The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-11-25
The OWNING ROD MYSTERY.
Engiish Professors Explanation After Care,
fol INQUIRY.
From the himore SV..

The second instnllment OF an elaborate re-
port by Prof. W. r. Barrett on the "so-called
divinin9 rod" has Just made its appearance.
Prof Barrett is a nemher Of the Royal Society.
occupies the chair Of experimental physics
In tho Roynl College OF Science for ireland al
Dublin and has taken an active part in the work
of the Society for Psyohical Research.
Three or four YEAR, ago Prof. Barrett under
took n thorough Investigation OF, the. subject.
collecting all the stories he could obtain re-
sSysrn Of We water ars o, and a 'I mipcra ,sis SLIM rTf she ,b ur1
carefully, seeking SUCH corroboration as might
be available and planning experiments of his
" "Wn in is So nT 1ite AK Is. % cases n,s reP II. s secohd 'f Eye
ni@hes many more, some OF them having been
conducted under Prof barrett. own super;
will deal largely, with the hunt for metals with
the diyining rod
A. e this a...O ~ The ,"f fof e. d' Witch q haze, siIV MI 5
locally called in England, Prof Barrett sn,s
that the operator usually holds the ! by the
Kim and i%nclines upward ,iisftiy' When
posed TO exist the twiE rise. TO a vertical rosi-
himself often sypenrs exhausted 10y III ,nort.
even COM laining Of sickness or siddin@l
and nrsa.ips into rcrsEir,tion Th~c are
tyig altuecther and Is guided 10y his sensa-
lions alone During he or"rntion the do..er
nr@T lTS 1',Nn,on on the ~ Of The tris and be-
Eminent people ms well = those who are
not conspicuous in public life in England EN-
yloy dovser.. Prof Barrett includes lords
Salisbury and Iansdowne anon their patrons.
There are scores. Of professional doveers In
the United Kingdom. to say nothing @. Con-
~tinental Europe. tho United States and Can
ada. Amateurs also practise the art In
his first report Prof. Barrett pronounced fairly
successful lNo Of the $50 attenpts recorded
Rejecting the experiments Of amateurs, he
gets ninety-fve successful results ont Of los
cases In the second report he finds the rro-
Portion about the same. hut he admits thnt
dowsers may not report their failures So fully
and frankly as their hits. Still he does not
estimate the failures a. more than 10 to IS per
cent. Of the attempts.
Two sets OF experiments have been tried
with a view TO ascertain the Renuinenees Of
the phenomenon In one a second or third
operator was taken over the same ground as
tho first. and tho results Of their divinatIon
were Identical and successful Some Of the
leading spirits ia the Society for Psychical
are lulled 10 Inactivity by sleep, natural or
hypnotic. = few persons of n peculiar orcani-
zation exhibit a power Of perception and n
sueccpitbility 10 influence which is unlike that
experiences by other people or by the snme
people under other circumstances Prof Bar
rot regards this possession Of q "supernormal-
faculty tho most satisfactory theory regard
ing the discovery of water with n witch hazel
twig He thinks thnt the successful operator
II ~self-hypn0ti7ed by fixing his attention on
tho twic lie saws; This suboonsciou. per
power, commonly called 'ciairvovafc 60
may Professionally be takon ~ the explanation
Of those successes Of tho dowscr which are in
on any grounds at present known