Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-07-05

standing behind her with his fingers lightly
touching her shoulders He certainly could not
by any intentional effort in such position have
e1:cceeded in guiding tho girls fingers in their
rapid fumbng motion among the chaos of let
tiers heaped confIlsedly together. On another
occasion one OF us witnessed the successful per-
formance by lady-the daughter of an eminent
sdcdnt-of extremely varied and complicated OPP
erations silently fixed upon by him in her alb
sence FOR instance, lie decided that she should
pick up little agate ornament standing amid
some twenty other small objects on a shelf
should put it inside certain covered lar in an
other part of the room. reopen the Jar remove
the ornament and hand. it to a certain friend
VINO was present. This was done not only cor
rectly TO the smallest detail. but so rapidly that
the hypothesis of unconscious muscular action
on the part OF the ''wiler," who lightly touched
the ladys shoulders. seemed. to say the least q
violent one. Still mere was this the case when
selected notes on the piano were four times in
successonco correctly struck, and particular books.
fixed upon at random were taken from full
bookcase on six consecutive trials. Finally. the
hands, though placed near were not allowed to
touch the person of the guesser; the effect of
this was to render the performance slower and
more hesitating, but nevertheless even now the
number OF the successes exceeded that of the
failures; While of course the odds against sue
cess remained on each occasion enormous. In
these experiments 1t was very noticeable that
much larger percentar re of successful results Gin
fact almost unbroken success if the tins of the
fingers OF the willer touched the guesser) occur
red when near relative of the gueSser was the
'wiltef Ihls sort of circumstance is very COM
m0n and must naturally excite suspicion: for
clearly no one in such a case can call on science
to accept as strict evidence any private convic-
1ion OF his own, based on knowledge of the
family. that deception was out of the question
Psychological treatiseS may be searched
IN vain for any account of transmission of men,
tai images otherwise than by ordinary sensory
channels. At the same time it may serve to dis
arm purely pl'lOTl criticism if we point out
that the word misunderstanding is merely used
as popular and provisional description. and is
in no way intended to exclude an explanation
resting on physical basis 1t is quite open to
surmse some sort of analogy to the familiar
phenomena OF the Transmission and reception of
MIGRATORY energy. A swinging pendulum sus-
pended from solid support will throw into syn
chrohous vibration another pendulum attached
10 the same support if the period of oscillation
OF the TWO be the same the medium of trans
mission here being the solid material of the sup
port. One tunng-fork or string in unison with
another Will communicate its impulses through
the medium OF the air. Glowing PARTICLES of a
gas. acting through the medium of the lumin-
ferrous ether. can throw into sympathetic vibra-
tlon cool molecules of the same substance at a
distance A permanent magnet brought into a
room VIII throw any surrounding iron into a
condition similar to its own; and here the me-
dunn of communication is unknown though the
tact is undlsputed. Similarly we may conceive
if we please, that the vibration of molecules OF
brain-stuff may be communicated to an inter-
vening medium, and so pass under certain cir
cumstances from one brain to another, with a
corresponding simultaneity of Impressions No
more than in the case of the magnetic phenomena
Is any investigator bound to determine the me-
dunn before inquirng into the fact of transit
On the other hand the possibility must not be
overlooked that further advances along the lines
ofresearch here indicated may necessitate al odi-
iicatlon of that general view of the relation of
mind to matter to which modern science has
long been graVitating.