The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-07-13
THE OWNING ROD MYSTERY.
An fasp.h Professors Explanation Affes
Careful Inquiry.

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The second installmcnt Of an elab-
crate report by Prof. w. +. Barrett on
the "sO-callcd dividing rod has JUST
made its appearance. Prof. Barrett ID
a member of the Royal Society, oc-
cupes the chair Of experimental phys
| les in the Royal College of Science Tor
Ireland ut Dublin and has taken an ac-
| tive part in the work Of the Society ZOE
Psychical Research.
Three or four years ago Prof. Bar
rctt undertook thorough 1nvestlEa'
| ton of the subject, collecting all the
stories he could obtain regarding the
| use Of forked twig for the discovery
Of water and minerals. sitting them
carefully, seeking such confederation
as might be available and planning eX-
reriments Of his own. The first part
of his report, which came out In 1873,
cited 152 cases The second furnishes
many more, some Of them having been
conducted under Prof. Barrett's own
supervision. A third installment Is
promised and will deal largely with
the hunt for metals with the divlning
rod.
In describing the operation Of "dows-
Ing" as this use Of the forked witch
hazel twig is locally called in England.
Prof. Barrett says that the operator
usually holds the Y by the prongs, SO
that the stem projects in front Of him
and inclines upward slightly. When
the dowser passes spot where water
Is supposed to exist the twig rises to
vertical position, striking him on
the breast The dOwser himself Otter
appears exhausted by his effort, even
complaining of sickness or giddiness
and breaking into perspiratlon. These
are so marked in instances that he dis
ed by his sensations alone. During
the operation the dowser fixes his at
tentiOn on the tip of the twig and be-
comes oblivious to the world around
him.
Eminent people as we'll as those who
are not conspicuous in public life irl
England employ dowsers. Professor
Barrett includes Lords Salisbury andl
Lansdowne among their patrons
There are scores Of professional dow
sers in the Unit>d Kingdom, to say
nothing Of Continental Europe, the
United States and Canada. Amateurs
also practice the art. In his first re-
port Professor Barrett pronounced
fairly successful 40 Of the $50 att
tempts recorded. Rejecting the ex.I
periments of amateurs, he gets ninety
five successful results out of 1O5 cases.
In the second report he finds the pro-
portion about the same, but he admits
that dowsers may not report their fall
ures so fully and frankly as their hits.
Still he does not estimate the failures
at more than 10 to Is per cent. Of the
attempts.
Two sets Of experiments have been
tried with view to ascertain the
commences Of the phenomenon. In
one second or third operator was
taken over the same ground as the
first, and the results of their divina-
ton were identical and successful.
Some Of the leading spirits in the So
ciety Of Psychical Research hold that
when the ordinary senses are lulled to
inactivity by sleep, natural or hyp-
motto, few persons Of a peculiar or
ganization exhibit a power Of percep-
ton and susceptibility to influence
which Is unlike that experienced by
other circumstances. Professor Bar
rett regards this possession Of a SUPER
normal" faculty the most satisfactory
theory regarding the discovery Of wat
er with witch hazel twig. he thinks
that the successful operator Is self
hypnotized by fixing his attention on
the twig. He says: This subcon-
scious perceptive power, commonly
called 'clairvoyance.' may Professionally
be taken as the explanation - - -