Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/642

626 moved one can frequently perceive that the head of the hen, as though held by an invisible hand, keeps its proper position, while the neck is twisted. At the same time, the foot on the side which did not come in contact with the floor when the animal was moved, is drawn up with the claws cramped, while the foot on the other side is stretched downward. So the hens remain, just as ours is here on the table, for a long time, breathing heavily, but otherwise completely motionless on their backs, until at last either by themselves or by some other means they are aroused and fly away.

My experience with simply holding down the necks and heads of the hens on the ground did not prove efficacious with all hens, and was more or less so with the same ones at different times and under different circumstances. "Wild hens seem better for this experiment than those which have already been used and which are accustomed to be near people. Under all circumstances the success of my simplified experiment proves that the tying of the hen's feet, and the drawing of the chalk-line, as Kircher did, are entirely unnecessary. The moment when the remarkable change takes place concerning the capabilities of the hen's nervous system, appears to be at the stretching out of the head and neck, where possibly a slight mechanical extension of certain parts of the brain may take place, apart from the fear which the animal experiences at being held forcibly.

The chalk-line and the oppression of the tight band which are actually quite dispensable, appear, on the other hand, open to pure deception. I myself was deceived at first. We must only be careful not to stand still at "an event viewed unequally," as the unlearned do. For the complete dispensableness of the string and chalk-line does not prove its absolute indifference and ineffectiveness; and, on the other hand, the gentle, mechanical extension of the brain and spinal marrow, in consequence of the equalization of the curvature which takes place in the vertebral column at the forcible stretching out of the head and neck, is a very plausible thought, though not exactly a thoroughly well-founded one. There is nothing else to be done. We must patiently and circumspectly continue our investigation and experiment, in order to find the actual connection of the phenomena.

You see that firm, strict, natural investigation is no child's play. It demands simple and proportionate incidents, an insight, a circumspection and criticism, which the people who proclaim and testify to the reality of moving tables, flying guitars, self-playing pianos, rappings, etc., as spiritual manifestations, do not possess. Yes, if it were so easy and simple to discover new features of Nature, or only to find out natural scientific incidents, certainly every one could be an "investigator."

I might have occasion here to express the just indignation which the unscientific and frivolous man infuses into the mind of an investigator of Nature. But our limited time to-day has passed so quickly