The herald., 1894-04-29
SOME DEEP POINTS OF SCIENCE,
Col. BIantOn Duncan's Note of
Alarm Digested.
A Few Suggestions of Psychology
and 'Sich.'
Chairman Pessell OF the zlnJa Commit
toe Submits Report the I'm
pending CAtastrophe Which
Has Been Prosaged.

The zanja committee has had a hard
problem to solve in wrestling with the
recent paper submitted by Col. Blanton
Duncan to the council on the dry spell
and other portentous topics.
The matter was re ferred the zanja
committee, and yesterday Chairman
Pessell of that committee submitted the
following as solution OF the problem !:
To the Honorable Council OF the City of Los
Angeles:
We, your zania committee, to whom
was referred the very interesting COM
munication No. 286, from Blanton Dun
can, with reference to various meteoro-
logical and psychological phenomena,
beg leave to make the following report:
At the time Colonel Duncan's commu-
nication was received, there had not
been rain for 100 days in this locality
and from this patent fact he deduces
variegated sequele of diversified catas-
trophe tending toward decentralization of
the politico- -social-economic environ
ments of Southern California.
In conjunction with this fact some
i'm portant data ia submitted with re-
gard to a droath in Texas some years
ago which Colonel Duncan actually pre-
ssged.
The deductions of such eminent ad-
vanced thinkers az Professor Falb on
the inexorable laws of natural catas-
trophe are also most admirably and sue.
cinctly exploited by the colonel, and an
addenda is made to the ethics OF the
somewhat abstruse science of psycholo-
gy by the presentment of a curious
dream of Colonel Duncan, to wit: That
he was on his plantation, and in the
ecstasy OF transcendental vision saw the
hands driving up to the house great
droves OF gaunt hogs, and there was
neither water nor corn to relieve them.
Your committee entered into this por-
tion of the report with the advantage of
the light OF reason from psychology, but
even then we're forced to grope through
metaphysics OF cosmology, to find them
end in onotology as realm of twilight
until it became illumined by the light
of revelation. The question Of most
pressing Importance with regard to the
vision of the great and. hungry hogs
which passed before the colonel while
asleep was, what was the actual condi-
tion of the faculties of the cerebrum of
the colonel at that particular juncture
1t ia recognized that the dreams are
either mental phsntasmagoris or the
impression OF some subtle extra
neous infusnce. The grasping of the
relations among feelings, the committee
felt was the elementary Of an act which
was repeated alike in each simple and
direct act of perception, whether Col.
Duncan was awake or in somnolent
condition. and this applied in each com
plicated and indirect act of ratiocination.
At this stage Of our analysis we, there
fore, concluded that the ultimate ee-
mants of the prophetic viaion would
seem to be feelings and the relations
between feelings.
1t remains to add that relations them.
selves must be secondary feelings, due
to the bringing together of primary
feelings. We can know relation only
as some modification of consciousness
resulting from some combination of
the feelings directly aroused in us by
inner or outer agencies; and such mod
ification of consciousness must be itself
a kind of feeling.
For further illustration let US bear in
mind the different relations in their de-
creasing complexity and at the same
time sharply note the fundamental re-
lation involved in them as exemplifed
in the complicated Emergencies between
q city and village.
We find, therefore, that while a strict
Interpretation of this dream may presage
disaster in village, that the reciprocal
ing influences of the planets would seem
to indicate line of safety for mupici.
pslity of the size and pretensions of the
city OF Los Angeles.
As further precaution the zanja
committee recommend, in the event of
any inciPent signs of disaster from a
lack of water, that 1000 prominent cit
izens be furnished with aluminium
squirt guns and sent up the Businesses
of the mountains and transport the
water Herewith into the valleys, where
it can be efficiently discharged ON the
parched earth.