Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-08-18

PEoceedin9s q tAe Brlslsh Oocaesy q
RAysical ReoeaxcSe1.

are 90 strong that argument seems useless II not
Impossible, 1t Is that Of socalled ''supernaturs"
phenomena The "Society for Physical Re-
search" however, pursues its course without
dismay, as Is shown by the interesting volume of
its Proceedings just published BY Messrs Trub-
ner. The investigators themselves do not claim
the highest scientific value for any downright
ghosts that they have yet discovered; and It must
certainly be owned that II these are fair speci-
mems, the semi-authentic ghost Of Psychical
Research is vastly inferior in suggestiveness
and mystery to our dear gruesome old friend of
the Christmas f1reside. But there are COM
pensatiOn in other parts of the volume. It is.
indeed, one of the merits of the Society that it
mas shown how unnecessary so vulgar and hack
neyed thing as ghost is to produce that sense
OF eerieness which Is the principal attraction of
supernatuTaf phenomena. Isolated appa-
rltlons, especially when they portend some great
caiamty. are really far more impressive than
your regular, unSnubbable, Old-established
ghost. who never leads to anything and who,
like the lady in grey Of one of the haunted
house stories in this volume. comes at last to be
regarded as matter of course by the very fam
lily she is engaged in hunting. How far more
appalling is the following specimen apparition,
which is vouched for by friend of some Of the
Researchers:
"My mother married. at very early age.
without the consent of her parents Nv grand
mother vowed that she would never see her
daughter again. A few months after her mar
rage my mother was awakened at about 2 a. m.
by loud knocking at the door. To her great
surprise my father did not wake. The knocking
was resumed: my mother spoke to my father
but, as he still slept, she got up. opened the
window, and looked out. when, to her amaze
ment. she saw her mother. in full court DRESS
standing on the step and looking up at her
My mother called to her. but my grandmother
frowning and shaking her head disappeared
At this moment my father awoke, and
nv moi fn1d hi -1,nk bal
He went to the window, but saw moth
ing. My mother was sure that nv
grandmother, even at that late hour,
had come to forgive her, and entreated my
father to let her in. He went down and opened
the door, but nobody was there. He assured
my mother that she had BEEN dreaming. and
she at last believed that it was so. The next
morning the servants were questioned. but they
had heard nothing. and the matter vas dismissed
from the minds OF my parents till the evening"
when they heard that my grandmother had been
In court dress, at ball the night before-I
think at Kensington Palace. but of this am not
sure-that feeling unwell, she had returned
| home and. after about an hours illness. had
died at a. m. She had not mentioned my
mothers name during her short Illness"
There are dozen stories as good or better
than this. They are of familiar pattern. but
the society has made strong collection and has
classified them with much care. We have only
room for one other, of a rather less common. If
also less tragic, and indeed almost humorous
type:-
"On JulyS, 1882, my wife went to London to
have an operation (Which We both believed to be
slight one) performed On her eyes by the late
Mr.; Critchett. The appointment was for 1:3O
and. knowing from long previous experience
the close sympathy of our minds. about that
time !, at Brighton, got rather fidgety. and was
much relieved-and perhaps little surprised
and disappointed-at not feeling any decided
sensation which / could construe as symna-
thetic. Taking it, therefore, for granted that
all was well, went out at 2:45 to conduct my
concert at the aquarium, expecting to find there
telegram. as had been arranged, to say that
all was well. On my way stopped, as usual,
to compare my watch with the big clock outside
Lawson's, the cOckmakers. At that instant I
felt my eyes flooded with water, just as when
chill wind gives one sudden cold in the ewes,
though it was hot, still summers day. The
affection was SO unusual and startling that nv
attention could not out be strongly directed to If:
yet, the time being then eleven minutes to three.
was sure it could have nothing to do with my
wires operation, and as it continued for some
little time, thought | must have taken cold
However. it passed off and the concert imme-
dately afterwards put it out of my mind At
4:1O l received a telegram from my wife. All
well over great success and this quite took
away all anxiety. But on going to town in the
evening 1 found her in terrible state of nery-
Gus pr0stratiOn; and it appeared that the opera
ton, though marvellOusly successful had been
OF very severe character Quite accidentally
1t came out that it was not till 230 that INV wife
entered the Operating-ro and that the oper-
alton commenced. after the due administration
OF an ansesthetic. at about ten minutes to three
as near as We could calculate"
But perhaps. the most interesting and GER
tainy the most novel portion of the proceed
ings" is that which deals with the latest expert
mcnts OF the society il what they call Thought
Iransference" The '.Agent" and "Percipient"
in this case-to use the technical terms of the
new science-were two gentlemen living at
Brighton, whose minds seem to be peculiarly
sympathetic. The manner in which the expert
ments were generally conducted consisted in
blindfOlding Mr.. S.. the "percipient, " while some
color, number, word or figure was unexpectedly
presented to Mr. B.. the ''agent," the nature of
which Mr.. S.was then asked to guess. The '.agent'
during some of these trials held the 'percip-
tents" hand, but in other instances they were
completely separated from one another. Some
OF these experiments would seem to show that
IL Is more agreeable to be ''percipient' than an
agent on these occasions; at any rate when,
In the simple language of the report ''pains''
are being "experimented on" Thus, for in
stance, one test consisted ''in pnching or other
wise hurting" the "agent," while the 'perci-
pient" was asked to say which part OF his alter
ego was being hurt, an attempt in which he
seems to have been uniformly successful; dis
eliminating with the incest sympathy between
pull at the hair of his friends head and witch
of the lobe of his ear. But the most curious of
all these experiments was the figure test. the
manner OF which is thus described by the inves-
tigators:
lone of us, completely out of sight of S..
drew some figure at random, the figure being of
such character that its shape could not be
easily conveyed in words; this was done in Or
der to meet the assumption that some code
such as the Morse alphabet-was used by S. and
3. The figure drawn by US was then shown to
B. for few moments-S. being seated all the
time with his back to US and blindfolded, in a
distant part of the same room. and subsequently,
in an adjoining room. B. looked at the figure
drawn; then held SIS hand for a while; then re-
leased 1t. After being released, S. (who re-
manned bindfOlded) drew the impression of
figure which he had received. It was generally
about as like the original as a child's blindfold
drawing of pig is like pig; that is to say, it
was scrawl. but recognizable as intended to
represent the original figure. In no case was
there the smallest possibility that 8. could have
seen the original figure, and in no case did B.
touch s. even In the slightest manner, while the
figure was being drawn"
A Slight Mistake.