Evening star., 1903-08-01

for ''tabie-turning'' prevailed all over Eu-
rope, as q result Of the wave which started
commenced their exhibitions Of ''spirit rap
pings" Count Agenar de Gasparin, a
French Protestant. at this time made care
full experiments with his own family and
friends which convinced him that tables
could be made to move without contact.
He disputed the hypothesis that spirits had
anything to do with the phenomena. His
experiments were made in broad daylight
and with skeptical witnesses looking on
from outside the circle. A committee OF
the Dialectical Society sent to investigate
the counts seances reported that his table
moved without contact whilst all persons
present knelt on chairs, their hands on
the backs which were turned toward the
table. The movement of the latter, accord
ing to the count. was due to mental or
nervous force elnanating from the human
personality.
Studied by Instruments.
But as for tableturnng phenomena
where the hands of the sitters rest upon
the table. psychologists have demonstrated
in laboratory tests that these can be ac-
counted for the result of unconscious
muscular actions Faraday constructed a
little apparatus to be placed beneath the
hands of those pressing upon the table and
this mechanism had pointer which indi-
ca ted any pressure to one side or the other.
His conclusion was that after a time the
arms of the sitters become tired and they
unconsciously press more or less to the
right or left. This pressure is eXerted in
the direction in which the table is ex-
pected to move. as the tell-tale pointer
showed at once.
The writer has seen several other In
genious instruments of precision devised
for just such investigation. One Of these
is elaborate planchette. with platform
for the hand and a protruding rod which
held a pencil. vertically. the point resting
upon paper. The hand platform rested
upon several little balls. which readily al
lowed it to move. lateraly in any direction.
the pencil recording the movement. With
this has been definitely demonstrated In
laboratory that subjects hand will un-
consciously move in the direction of any
object in the room to which his attention
may be called 4 still more elaborate in
strument suspends the arm and hand in
sings while attachments leading to little
pointers allow the latter to reproduce every
motion upward and downward, well as
lateral. upon a cylinder of paper With
this has been demonstrated that II the
subjects attention be called to the ceiling
or floor, for instance. his hand will uncon-
sciously move upward or downward. re-
spectively.
The writer after attending a table fitting
seance with number of friends, offered
these phenomena of unconscious muscular
action as an explanation. His theory be-
ing challenged he asked those present to
secretly choose one of two objects in the
room. either chimney In the east end, or
a door. in the west. A young lady was
called into the room while the object Sc
lected was confided to her She was in
structed to concentrate her mind upon that
one of the two objects. The writer return
ed to the room, asked the young lady to
extend her arm in north and south di-
rection and grasped her wrist lightly. Her
arm continued to move toward the CHM
ney, which was guessed by the writer as
the object selected. This proved correct
The test is simple one appropriate for
parlor amusement
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS Jr.