The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-16
be divining rod is contained

 Georgius Agricola's De re metalhca' which was published in l6bo. The device became common first Tn Ger many as a means for locatlng mines and also for discovering buried treas ,,re a matter of rather common ln- +erest in those days. when the prac- tice of burying money and pla1e TOT s.fa keening was very general. II -,,os ;ntroduced into England by Ger noh miners during the reign soI Eaizabeth 1558-160S). and before the ard of the seventeenth century-1t nao soread through the countries or Flu spn Everywhere it aroused con- +,auarsv The rules prescribed TOT +,e cutting of the twig partooK larse- 1v of heathen sorcery and astr rbere were indeed, to some etent' un- eo,pscious "reminiscences or the oiu scandinavian and even Of the Aryah ,,,,y+ho,dgv. But this heathen 1nnu- anca was offset when the rod was d,,lv christianized by baptism, pelng ,aid Tor this purpose in the bed with !. newly baptized child,~by whose ~h-is+,an/ name 1t was afterwaro = addressed It is readily conceivable
 
 ,,,.a ctice with a religious atmosphere might not have been altogeter ype. hlief in it's divine character, TOT ~ that time anyone found engaged III
 mysterious works was in danger oi heinz charged with sorcery ana purn- ed to death.
 The divining rod continued to DC . fayorite subject with alchemlstlc writers until about 1860, when new t,,rn of affairs was brought about py Jesuit father, who denounced IL as an instrument controlled by the devli. The subject was tIen taken up Dy the church. and for more than 100 years if was hotly debated by churchmen. Some approved of it and authorized it's use on church property; others condemned 1t and threatened those who used it with. communication. In 1892, the year of the Salem witch- craft, it's notoriety was greatly ln- creased by the arrest and execution or a criminal through the agency or peasant who used a -divining rod. ln- terest in this case was intense and widespread and called forth a large amount of literature. The divining rod was in some respects closely re- lated to witchcraft. as is suggested by the use of incantations in connection with divining. and to this relationship may be ascribed in some measure the strengthening of belief in 1t. Witch craft at that time had become frenzy, and anything; which by any stretch of the imagination could be suspected of implication with witch craft became subect of discussion and the basis of firm opinions and be- liefs. In 1701, however, the Inqu1si- ton issued decree against the further use of the dlvining rod in criminal prosecution, and this use of the device rapidly came to an end.
 Tn the later part of the eighteenth century an attempt was made to$ex- plain water witching as an electric phenomenon, and later it was dis cussed as a psychic phenomenon. At almost every step in the advance of science some one has attempted to ex- plain it's supposed operation by means of the latest scientific theories.
 Before the present war. there were several societies in Germany whose sole object was said to be the study of the divining rod. In 1910 the de- partment of agriculture of France ap- pointed committee to investigate thes ubject, and in 1914 this com mittee was still Investigating.
 A corv Of inc government report.
 hich is published as Water Supply Paper 41o, can be obtained by ad- dressing the Director, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. c.