The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-31

| Several years ago a half dozen men,
bers of two well-known New York fam
lilies were somewhat playfully expert
menting in "mind-reading" by blind
fold "a" who placed his fingers on the
lforeh cad Of "B," who looked intently
at an object held by &C" under bright
light, the purpose being to learn If
"A" could name the object seen by "B. .
Each individual completely failed,
until girl of sixteen surprised and
thrilled all present by correctly naming
one and another object seen by "B.''
While the circumstances under which
| this performance developed would suf-
flee as to possible collision for any or
binary event, they cannot suffice for
| this one Nor that a physician of high
| standing was present, for such can be
| fooled by prestidigitation or collision
| rather easily. Some days later the
writer made the following tests: Act
ing as the observer 3D." 1 had a card
board, which had piece the shape of
a red cross cut out secretly, held
against a red lamp shade. / looked
closely at the object, and in few sec
onds she--"A'-said, II see red cross"
Out of collection of phi photographs
which held In my hands Iheld one and
another, at random, under the light.
Those Of people she knew she correctly
named. Her fathers face she named
when he sat under the light, like others
but when / tried to look at the faces
of her father and uncle as they sat
side by side as one object she failed
but named each as 1 looked at each
sfngly Her severest test was spelling
three quarter inch letters on the cover
of magazine, she spelling 1t "Hetton."
could regulate the time when she
would name the object by varying my
own time of looking at It, and she in
variably named the object only then
that is, at the time when my eyes
were most wildly beholding the bject
The girl could give no other explana-
tion of her sensations than that out Of
darkness, like one sitting in a dark
lecture hall. an image appears when
the lantern throws one on the screen.
She declared she could not succeed
unless all light was excluded from her
eyes. A number of physicians had oppor-
tunity to witness and take part in
tests, but owing to her fathers fear
of having his daughter known as a
freak" all further trials were soon
denied. and whether she still possesses
this unique power Is not known.
1t would seem that this girl possesses
two unique capacities First, when
blindfolded she held her visual centers
In state of complete rest sustained
no visual ina ges; and second, she
was extraordinary sensitive to nerve
vibrations. As the most plausible the
DRY of explanation, we must assume
that, like the electric radiations from
our optic organs when in action: that
when we look at anything. while the
main nerve currents run from our reti-
mas over the optic nerves to The visual
centers In the posterior parts of our
brains. there to excite our known SEN
sations of sight, portion of the nerve
currents radiate through the entire
head. And we must further assume
that, as appears in the case cited,
these waste currents can be further car
ried through finer arms, and head with
sufficient power to cause faint vibra-
tions in the visual centers Of another,
vibrations identical to those first start
ed and which reproduce identical pict-
urts in the brain of tho one blind
folded.