The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-09

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in other countries. To mention a few
names out of many the observations
Of Richet, Pierre Janet and Binet Gin
France), of Breuer and Freud lin
Austria), of William James Tin Amer
ica) have strikingly illustrated the ex-
tent to which patient experimentation
can probe subliminal processes, and
can thus learn the lessons of alternat-
ing personalities and abnormal state.
While it is clear that our knowledge
of SubconSciOuS mentatlon is still to be
developed, we must beware OF raShly
assuming that all variations from the
normal waking condition are neces-
sarily morbid. The human race has
reached no fixed or changeless ideal;
in every direction there is evolution
as well as disintegration. 1t would
be hard to find instances of more rapid
progress, moral and physical. than in
certain important cases of cure by
sug@estion-again, to cite few names
out of many-by Liebeault, Bernhelm
the late Auguste Voisin, Berillon Tin
Franco, Schrenck-NotZing Gin Ger
many) Forel lin SWITZERLAND, van
Eden Gin Holland), Wetterstrand lin
Sweden), lne-Bramwen and Lloyd
Tuckey lin England). This is not the
place for details, but the Wis medicatriX
thus evoked. as it were, from the
depths of the organism, is of good
omen for the upward evolution of
mankind. A formidable range of phe-
nomena must be scientifically sifted be-
fore we effectually grasp a faculty so
strange, so bewildering, and for ages
so inscrutable, as the direct action of
mind on mind. This delicate task
needs a rigorous employment of the
method of exclusions constant set
ting aside of irrelevant phenomena
that could be explained by known
causes, including those far too
familiar causes, conscious and uncon-
scious fraud. The inquiry unites the
difficulties inherent in all experiment
tation connected with mind with
tangled human temperaments, and
with observations dependent less on
automatic record than on personal
testimony.
But. difficulties are things to be
overcome even in the elusory branch of
research known as experimental
psychology. 1t has been characteristic
of the leaders among the group of in
QuirerS constituting the Society for
Psychical Research to combine critical
and negative work with work leading
to positive discovery. To the penetra-
ton and scrupulous fairmindedneSS of
Professor Henry Sidgwick and of the
late Edmund Quincy is largely due the
establishment of canons Of evidence
in pSychcial research, which strength
en- while they narrow the path of sub
SeQuent explorers. To the detective
genius of DR.. Richard Hodgson we owe
a convincing demonstration of the mar
row limits of human continuous obser-
walton. 1t has been said that Nothing
worth the proving can be proved, nor
yet diSproved.' True though this may
have been in the past. it is true
no longer. The science of our
century has forged weapons of OBJ
servation and analysis by which the
veriest tyro may profit. Science has
trained and fashioned the average
mind into habits of eXactitude and dis
ciplfned perception, and in so doing
has fortified itself for tasks higher.
wider, and incomparably more Won
derful than even the wisest among our
ancestors imagined. Like the souls
in Plato's myth that follow the chariot
of Zeus, it has assembled to a point of
vision far above the earth. 1t is
henceforth open to science to trans
cend all we now think we know of
matter and to gain new glimpses of a
profounder scheme of COsmic lay"
In his summary of recent research
Sir William noted the discovery of the
new atmospheric gases, neon, krypton
and metargon by Ramsay, and coron-
ium by the Italian, Nasini; suggested
that wireless telegraphy was on the
way toward practical development, and
recounted few mechanical advances
i in the generation of Rontgen rays and
the various results of highly technical
examinations into their origin, motion
and properties. Whether they are able
or unable to kill bacteria under GER
tain conditions, he regards as a
wholly undetermined question, investi-
cation of which may or may not be of
medical value. With reserve he is dis
posed to encourage DR.. Russell's eX-
periments, described some months ago
in these letters, showing that various
metals and other sorts of matter, even
without the stimulus of light or of cleo
tricity, emit rays more or less akin to
those of Rontgen. Uranium and tho
rum compounds" said he, ARE of this
character, and it would almost seem
from the important researches of DR..
Russell that the ray emitting power
may be a general property of matter;
for he had shown that nearly every
substance is capable of affecting the
Photographic plate, if exposed in dark
ness for a sufficient time"
One possible and important conse-
quence of Professor Dewar's success in
the liquefaction of gases at extremely
~" ee4hPS Z oil NhlIoiH OiOOhCss
likewise brought within the grasp of
the lay mind. When Dewar liquefied
! hydrogen last May, he attained a tenn
perature within % degrees centigrade
of absolute zero, where, according to
the present beliefs of physicists, all mo-
ton ceases. His success shows that alb
solute zero itself may be attainable.
Now, all the properties of matter, solid,
! liquid or gaseous, are due to the mo-
ton of the molecules. Matter, indeed,
as we know it, is nothing but mole
cules in motion. What, then, will be
revealed at the "paralyzing" temper
allure of absolute zero? Will matter
entirely change its properties? Will the
'tormenting mystery" of the material
atom itself, intangible, invisible, in
conceivable" be nearer solution?
H. T. PARKER.