensorial insanity.”
Phys. (5‘ Path, p. 101.

I 2 . 1111';ch Reading.

in one person’s mind are communicated to that of another person,
by means as yet wholly unknown.

From another gentleman eminent in science, I am told that on '
one occasion, after having seen some public experimentsofmesmer-
ism, it occurred to him to imitate the motions of the mesmerizer.
The experiment was attempted in a country house where some
young people, acquaintances of his, were guests. None of the party
had ever had the slightest experience in mesmerism but himself.
Accordingly he selected a youth of pale and nervous appearance,
and by making the passes he had seen made, and keeping his mind
and his eye steadily ﬁxed upon his subject, he succeeded in six or
seven minutes in throwing him into a mesmeric sleep. A number
_of experiments were then tried, strikingly illustrative of the doc~
trine of intuitive motor residua so elaborately worked out by
Maudsley. When the ﬁsts were doubled the subject made the
motions with his arms of ﬁghting, etc. But more extraordinary
still, when a coin or other object was held in the hand behind his
head, he was able to describe it minutely.

It is a grievous mistake to suppose that any considerable number
of scientiﬁc men will not admit the truth of that which can
be demonstrated. In this sense, Hume’s remark that “ a miracle,”
(i. a, that which seemed to him to contravene the known laws of
nature) “supported by any human testimony, is more properly a
subject of derision than of argument,” and Faraday’s remark that
“we must approach the investigation of phenomena with an edu-
cated judgment of what is and what is not possible,” are less true
to the rules of conduct governing the earnest seeker after truth,
than that of Arago, that “ He who, out of pure mathematics, makes
use of the word impossible, is imprudent.”1° '

Leaving these questions of disputed truth with the observation
that no amount oftestimony proving that there are no grounds Why
such and such a thing should not be so, can carry a conviction

to one that it is so,11 we can address overselves to an humble,

MM
1° Clifford would probably extend the application to mathematics itself.

1‘ “I have ﬁnally settled down to the opinion that, as to the phenomena ofso
extraordinary a character, one may by dint of discussion reach the conviction

that there are sufﬁcient reasons for believing them, but that one really do“ be-

lieve them only after having seen them.” Bertrand .- “ Traz'té a’e Somnamézb
izkme.” ‘ i

d

gjlﬁmz’ Readzﬂg. I 3

but not, therefore, uninteresting part of this general realm of mys
tery, 2'. 6., the communication between minds without conscious
employment of the physical organs.

Fortunately for our purpose, a case is at hand which has not
ceased to be a topic of conversation among the public. It is that
of the so—called' “Mind Reading” of Mr. Brown. The faculty
which this gentleman claims to possess is the simplest manifesta-
tion of what may be called “ reading the mind”—-—so simple as
naturally to lead to the suspicion among many persons that it is
merely an acute perception of those involuntary nervous motions
which we cannot avoid making when our attention is concentrated
on a single object.

Mr. Brown takes the hand of a person, who then ﬁxes his mind

on agiven place, and by moving to and fro, whereby he naturally
brings the person alternately near to and far away from the ob-

ject, he narrows the circle of his wanderingsidown to a point,
which he thereupon declares to be that in which the object selected
is placed, or which represents the object itself. This is of course
a mere general statement which is intended to cover all cases, and
not meant to imply that the action is not sometimes direct and rapid.
All that is effected by this faculty, then, is the direction of
movement towards a given place; and were this done only when '
Mr. Brown retained the hand of the person operated upon in his
own, the disposition to ascribe the general rough approximation
to the place of a selected object to an unconscious guiding motion
experienced in the hand of such person would be almost irresisti-
ble. That unconscious motions of this kind do prompt others as
to the direction of our thoughts is undoubtedly true. A simple
experiment to prove this may be easily tried. Let two persons
join hands, and let one mentally decide upon the direction of a
series of movements up and down, right and left, in any order.
In order that the experiment be successful, the amount of force
exerted should be the minimum necessary. If the person whose
hand is moved pay strict attention to his intuitive impressions, it
will be found that one who is unaccustomed to the amount of
force which is exerted by the other, and unfamiliar with the ex~
periment, will succeed in fairly anticipating the direction designed
by him, and opposing to its execution a resistance a little over
thirty-three per cent. of the number of trials.

14 Mimi Reading.

Of course the tests upon which this average is founded are neces-

sarily too few to furnish a reliable average; but, so far as the lim- .

ited time permitted, this percentage has been tolerably constant.
It will be at once seen that this average, thirty-three percent, is
but little above what we might reasonably expect from a machine
whose movements were unknown to the experimenter. In other
words, we should expect success in twenty-ﬁve per cent. of these
experiments, as there are but four directions permitted.

It might be also said that in so rough an experiment it was
hardly possible for the persons engaged to decide whether the im-
pression were conveyed by an unconscious muscular action ﬁefore
the movement, or an arrest of the movement itself at a very small
interval after its commencement. To decide this would require
the appreciation ofa small fraction of a second on the part of the
experimenters, and that without instruments or other means than
their oWn consciousness of measuring it. ‘ This difﬁculty was felt
to be so serious that this method of testing was abandoned, and
the following modiﬁcation was introduced:

The hands having been clasped as before, the subject was request- .

ed to think very strongly of making a movement in one of the

above four directions, but at the same time to guard as much as
possible against communicating this motion to the hand or forearm.

At a given signal he was to choose a direction, but not to execute
any movement. This modiﬁcation of the experiment was tried by
persons who were not accustomed to perform constantaneous move-

ments, but the result was that the intended direction was anticis

pated seven times out of eight. The active and passive agents
having changed places, of the following four movements two were
anticipated correctly. Of the whole number, nine out of twelve
were successful anticipations. i .
According to this view it would be perfectly natural that some
persons should be better subjects than others, or in other words,
that persons who exhibited the stronger involuntary movements

would lead the operator most rapidly and directly to the objects,
and that independently of whether the voluntary motions of the

subject—which, to a great extent, experience must teach the

former to distinguish from the z'nwlmztarymwere designed to de-

ceive or not. i . .
It would also be consistent with this theory, that in the average

b

n

M326! Reading. I 5

cases where the muscles of the subject were too passive to direct
the operator, so long as the person was not subjected to any great
change of place with reference to the selected object, that a rapid
removal from the room and a subsequent rapid re—entry into it,
would be likely to suddenly excite such a vivid idea of the
locality in his mind that the involuntary movements would be
caused. , '

So far as this goes, Mr. Brown acts in many of his experiments
as if this were in reality the object of his movements. For ex-
ample, at the ﬁrst private exhibition of his powers given in Phila-

delphia, at the Continental Hotel, the ﬁrst experiment was con-
ducted in this way. A gentleman was selected to secrete an object.

This gentleman gave the object to me, and I put it in my pocket.
Mr. Brown, after taking the gentleman’s hand, hurried down the
aisle between rows of benches on which were seated sixty or more
persons, went into the hall and walked rapidly to the end of the
corridor. Afterwards, turning suddenly on his tracks, he re-entered
the room at a rapid pace, whereby the picture of the general loca—

tion of the object was suddenly presented to the mind of the gen-

tleman who had secreted it. The experiment was successful.
Whether or not this were really the explanation of the success of
this and similar experiments, is not certain; but for this very
reason these experiments are indecisive, and they form the greater
part of the whole number. The same is the case with regard to
selecting letters of the alphabet hung up on cards or written on‘
the blackboard, selecting a particular photograph or page of a

book, etc., etc. . .
If Mr. Brown selects the object directly, it may be because the

involuntary movements of his subject are unusually distinct; if
he wanders about very much before ﬁnding the object, it may be
that his ﬁnal success has been due to causing intermittent impres-
sions of the object in the mind of the other; if he fail, the reason is
obvious. In an experiment tried for the purpose of testing'how far
Mr: Brown could be misdirected by feigned slight involuntary
motions of the hand, I found that it could be easily done, but the
difﬁculty was to be sure that the mind was ﬁrmly ﬁxed on one
object, at the same time that the motions of the hand were lead-
ing the experimenter in an opposite direction. . Where the atten- '
tion was more directed to the true place than to the causing of a

16 Mind Reading.

deception, he was not deceived; and in the opposite case it is ques-
tionable whether the conditions were those demanded.

Another instance in which I was the subject illustrates this. A
particular picture in a large atlas of birds having been selected, the
leaves were turned over, and, while keeping the ﬁgure of the bird
in my mind, I exerted an effort to avoid giving rise to any “thrills”
on beholdin g it. The plate was passed, but when two pages more
had been turned, Mr. Brown rapidly turned back the leaves and
selected it. Here I could not repress the thought that the indis-
position to submit to a tedious search over ﬁfty or sixty pages with
nothing but failure as an object may have so acted upon my nerves
as to have caused motions ofthe hand which Mr. Brown interpre-
ted properly.12 , \

All these things and a large number of similar experiments, suf-
ﬁciently vouched for by well-known persons of trained scientiﬁc
culture inthe West, Boston, New Haven and elsewhere, are in con-
clusive as to the real source whence Mr. Brown derives his infor-
mation; for however probable or improbable the theory of un-
conscious guidance may be, it is not 2922;305:2513; and if it is least
in antagonism with our experience we are bound to accept it, at
all events provisionally. But there are other facts to be explained.
The ﬁrst, is the experiment of acting through a passive agent who
is ignorant of the selected object. The operator clasps the hand
of a person who is to use his mental faculties as little as possible
—-to remain perfectly passive; but a second person who has ﬁxed
his mind on a given place clasps this intermediate person by the
wrist». The object is usually selected quite as readily in this case
as in the others. The only manner in which the previous hypoth-
esis can be supposed to apply, is that in this case the passive
hand receives the involuntary tremors to which the active subject
gives rise, and in this way leads the seeker to the right place. In
order to vary the conditions of this, the two persons were requested
to think of quitedifferent things, the passivity of either being thus
abolished. Mr. Brown selected with very great promptness the
object thought of by the person whose hand he held. On changing

 

 

12The meeting at which the experiments here mentioned were undertaken was
arranged by Prof. Cope and myself, at the Academy of Natural Sciences, for
the purpose of learning something of the nature of this power. Six other
persons were present.

[Mind Reading. ' I 7

the conditions so as to place a very “bad subject” in connection
with him, and a very “ good subject” on the outside, the object
thought of by the latter was found. The experiment of taking
the hands of two persons who were thinking of the same place was
tried, in order to ascertain ifa confusion of guiding tremors would
ensue; but the object was found without delay.

It is one grade more difﬁcult to believe that these indications were
caused by unconscious tremors of a person not touching the opera-
tor, transmitted to the entire wrist and hand of the passive subject,
than that this was the case when there was direct contact between
operator and subject. And if it be admitted that the very magni-
tude of the mass moved by the forearm and wrist of the interme—
diate person, would render the motions slower and more easy to
interpret into a directive impulse one way or the other, it still
is astonishing that a small object, in one case removed at arm’s
length above the heads of the persons engaged in the experi-
ment, should be thus selected, and with apparent facility.

But a fatal objection to this explanation would be the success
of experiments similar to those mentioned, when the means
of communication was a slack wire held in the hands of operator
and subject. Two tests of this kind were attempted at the inter-
view referred to, neither of which was entirely successful, though
one was certainly remarkable. A number of persons held one end
of a Wire, their attention ﬁxedly directed to a certain object,
and Mr. Brown, being blindfolded, held the other e'nd. In the
ﬁrst experiment the wire was over’ a hundred feet long and about
one millimetre in diameter. It was insulated with cotton and
wound around an iron pillar. The experiment failed. In the
second instance about sixty feet of the same wire was allowed to
trail loosely on the ﬂoor, the same conditions in other respects
being observed. '

In both cases care ’was taken that the positions of the per..
sons composmg the group at the thinking end should not lead
to any guess on the part of Mr. Brown as to the general direction
of the object, although (as in all the experiments) hewas blind-
folded. The object was a ball of twine placed upon one of the
tables in the large and well-ﬁlled hall of the Academy. Mr. Brown
came back to the spot where this was lying ﬁve. or six times, and
actually touched it several times, but was unable to distinguish that

I 8 ' M'na’ Reading.

this was the article. When he ﬁnally abandoned the experiment
his hands were almost, if not actually in contact with it. Never-
theless the experiment was not a success, however near it might have
been to it. The task of dealing with facts is a sufﬁcient employ-
ment, without introducing any which might have been but were
not. At the Michigan University and at Yale College the test was
entirely successful. The following are the published accounts of
the feats : V '

Experiment 6.—One end of a copper wire 20% feet long was held by Prgf.
Lyman, the other by Mr. Brown, the wire being slack. Mr. Brown (blind-
folded as in all cases), after turning for a moment to a person seated near by,
went straight to a spot beneath the object on which Mr Lyman had ﬁxed his
thought, which was the clock, in a high and (to Mr. Brown) inaccessible
position. What he did ﬁnd was an article on a shelf within reach, and a few
feet directly beneath the clock.

Experiment 7.—-Mr. Brown left the room. An inkstand was placed in a
certain position on the lecture table. Prof. Fisher, Prof. Wright and Tutor
Phelps took hold of one end of the wire before mentioned, and Mr. Brown

blindfolded, of the other end. Very soon, and without mistake, he found the
inkstand, having passed round the end of the table, which was then between
him and the three gentlemen, the wire being slack and partly on the ﬂoor.—
Prof. Lyman, Yale College.

-x- * * ae 9(-

Among the rest, he was requested to take hold of the end of an insulated
copper wire, two hundred and ten feet long, running from the basement to the
lecture—room of the school building, while the other end was held by Prof.
Brewer, in the basement. The professor thought of a hammer lying on a black
board in the lecture room ; and Mr. Brown, holding his end of the wire in that
room all the while, found the article after a search of nine minutes.

A similar test was made with Prof. Lyman holding a slack wire, thirty feet
long. And at a‘public meeting, this gentleman said “ he would stake his rep- .
utation upon the genuineness of the phenomena,” which he considered“ of
great scientiﬁc value.”—Cal. Olcaz‘t, in Daily Graft/tie.

From a private letter from a gentleman connected with Yale
College a few days ago, and in answer to an inquiry as to the ac-
curacy of this published account of MrlBrown’s experiments
there, I extract the following : “ Ivhave just had a talk with Prof.
Lyman, of the Sheffelrl Sez'entzﬁe Se/zool, and am authorized to say
that the account of Brown’s performance in the papers sent by you
is correct in every respect, it having been written by Prof. Lyman
himself. The only criticism he has to offer was in the case of the

. wire experiment: The wire was two hundred feet long, but it was

i

M'mz’ Reading. 19

so arranged as to go into the basement and then back into the
room where the experiment was being performed, so that Mr. Brown
and his subject were both in the same room. Prof. Lyman remarked
that in eight wire experiments six were entirely successful, the other
two were partial failures, but in each case the failure was as re-
markable as the success. The Professor is a ﬁrm believer in Brown.
* * * * He regards the theory of “unconscious muscular
action’ as entirely opposed to the facts observed.”

This obviously occurring theory of the manner in which Mr.
Brown performs those experiments duringnvhich his hand is in 55%
contact with the hand of the person operated upon is fortiﬁed by ‘1'
an account ofa series ofexperiments performed by Mr. Whitehouse,
and which was published in one of the dailies here. . The whole
article (which is humorously headed the “ Muscle Reader”), is in-
teresting as recounting experiments which remove all doubt as to
the possibility of the acquisition by some persons, through experi-
ence and attention, ofsuch sensibility to faint movements, and such
tact in distinguishing voluntary from involuntary tremors or pres~
sures,as to enable them to perform the greater number of Mr.
Brown’s feats. It matters not here whether Mr. Brown performs
them in the same way or not. If not, nature expends in his case
a quantity of a higher kind of force which might be readily ap-
plied to superior ideation, while its results could be as easily
effected by means of faculties common to all mankind. Water
seeks the most direct course down hill, and one such natural and
direct channel of explanation having been proved, the common
sense of mankind refuses to_ have anything to do with a circuitous

and (as yet) unnatural one.
To this extent we are indebted to the gentlemen who were

Witnesses of these extraordinary proofs of Mr. Whitehouse’s skill.
But the humorous chronicler allows his admiration to carry him
per saltum over facts which \merit, from the sources which attest
them, the most respectful attention, and which are inconsistent
with the theory of “muscle reading.” Such are the wire experi-
ments before alluded.to. It is as contrary to all approved methods V
of induction, to reject well authenticated facts, as to jump pre- V
maturely to general conclusions. It may well be that the greater
number of phenomena exhibited by Mr. Brown, may be gathered
together under the head of “ muscle reading,” but this does not

9;

20 [Wind Reading.

explain those which remain. Nor is the public enlightened by
being told in reference to this that “Mr. Whitehouse had not
learned that trick yet” (2'. e. the wire test). This premature
assumption that all has been said on the subject, while it may
answer the purpose of a daily paragraphist, shows a want of that
scientiﬁc calmness with which problems of this nature should be
regarded.
Considering the high standing and long experience of those
gentlemen who have pronounced in favor of Mr. Brown’s possess—
{4} ing the power of reading the mind through a long wire, it would
. seem that this satirical writer, in the concluding sentence of the
report alluded to, viz: that “ all the fools are not dead yet,” only
lent to a universal truism what force there is in a personal

illustration. .
In his introduction of Mr. Brown at the Continental Hotel,

Prof. Barker stated in substance—(I quote from memory)—
that scientiﬁc men were not averse to being made acquainted
with facts, no matter of what nature; that Mr.’Brown was un-
doubtedly honest, and that many of the experiments were not
certaz'n/y’solved by the application of any laws with which we
were at present familiar.

It is not meant to cast the slightest imputation on Mr; Brown,
when it is said that the second of these propositions ought to have
no weight in an investigation. .No experiments can be consid-
ered scientiﬁcally conclusive when their force is derived from a
supposed action of the Will of the subject. Asseverations of good
faith, even though supported by circumstantial evidence, can be
of no value in a scientiﬁc inquiry into facts.

An experiment was tried to determine whether the clue, what-
ever it may be, was given over the whole distance separating the
seeker and the object sought, or whether it consisted in a great
number Of guiding impressions given at many points of the route
chosen, and informing him of the next immediate part of the route
previously determined on, Or which would have been naturally
selected. A ventilator in the ceiling was selected, to which there
was no‘ordinary means of access, and the mind was kept ﬁrmly
ﬁxed upon it. The movements were rapid and. erratic. The sub-
ject was taken out of the room and brought back again, when Mr.

Brown, as if suspecting that the place selected must be on the sub—
I .

M'mz’ Reading. 2 I

ject’s person, endeavored to ﬁnd it there. There was not the least
indication that any means of discovering the direction would be
found, and he failed. This again seems to corroborate the uncon-
scious movement theory, for no case can be thought of which so
entirely precludes unwitting guidance, as where it is impossible to
convey a hint of the route to pursue, owing to the fact that there
is no such route.

All the experiments heretofore considered have required from
the successful performer, but the one faculty of locating. It was
not entirely clear whether Mr. Brown possessed any other capacity
or not. From his replies, contrary impressions on this subject
were gathered. In order to test this he was blindfolded and brought
into the room, after which certain ﬁgures unseen by him were
drawn in chalk on the blackboard. In the ﬁrst experiment,which
was to discover which of them was thought of, (although it was of
precisely the same character as those in which he had succeeded,)
he failed. In the second, which was to discover the position
of one of the same four characters on the blackboard, the subject

meanwhile keeping his mind intently upon the form itself to the
exclusion of its position, he also failed. The third test was as to

Whether, by holding the hand of a person who was thinking intently
of a simple ﬁgure, he could draw that ﬁgure in chalk. This also
failed.

Next the attempt was made to get him to designate a simple tune
from impressions received synchronously with the imaginary im-
pressions of the rhythm. This also failed. It is due to Mr. Brown V
to state that these experiments were of a character such as he had
never professed, but on the contrary doubted his ability to perform ;
that they'were new to him, and each tried but once. The above un-
successful experiments suggested another in which he was more
fortunate, viz: the designation of a particular organ of sensation.
It was announced to him that the attention would be directed to
a particular sensation. This he readily detected to be the sense of
smell, by selecting the nose. But it will be at once perceived that
by the conditions of this experiment the same possible source of
error was introduced,as in the simple experiment of locating a pain,
or an “imaginary pain” (as if there could be such a thing). In
fact, the moment the particular sense was selected, the organ minis-
tering to it at once became the true point thought of, and the ele-

22 [Wind Reading.

ment of possible unconscious indication was introduced. Added to
this, in the particular case selected, it must be confessed that the
natural desire to consummateatermination to theinevitable rubbing
of the subject’s nose, as his hand was passed in succession over the
organs located in the head and face, must have furnished an addi—
tional stimulus to the tremors.

The trial was then made to ascertain whether the z'mz‘ant of a
slight muscular movement was ascertainable by an impression con-

veyed to Mr. Brown, and the interpretation of the answer was
that it was not; but the moment the interrogation concerned
the place where the motion was made, it was correctly stated to be
the right knee-cap. Many other experiments of the same kind as
those to which he is accustomed were successfully accomplished,

but they would lend no additional value to this brief account, be-
.cause they are all open to the objection suggested.

It is undoubtedly astonishing on the one hand that unconscious
“ ideomotor movements” should be so general a consequence of
the attention to any indifferent idea, and on the other hand that
they should be sufﬁcient in amount to enable a sensitive and im-
pressible person to detect and rightly interpret them. But it is
possible. No experiment which Mr. Brown performs is removed
from the suspicion of this agency, except that with the insulated
wire ; and this, though unsuccessful here, deserves attention from
its authenticated success elsewhere. ' I

In reference to these experiments with wires in this city, an in-
stance occurring in my own observation and which has not appeared
in print is worthy of reproduction.

One or two persons had been invited byMr. Pugh (Mr. Brown’s
manager) to meet the latter in the superintendent’s room of the
Western Union Telegraph Company’s oﬁ‘ice here, in order to wit-
ness an experiment which had long been suggested to Mr. Brown,
but not yet attempted.

I Presuming on his power to interpret the thoughts of a person
through two hundred feet of wire, it was proposed to ascertain if
he could receive impressions through greater distances, and thus
justify'the soubriquet applied to him of “the human telegraph.”

Two experienced operators were present, ‘who, having cut ten
slips of paper and numbered them from thirty to forty, requested
the operator in New York to get ready to hold the wire, and at

I

Mimi Reading. 2 3

the same moment to think intently of that one of the above num-
bers which represented his age. It was a solemn and impressive
moment. In the next few seconds it was to be determined whether
that inscrutable force which had evolved the “ Inferno” and
“ Hamlet,” had really been speeding away unseen through space
from every one of countless millions of brains—now dancing in the
sunlit space of our planetary system, now converted into heat and
light or'what not by impact with the matter of Alpha Cygni—
perhaps adding its share to making up differences of the brilliancy
of the earth as seen from remote regions of space. It was the
critical moment in which an era might be born, and the hypothesis
of the correlation of the mental and physical forces receive the cor~
roboration of successful experiment. Every one in the room
watched the movements of Mr. Brown in silence and with intense
interest. _

The tap-tap of the instrument was the announcement we re-
ceived that all was ready. Mr. Brown, blindfolded and holding
the Wire between his hands, his head bowed over the table whereon
the numbers were laid, commenced moving slowly to and fro, his
forehead occasionally descending to absolute contact with' one or
other of the papers. To one of these he returned several times, and
ﬁnally picked it up with his hand, at the same time unfastening
the bandage over his eyes, and handing it to the operator. It was
the number 37. The silence of intense interest was only broken -
by the clicking of the electro-magnet responsive to the touch of
one of the operators,iwho was announcing the result to the sub-

ect in New York, and asking information in regard to it.

Our impatience to get the answer made the monotonous ticking
of the “ Sounder” in reply occupy apparently twice the usual time,
but it came nevertheless quickly and substantially in these words:
“ Battery put on the wire by mistake.” ' ‘

That battery could hardly have been so old.

The three trials which followed this (between Philadelphia and

Wilmington,) and of which alone I have any personal knowledge,

were unsuccessful.
But granting that this faculty stands future tests and can be re—

lied upon, or that the molar vibrations transmitted to the. operator’s
hand are not sufﬁcient toaccount for the phenomena, what expla-
nation can be offered of them? ' '

‘ .

24 , M ind Reading.

The following is taken from the circular entitled “ Mental Tel-
egraphy,” which was circulated by the manager of Mr. Brown:

THE SCIENCE OF IT.

Dr. Cooker, Professor of Mental Science in the University of Michigan, in a
scientiﬁc essay on Brown’s ‘performances, says :—

~“ As to the hypothesis : he is no imposition, as he is well known by several
residents in the University, who were acquainted with him before any tour of
exhibition was contemplated, and knew that he possessed natural peculiarities.

“ Only a hint can be given as to what is the true hypothesis. A few of the
cases he gives are instances of imageal representation of,_,concrete objects in
space. In order to have a representation of this sort, the optic nerve and optic
ganglia, or the molecules of the optic nerve and ganglia, must have the same
chromatic vibrations as in the ﬁrst act of perception}:3

“The intensity must, of course, vary, because the image is not so vivid. Now
if the hypothesis be true, that the nerve current is some mode of force correlated

with electricity, then we can conceive how the same molecular vibrations in the
brain of the co-operator may be transmitted to the brain of the operator, and a
faint image 'of the same object produced, so that really Mr. Brown sees through
the brain and eyes of another. a

“ Furthermore, a long copper wire was attached to the wrist of the operator
and to the hand of the co-operator, where there could be no tension and relaxa-
tion, and Mr. Brown succeeded perfectly.”

If Mr. Brown has ever been capable of imageal representations
of concrete objects in space, he has given in no instance speciﬁc
proof of the possession of this power which can be found authen-
ticated. But assuming that he had, it by no means follows that
the optic nerve should have any vibrations at all. ' Maudsley says,
in speaking of the Ideational Centre, “The reﬂex action of an
ideational centre may operate downwards, not only upon the
muscular system, but also downwards on the sensory ganglia.”
“As the idea is excited into activity by the impression' on the .
senses, so it may in turn react downwards upon the sensory cen-
t'res, giving rise under certain circumstances to illusions and hallu-
cinations.” In this, as in all other cases when the idea is derived
from a stimulus from without, that stimulus must ﬁrst assume the
character of a sensation; because, to quote his language, “the
anatomists believe they have now demonstrated that the nerve
ﬁbres which ascend from the spinal cord through the medulla ob-
longata do not pass directly to the surface of the hemispheres, but

end in the ganglionic cells of the ‘corpora striata’ 3 new ﬁbres

 

 

13 See nbte (a) at end of addendum.

M’Izd Reading. ' 2 5

starting from these cells and radiating to the cortical cells, to es-
tablish the communication between the primary and secondary
nervous. centres.”

Now assuming that the “nerve current is some mode of force
correlated with electricity,” the conclusion that “we can con-
ceive how the same molecular vibrations in the brain of the co-
operator may be transmitted to the brain of the operator,” seems
hardly justiﬁed.

If we unite the wires leading from twenty-six electro magnets,
each corresponding to a letter of the alphabet, with a single wire,
and then attempt to affect only one of those magnets by sending
a current through the main wire, we would be attempting a far
simpler experiment than that spoken of here. The same current
of electricity which will produce different degrees and kinds of
involuntary and unconscious muscular action if applied to the dif-
ferent motor ganglia, will produce the sensation of smell if applied
to the olfactory, or sight if applied to the optic nerve, and most
probably ideation of different kinds if applied to the various cells
of the central hemispheres. We have then a stimulus from with
out acting directly on the sensory ganglia of the observer, and
through them to the cerebral cells, expending its force, ﬁrst, by
transmission laterally as a train of thought among them ; second,
by the storing up of residua as memory of the act; and third, by
- reﬂection downwards on the sensorium commune. Next this frag-
ment of the original force is divided between, ﬁrst, derivative
sensation, and second, molecular motion propagated through the

nerves of the body and ﬁnding outlet through those of the hand to
the similar nerves in the hand of the operator. From this point

it is conducted either to the motor or sensory centres, and in any
case through the latter to the vast congeries of cortical cells of the
hemispheres, when ﬁnally what remains of force must be suppos‘ed
to exercise a selective discrimination on these innumerable cells
sufﬁcient to cause a “ faint image of the same object, so that Mr.
Brown really sees through the brain and eyes of another.”

If this be a fact, certainly its explanation on known physiologi-
' cal principles remains one of those problems with more unknown
quantities than equations to solve them by.“

 

 

14 It matters little whether this current be electricity orimagnetism, 0d (:15 Reich-
cnbach calls it), or nerve current. Our knowledge of the laws of force is suf-

26 » M'Iza’ Reading.

Since Mr. Brown’s appearance in this city, the subject has
excited a great degree of interest, and attention has been called to
numerous cases where amateur experimenters and professional exhi-
bitors have claimed various degrees of success. Hearing of one of
the latter who was said to have given even more remarkable in-
stances of this mysterious power than any accredited to Mr.
Brown, it was determined to give this subject as thorough investi-
gation as possible. .

An experiment having been made with the young man referred
to (who always executed these marvels in the presence of his
mother, and avowedly through the assistance of spirits), and a few
witnesses having been provided and the same hall selected, a series
of twenty-ﬁve experiments of the same general character as those
referred to in connection with Mr. Brown, were tried—such as ﬁnd-
ing secreted objects, spelling out words by indicating the letters in
succession on an alphabet, etc., etc. Out of these twenty-ﬁve
- experiments but two were successful, and both with the same lady.

The results being considered so unsatisfactory by the performers,
a new appointment was made for the next day, when some of the
same and some additional witnesses were selected. Twenty-four
experiments were undertaken, each of the seven persons present
being made at least once the subject. But four of these experi-
ments succeeded, three of them with the same person. So far as
this person is concerned, therefore, nothing is added to our knowl-
edge. It may be stated that there was not the least difﬁculty in
leading this “mind reader” in any direction, by very clumsily-
imitated unconscious movements of the hand, or indeed even by

mere pressure. . _ ‘
It would seem to be a fair conclusion from the facts thus far

 

 

ﬁciently advanced to require no further conﬁrmation of the doctrine that what-
ever occurs—whether heat, motion, sound, or idea—costs energy, and that the re-
sidual energy will be less in proportion as the effects produced by the stimulus
have been greater, or as that original force has been more diverted into various
manifestations. In all Reichenbach’s extraordinary assertions (the “ Researches
on Magnetism,” etc., translated by John Ashburne, M. D. Hyppolyte Bailliere,
2:9 Regent street. London: 1851), there is nothing so extraordinary as this—-
that a residual current, acting through a complicated maze of centres, and con-
nected as directly with one as with another, should result in an intelligible im-
pression, however faint, by the excitation of those peculiar centres which alone
could give it birth, to the exclusion of all the others.
i

Addendum. 2 7

known in connection with this new form of mind reading, that with
the exception of the wire test (about which too little is yet known
to warrant a decided opinion) there is nothing to justify the infer-
ence that the results are obtained by the agency of any unknown
or occult force.

 

'ADDENDUM.

Since the presentation of this paper, a perfect conﬁrmation of the theory of
unconscious muscular movement was obtained through the kindness of my
friends, the Messrs. A. A. and A. E. Outerbridge, of this city. These gentlemen
have been amusing themselves for some time in practising “ mind reading;” and
each of them performs the ordinary feats of Mr. Brown, in a very satisfactory
manner. During the course of an evening devoted to this kind of experimen-
tation, the number of the unsuccessful attempts to ﬁnd objects was exceedingly
small. A gentleman having secreted an object during the absence from the
room of Mr. A. E. Outerbridge, on giving the latter his hand was conducted
directly to the spot where the object was hidden. ,The same gentleman having
under the same conditions taken a circuitous route through the room, was con—
ducted by Mr. Outerbridge over precisely the same route. .

Besides these ordinary tests, some were added of a very interesting character.

Thus a person who had previously secreted an object while keeping his thoughts

upon the locality where it was placed, held one end of a cane to his forehead,
the other end being similarly held by Mr. Outerbridge. The object was found

on two occasions with great rapidity.

Another novelty was the discovery of a selected place by means of move-
ments discernible in the hands of a person without any contact at all.

The person who had selected the object held his right foreﬁnger in front of
him'and kept his eyes steadily upon it, while his thoughts were ﬁrmly ﬁxed

upon the place. .
Mr. Outerbridge held his own ﬁnger at a short distance from that of the sub-

ject, and kept his attention riveted upon it. After moving slowly over the ﬂoor .

for a few moments the place was discovered. In some remarks explanatory of
these experiments, Mr. A. A. Outerbridge alluded to the fact that unconscious
motion always follows in the direction of an object ﬁrmly ﬁxed in the mind. '
This becomes perceptible. in the motions of a subject’s hand to an operator
who has had a little preliminary practice, and especially so if the guiding
impulses are screened from the.notice of‘ him who makes them by voluntary

The saine i512?“ agei whenéany

111ade "by the operatox'.‘
gneetiOn between the ope1'atoi' and sub}

_ ‘1'": . 1 _ 1 2 , the unc’ohsdous gﬁicl
closmg 01' non closing of the interval between the two ﬁnge‘fs. 7
direction, the subject (if: dlsposed to

;1_1", of the operator be in the 1ight
mfhi's ﬁ'éii't fairly) closes up the temporarily increased interval more 1apidl

motion be 111 a wrong direction. '. 7 1;, ,

”e 1653565 ingemuty we are iridehtecl foi' this pracucal de

s when of the theoi'y heretofore noticed, are too w
on this explanation 11§e55ary

{14‘1-

”_the wire tests, various suppos1 .
all of which are based upon the hypothes1s that Mr

'1 11g 9. tncfﬂb which; on that account and for the

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mix on
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