Apparitions and thought-transference: an examination of the evidence for telepathy

Front matter

7 COiUNcux-

(u UNIVmSlTY

DATE DUE

Chapter I. Page

Introductory ... ... ... i

Position of the subject — -Founding of the Society for Psychical Research — Definition of telepathy — General difficulties of the inquiry — Special sources of error — Fraud — Hyperassthesia — Muscle-reading — Thought-forms and number-habit.

CHAPTER II. Experimental Transference of Simple Sensations IN THE Normal State

Transference of Tastes — Of pain, by Mr. M. Guthrie and others — Of sounds — Of ideas not definitely classed, by Professor Richet, the American Society for Psychical Research, Dr. Ochorowicz — Transference of visual images, by Dr. Blair Thaw, Mr. Guthrie, Professor Oliver Lodge, Herr Max Dessoir, Herr SchmoU, Dr. von Schrenck- Notzing, and others.

^1 CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Page

Experimental Transference of Simple Sensations WITH Hypnotised Percipiehstts •■■ 5^

Transference of tastes, by Dr. Azam— Of pain, by Edmund Gurney — Of visual images, by Dr. Liebeault, Professor and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Dr. Gibotteau, Dr. Blair Thaw,

CHAPTER IV. Experimental Production of M6vements and

Inhibition of action by silent willing, by Edmund Gurney, Professor Barrett, and others — Origination of action by silent willing, by Dr. Blair Thaw, M. J. H. P., and others — Planchette-writing, by Rev. P. H. Newnham, Mr. R. H. Buttemer— Table-tilting, by the Author, by Professor Richet — Production of local anaesthesia, by Edmund Gurney, Mrs. H. Sidgwick.

CHAPTER V. Experimental Production of Telepathic Effects at A Distance

Induction of sleep, by Dr. Gibert'and Professor Janet, Professor Richet, Dr. Dufay — Of hysteria and other effects, by Dr. Tolosa-Latour, M. J. H. P. — Transference of ideas of sound, by Miss X., M. J. Ch. Roux— Of visual images, by Miss Campbell, M. L^on Hennique, Mr. Kirk, Dr. Gibotteau.

CONTENTS. Vll

Chapter VI. Page

General Criticism of the Evidence for Spontaneous Thought-Transference 143

On chance coincidence — Misrepresentation — Errors of observation— Errors of inference — Errors of narration — Errors of memory — "Pseudo-presentiment" — Precautions against error — "Where are the letters?" — The spontaneous cases as a true natural group.

CHAPTER VII. Transference of Ideas and Emotions ... ... 161

Transference of pain, Mr. Arthur Severn — Of smell, Miss X. — Of ideas, Miss X., Mrs. Barber — Of visual images, Mr. Haynes, Professor Richet, Dr. Dupre — Of emotion, Mr. F. H. Krebs, Dr. N., Miss Y. — Of motor impulses, Archdeacon Bruce, Professor Venturi.

Chapter VIII

Discussion of the evidence for telepathy derivable from dreams — Chance-coincidence — Simultaneous dreams, the Misses Bidder — Transference of sensation in dreams. Professor Royce, Mrs. Harrison — Dreams conveying news of death, etc., Mr. J. T., Mr. R. V. Boyle, Captain Campbell, Mr. E. W. Hamilton, Mr. Edward A. Goodall— Clairvoyant dream, Mrs. E. J.

Vlll CONTENTS.

Chapter IX. Paoe

Common misconceptions— Hypnotic hallucinations, experiments by MM. Binet and Fere, Mr. Myers — Point de rephre —Post-hypnotic hallucinations, Professor Liegeois, Edmund Gurney— Spontaneous hallucinations, Professor Sidgwick*s census — Table showing classification of spontaneous hallucinations — Origin of hallucinations, sometimes telepathic — Proof of this, calculation of chance-coincidence, allowance for defects of memory — Conclusion.

CHAPTER X. Induced Telepathic Hallucinations 226

Possible misconceptions — Accounts of experiments, by Rev. Clarence Godfrey, Herr Wesermann, Mr. H. P. Sparks, and

A. H. W. Cleave, Mrs B , Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing,

Dr. Wiltse, Mr. Kirk.

CHAPTER XI. Spontaneous Telepathic Hallucinations ... 247

Auditory hallucinations. Miss Clark, Mr. William Tudor — Visual hallucinations — Incompletely developed. Countess Eugenie Kapnist, Miss L. Caldecott, Dr. Carat — Completely developed, Miss Berta Hurly, Mrs. McAlpine, Miss Mabel Gore Booth— Hallucinations affecting two senses, Rev. Matthew Frost, M. A .

CONTENTS. IX

Chapter XII. I'age

Illusions, epidemic hallucinations, illusions of memory — Explanations of collective hallucination — Auditory hallucinations, Mr. C. H. Gary, Miss Newbold — Visual hallucinations, Mrs. Greiffenberg, Mrs. Milman and Miss Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. C , Mr. Falkinburg, Dr. W. O. S.,

Rev. C. H. Jupp — Collective hallucinations with percipients apart, Sister Martha and Madame Houdaille, Sir Lawrence Jones and Mr. Herbert Jones.

Chapter XIII

Some Less Common Types of Telepathic Hallucination ... ... ... ... ... 297

Reciprocal cases, Rev. C. L. Evans and Miss — A

misinterpreted message, Miss C. L. Hawkins-Dempster —

Heteroplastic hallucination, Mrs. G , Frances Reddell,

Mr. John Husbands, Mr. J — " Haunted houses,"

Mrs. Knott and others, Surgeon-Major W. and others.

CHAPTER XIV. On Clairvoyance in Trance ... ... ... 326

Definition of clairvoyance — Accountsof phenomena observed with Mrs. Piper, by Professor Lodge, Professor W. James, and others — Accounts of experiments by Mr. A. W. Dobbie, Dr. Wiltse, Mr. W. Boyd, Dr. F , Dr. Packman.

X CONTENTS.

Chapter XV. Page

Observations of M. Keulemans— Crystal-visions, MissX., Dr. Backman, Miss A. and Sir Joseph Barnby— Spontaneous clairvoyance, Mrs. Paquet, Mr. F. A. Marks, Mrs. L. Z. — Clairvoyance in dream, Mrs. Freese — Clairvoyant perceptivity in an experiment, Dr. Gibotteau.

CHAPTER XVI. Theories and Conclusions ... ... ... 371

Resumi, the proof apparent — The proof presumptive — The alleged influence of magnets and metals — The alleged marvels of spiritualism — Usage of the v(rord telepathy — On various theories of telepathy — Difficulties of a physical explanation — Value of theory as a guide to investigation — Is telepathy a rudimentary or a vestigial faculty? — Our ignorance stands in the way of a conclusive answer — Imperative need for more facts.

Preface

I The following pages aim at presenting in brief compass a selection of the evidence upon which the hypothesis of thought-transference, or telepathy, is based. It is now more than twelve years since the Society for Psychical Research was founded, and nearly eight since the publication oi Phantasms of the Living, Both in the periodical Proceedings of the Society and in the pages of Edmund Gurney's book,^ a large mass of evidence has been laid before the public. But the papers included in the Proceedings are interspersed with other matter, some of it too technical for the taste of the general reader; whilst the two volumes ol Phantasms of the Livings which have for some time

^ The book actually bore on the title-page the names of Edmund Gurney, F. W. H. Myers, and the present writer. But the division of authorship, as explained in the Preface, was as follows : — " As regards the writing and the views expressed, Mr. Myers is solely responsible for the Introduction, and for the * Note on a Suggested Mode of Psychical Interaction ; ' and Mr. Gurney is solely responsible for the remainder of the book. , . , But the collection, examination, and appraisal of evidence has been a joint labour."

Xll PREFACE.

been out of print, were too costly for the purse of some, and too bulky for the patience of others. The attention which, notwithstanding these drawbacks, that work excited on its first appearance, the friendly reception which it met with in many quarters, and the fact that a considerable edition has been disposed of, encouraged the hope that a book on somewhat similar lines, but on a smaller scale, might be of service to those — and their number has probably increased within the last few years — who take a genuine interest in this inquiry. Accordingly in the autumn of 1892 I obtained permission from the Council of the Society for Psychical Research to make full use, in the compilation of the present work, not merely of the evidence already published by us, but of the not inconsiderable mass of unpublished records in the possession of the Society.

It will be seen that the present book has little claim to novelty of design ; but it is not merely an abridged edition of the larger work referred to. On the one hand it has a somewhat wider scope, and includes accounts of telepathic clairvoyance and other phenomena which did not enter into the scheme of Mr. Gurney's book. On the other hand, the bulk of the illustrative cases here quoted have been taken from more recent records ; and, in particular, certain branches of the experimental work have assumed a quite new importance within the last few years. Thus the experiments conducted by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick at Brighton have strengthened the demonstration of

PREFACE. XIU

thought-transference, and have gone far to solve one or two of the problems connected with the subject; and the evidence for the experimental production of telepathic effects at a distance has been greatly enlarged by the work of MM. Janet and Gibert/ Richet, Gibotteau, Schrenck-Notzing, and in this country by Mr. Kirk and others.^ It may be added that some of the criticisms called forth by Phantasms of the Living, and our own further researches, have led us to modify our estimate of the evidence in some directions, and to strengthen generally the precautions taken against the unconscious warping of testimony.

To say, however, that the following pages owe much to Edmund Gurney is but to acknowledge the obligation which all students of the subject must recognise to his keen and vigorous intellect and his colossal industry. My own debt is a more personal one. To have worked under his guidance, and to have been stimulated by his example, was an invaluable schooling in the qualities demanded by an inquiry of this nature. Of the living, I owe grateful thanks, in the first instance, to Professor and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, who have read through the whole of the book in typescript, and have given help and counsel throughout. Miss Alice Johnson, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, the late Dr. A. T. Myers, Miss Porter,

^ Some account of the earlier experiments by MM. Janet and Gibert was included in the supplementary chapter at the end of the second volume of Phantasms,

^ See Chapters V. and X, of the present book.

XIV PREFACE.

and others have also given me welcome help in various directions. In acknowledging this assistance, however, it is right to add that, though I trust in my estimate of the evidence presented, and in the general tenour of the conclusions suggested, to find myself, with few exceptions, in substantial agreement with my colleagues, yet I have no claim- to represent the Society for Psychical Research, nor right to clojp my own shortcomings with the authority of others.

One word more needs to be said. The evidence, HP which samples are presented in the following pages, is as yet hardly adequate for the establishment of telepathy as a fact in nature, and leaves much to be desired for the elucidation of the laws under which it operates. Any contributions to the problem, in the shape either of accounts of experiments, or of recent records of telepathic visions and similar experiences, will be gladly received by me on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, at 19 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, W.C.

FRANK PODMORE.

August 1894.

APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.

APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.

CHAPTER* I.

INTRODUCTORY — SPECIAL GROUNDS OF CAUTION.

It is salutary sometimes to reflect how recent is the growth of our scientific cosmos, and how brief an interval separates it from the chaos which went before. This may be seen even in Sciences which deal with matters of common observation. Amongst material phenomena the facts of Geology are assuredly not least calculated to excite the curiosity or impress the imagination of men. Yet until the middle of the last century no serious attempt was made to solve the physical problems they presented. The origin of the organic remains embedded in the rocks had indeed formed the subject of speculation ever since the days of Aristotle. Theophrastus had suggested that they were formed by the plastic forces of Nature. Mediaeval astrologers ascribed their formation to planetary influences. And these hypotheses, with the alternative view of the Church, that fossil bones and shells were relics of the Mosaic Deluge, appear to have satisfied the learned of Europe until the time of Voltaire, who reinforced the rationalistic position, as he conceived it, by the suggestion that the shells, at

I any rate, had been dropped from the hats of pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. Yet Werner and Hutton were even then preparing to elucidate the causes of stratification and the genesis of the igneous rocks. Cuvier in the next generation was to demonstrate the essential analogies of the fossils found in the Paris basin with living species ; Agassiz was to investigate the relation of fossil fishes and to show the true nature of their embedded remains. Nay, even in the middle of the present century, so slow is the growth and spread of organised knowledge, it was possible for a pious Scotchman to ascribe the origin of mountain chains to a cataclysm which, after the fall of Man, had broken up and distorted the once symmetrical surface of the earth ;^ for a Dean of York to essay to bring the Mediaeval theory up to date and prove that the whole series of geological strata, with their varied organic remains, were formed by volcanic eruptions acting in concert with the Mosaic Deluge ; ^ and for another English divine to warn his readers against any sacrilegious meddling with the arcana of the rocks, because they represented the tentative essays of the Creator at organic forms — • a concealed storehouse of celestial misfits!^

The subject-matter of the present inquiry has passed, or is now passing, through stages closely similar to those above described. " Ghosts " and warning dreams have been matters of popular belief and interest since the earliest ages known to history, and are prevalent amongst even the least advanced races at the present time. The Specularii and Dr. Dee have familiarised us with clairvoyance and crystal vision. Many of the alleged marvels of

1 Primary and Present State of the Solar System^ by P. McFarlane. Edinburgh, Thomas Grant, circa 1845.

2 At the meeting of the British Association in 1844; quoted by Hugh Miller, Testimony of the Rocks^ pp. 358, 359.

3 A Brief and Complete Refutation of the Aniiscriptiiral Theory of the Geologists^ by a Clergyman of the Church of England. London, 1853 ; quoted by Hugh Miller, loc. cit.

witchcraft were probably due to the agency of hypnotism, which in later times, under the various names of mesmerism, electrobiology, animal magnetism, has attracted the curiosity of the unlettered, and from time to time the serious interest of the learned. These phenomena indeed were made the subject of scientific inquiry, first in France and later in England, during the first half of the present century ; have now again, after a brief period of eclipse, been investigated for the last two decades by competent observers on the Continent, and are at length winning a recognised footing in scientific circles in this country. Yet within the last two or three years we have witnessed the spectacle of more than one medical man, of some repute in this island, laughing to scorn all the researches of Charcot and Bernheim, just as their prototypes a generation or two ago ignored the results of Cuvier and Agassiz, and held it an insult to the Creator to accept the scientific explanation of coprolites.

And as regards the other subjects, to which must be added the alleged marvels of the Spiritualists, there have indeed been one or two isolated series of observations by competent inquirers, but for the most part the learned have held themselves free to ascribe the phenomena without investigation to fraud and hysteria, and the unlearned to "magnetism," "psychic force," or the Devil, For whilst men of science, preoccupied for the most part with other lines of inquiry, have kept themselves aloof, the vacant ground was naturally occupied by the ignorant and credulous, and by those who looked to win a harvest from ignorance and credulity. It is not of course implied that all persons who interested themselves in such matters came under one or other of these categories. There were many sensible men and women amongst them, but they lacked for the most part the special training necessary for such inquiries, or they failed through want of co-operation and support. No serious and organised attempt at investigation was made until, in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research was founded in London, under the presidency of Professor Henry Sidgwick. He and his colleagues were the pioneers in the research, and their example has been widely followed. Two years later an American society under the same title (now a flourishing branch of the English society) was founded in Boston ; and there are at the present time societies with similar objects at Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, and elsewhere. Moreover, the Soci^td de Psychologie Physiologique, which was founded in Paris, under the presidency of M. Charcot, in 1885, has devoted much attention to some forms of telepathy.

But the forces of superstition and charlatanry, to which this vast territory has been ceded for so long, have bequeathed an unfortunate legacy to those who would now colonise it in the name of Science ; and the preliminary difficulties of the undertaking can perhaps most effectually be met by a frank recognition of that fact. On the one hand, a large number of thinking men have been repelled, and still feel repulsion, from a subject whose record is so unsavoury. On the other hand, the appetite for the marvellous which has been so long unchecked is not easily restrained. The old habits of inaccuracy, of magnifying the proportions of things, of confusing surmises with facts, cannot be eradicated without long and careful discipline. To one writer, indeed, those dangers seemed so serious that he solemnly warned the Society for Psychical Research, at the outset of its career, against the risk of stimulating into disastrous activity inborn tendencies to superstition, by even the semblance of an inquiry into these matters. Without going to such lengths, it may be conceded to the critic that even with those who endeavour to apply scientific methods to the investigation the mental attitude is liable to be warped by the environment, and that here, as elsewhere, evil communications may corrupt.

SPECIAL GROUNDS OF CAUTION. S

As regards the actual investigators this difficulty is growing less serious, as more men who have received their training in other branches of science are attracted to the inquiry, and as the affinities of the subject to long-recognised departments of knowledge become daily more apparent. In another direction, however, this mental attitude presents still a more or less formidable obstacle. Many of the observations on which students of the subject are compelled to rely are derived from persons who have had no training in such habits of accuracy as are required in scientific research. When accounts of the ornithorhynchus first reached this country naturalists laughed at the traveller's tale of a beast with the tail of a beaver and the bill and webbed feet of a duck. In the same way scientific men for long refused to admit the existence of aerolites, as they now decline to credit the reports of a Sea Serpent of colossal proportions. In all these cases, so long as the alleged facts rest solely on the testimony of men untrained in habits of close observation and accurate reporting, a suspension of judgment seems to be justified. And if these considerations are valid in ordinary cases, a much higher degree of caution may be reasonably demanded of investigators who leave the neutral ground of the physical sciences to enter upon a field in which the emotions and sympathies are most keenly engaged, and in which the incidents narrated may have served to afford support, to the dearest hopes and sanction to the deepest convictions of the narrator. So insidious, in such a case, is the work of the imagination, so untrustworthy is the memory, so various are the sources of error in human testimony, that it may be doubted whether we should be justified in attaching weight to the phenomena of telepathic hallucination and clairvoyance, to which a large part of this book is devoted, if the alleged observations were incapable of experimental verification. Certainly in such a case, though the recipient of an experience of this kind

6 APPARITIONS ANt) THOUGHT-TRANSFfiRENCE.

might cherish a private conviction of its significance, it would hardly be possible for such a view to win general assent.

In fact, however, the clue to the interpretation of the more striking phenomena, in the case of which, since they occur for the most part spontaneously, direct experiment or even methodical and continuous observation are rarely possible, is furnished by actual experiment on a smaller scale and with mental affections of a less unusual kind. The thesis which these pages are designed to illustrate and support is briefly: that communication is possible between mind and mind otherwise than through the known channels of the senses. Proof of the existence of such communication, provisionally called Thought Transference or Telepathy (from tele = 2X a distance, and pathos = ieQ\mg)y will be found in a considerable mass of experiments conducted during the last twelve years by various observers in different European countries and in America. Before proceeding, in the course of the next four chapters, to examine this part of the evidence in detail, it will be well to consider its various defects and sources of error — defects common in some degree to all experiments of which living beings are the subject, and sources of error for the most part peculiar to this and kindred inquiries. The word experiment in this connection usually, and rightly, suggests the most perfect form of experiment, that in which all the conditions are known, and in which the results can be predicted both quantitatively and qualitatively. If, for instance, we add a certain quantity of nitric acid under given conditions to a certain quantity of benzine, we know that there will result a certain quantity of a third substance which is unlike either of its constituents in taste, smell, and physical properties.

Or if we burn a given quantity of coal in a particular engine, we can predict, within narrow limits of error, the total amount of energy which will be evolved. That we cannot in the second instance predict with absolute accuracy the amount of energy produced is simply due to the difficulty of measuring with precision all the factors in the case. But when we leave the problems of chemistry and physics and approach the problems of biology, the difficulties increase a hundredfold. Here not only are we unable to measure the various factors, we cannot even name them. No skill or forethought would have enabled an observer, from however patient a study of parentage and environment, to have predicted the appearance, say, of Emanuel Swedenborg or Michael Faraday. Of the seven children of John Lamb and his wife it might have seemed easier to conjecture that the majority would not survive childhood, and that one would become insane, than that another should take his place amongst those whose writings the world would not willingly let die. And even where, as in most biological researches, the results drawn from observation can be to some extent checked and controlled by direct experiment, generations may elapse before the balance of probabilities on one side or the other becomes so great as to lead to unanimity amongst the inquirers. One of the most interesting, and certainly not the least important, of the questions now occupying biologists, is that of the transmission to the offspring of characters acquired in the lifetime of the individual. Observations have been accumulated on the subject since before the days of Lamarck ; and these observations, interpreted and confirmed by experiment, have been adduced and are still held by many as evidence that such transmission occurs. On the other hand, Weismann and his followers contend that no such inference can legitimately be drawn from the observations and experiments quoted, and that the occurrence of such transmission is irreconcilable with what is known of the growth and development of the germ. And for all that has been said and written the opinion of competent biologists is still divided upon the question.

But in many biological problems the conditions are much simpler, and the questions at issue can more readily be brought to the test of experiment. Yet even so various unknown factors are included, and the results obtained are correspondingly difficult of interpretation. No question affects us more nearly than the part played by the several kinds of food in repairing the daily waste of the human body. Statistics and analyses have been collected of workhouse, prison, and military dietaries ; innumerable experiments have been conducted on fasting men and hypertrophied dogs and rabbits ; and yet the precise function of nitrogenous substances in nutrition is still undetermined. Again, the import of the experiments made during the last few decades by Goltz, Hitzig, Ferrier, Horsley, and others on the functions of various areas of the brain substance, and the exact nature and degree of localisation which those experiments imply, are still matter of debate amongst the physiologists concerned.

To take yet another instance, and one which has a more intimate bearing upon the experiments to be discussed. Some years ago Dr. Charlton Bastian claimed to have proved experimentally the fact of abiogenesis, or the generation of living organisms from non-living matter. He had placed various organic infusions in glass tubes, which were heated to the boiling point and then hermetically sealed. When the tubes were, after a certain interval, unsealed, the contained liquid was found in some cases to be swarming with bacteria. Believing that these micro-organisms and their germs were invariably destroyed by the heat of boiling water, Dr. Bastian saw no other conclusion than that the bacteria were formed directly from the infusion. His conclusions were not accepted by the scientific world. But they were rejected, not because the fact of abiogenesis was regarded as in itself improbable, nor yet because Dr. Bastian was unable to indicate by what steps or processes the transformation of an infusion of hay into living organisms of definite and relatively complex structure could be conceived to take place, but because Pasteur, Tyndall, and others showed that the germs of some of these micro-organisms are capable of sustaining for some minutes the heat of boiling water ; and further, that when elaborate precautions were taken, by filtering and otherwise purifying the air, tubes containing similar infusions would remain sterile for an indefinite period.

The conclusion that under certain conditions thought-transference may occur rests upon reasoning similar to that by which Dr. Bastian sought to establish a theory of abiogenesis. Neither the organs by which nor the medium through which the communication is made can be indicated ; nor can we even, with a few trifling exceptions, point to the conditions which favour such communication. But ignorance on these points, though a defect, is not a defect which in the present state of experimental psychology can be held seriously to weaken the evidence, much less to invalidate the conclusion. That conclusion rests on the elimination of all other possible causes for the effect produced. But at this point the analogy between the two researches fails. Dr. Bastian's conjecture was based on a short series of experiments conducted by a single experimenter under one uniform set of conditions. At the first breath of criticism the whole fabric collapsed. The experiments here recorded represent the work of many observers in many countries, carried on with different subjects under a great variety of conditions. The results have been before the world for about twelve years, and during that period have been subjected to much adverse and some instructive criticism. But no alternative explanation which has yet been suggested has attained even a momentary plausibility.

Whether the elimination of all other possible causes lO APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.

is indeed complete, or whether, as in Dr. Bastian's case, there may yet lurk in these experiments some hitherto unsuspected source of error, the reader will have the opportunity of judging for himself. To assist him in forming a judgment some of the main disturbing causes will be briefly indicated.

(i) Fraud. — In nearly all the experiments referred to in this book the agent was himself concerned in the inquiry as a matter of scientific interest. But it necessarily happens on occasion that neither agent nor percipient are by education and position absolutely removed from suspicion of trickery in a matter where trickery might to imperfectly educated persons appear almost venial. If any such cases have been admitted, it is because the precautions taken appear to us to have been adequate. At the same time, the investigators of the Society for Psychical Research have come across some instances of fraud in cases where they had grounds for assuming good faith, and it may be useful, therefore, to illustrate some of the less obvious methods of acquiring intelligence fraudulently. The conditions of the experiment should of course, as far as possible, preclude, even where there is no ground for suspecting fraud, communication between the percipient and the agent, or any one else knowing the idea which it is sought to transfer.

In the autumn of 1888 some experiments were conducted with a person named D., whose antecedents afforded," it was thought, justification for the belief that the claims which he put forward were genuine. D. acted as agent, the percipient being a subject of his own, a young woman called Miss N., who was apparently in a light hypnotic sleep during the experiment. It was soon discovered that the results were obtained by means of a code formed from a combination of Miss N.'s breathing with slight noises — a cough or the creak of a boot — made by D. himself. I have seen a somewhat similar code employed in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, where the conjurer stood in the middle of

SPECIAL GROUNDS OF CAUTION. II

the hall with a coin or other object in his hand, a description of which he communicated to his confederate on the platform by means of a series of breathings, deep enough visibly to move his dresscoat up and down on the surface of his white collar, punctuated by slight movements of head or hand. The novel feature in the first case, however, was that the percipient herself furnished the groundwork of the code, the punctuation alone being given by the conjurer. A still more elaborate form of collusion is described at length by Bonjean.^ In this case the subject, a young woman named Lully, appears to have read the words to be conveyed after the fashion of a deaf mute, by the motion of the lips of the showman. Lully was apparently in a hypnotic trance, with the eyes fast closed. Another form of fraud, since it does not require the aid of a confederate, is perhaps worthy of note. Some years ago a young Australian came to this country with a reputation for "genuine thought-reading," based on the successful mystification of some members of a certain Colonial Legislature. The writer had a few experiments with this person, in which several small objects — a knife, a glass bottle, etc. — placed in the full h"ght of a shaded lamp, were correctly named. The object was in each case placed behind the back of the "Thought-reader," who looked intently at the writer's eyes, which were in turn fixed upon the brightly illuminated object. Experiments made under more usual conditions, not dictated by the " Thought-reader," completely failed ; and there can be little doubt that the initial successes were due to the "Thought-reader" seeing the image of the object reflected in the agent's cornea.