Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/149

 ia Rlcliet's contrlbiition lowarilii Ihe ling Ihe new phenomenoD nhfcb is just atrt^gllDg for recogniition, »niJ which haa been bUherto T&riouslf designated as ' Ihuughl-tritiiafer- ence,' * mind 'reading,' aud 'telepathy.' 'Thoiight- Innsference,' ll strikes us, l« the worst of tliese tumes, and 'telepathy' the beat; but, as it Is deslr- ■ble that a pbenomenou should not be too rigidlf JMBied before It is known what the plienomenoii Is, we shall make trial for the present of the new term, 'mental suggesUon.'

Rtchet sajs very happily that the courage of the iMlentlBe mao couciaU not only In making eiperl-
 * tBetit« dangerous to life upon cholera, rabies, and Ihe

~ inefacUou of gates, but also in exposing his repu- tetion to blemish by advocating a theory which Is (Hterally discredited. Rlcbet has taken his courage '}b his hand, and has published an article In wbicti 16 claims to have established a strong probability iu ital suggestion. We venture to believe It the careful reader will cume to the conclusion tc offer such unsatisfactory experiments, so in- leqiialely treated, was a greater strain upon his Uian the novelty of what he attempts to The Society for psychical research has al- ly established a strong presumption Id favor of ital action at a distance. Bichet's experiments not to he compared with lliose of the society, «r In the care with which th:ywere performed the accuracy with which they are ed; and unfamiliarity with the theory of probabilities senders bis numerical deductions, except the most Avlons oaes, misleading and useless.

The experiments are mainly of four kinds, — guess- le suit of a card drawn at hazard from a full gueasiiig a photogcaph drawn at hazard from a of six, Rnding a watch hidden under one of several ige-trees by means of the vibrations of a slick, and spelling out names by means of table-rappings- There is a great deal that is interesting and sugges- tive in these experiments, and It Is a pity that they are not mure convincing. It wilt hardly he believed that in guessing cards the author does not stale whether llie two persona engaged in the experiment are in contact ornot. Such rcmariiable things are done nowadays in any parlor by muscle-reading. that DO esi>erlment iu which there ia contact is of the ■lightest weight in establishing mental suggestion. Certain precautions, the imibor aays, are Indlbpen- cable, — the cards should beafullpack; the one drawn >uld be returned after each trial; the person who Bl the card should abstain from every word, every indicfttlon, however imperceptible it may but he omits to say whether he is hand in hand .h Ihe person who guesses or not. Doubtless he is
 * but an experiment in which so essential a cir-

as this ia left to be inferred by Ihe reader ind of experiment that carries conviction rith ft. The conditions under which the photo- guessed remain equally unde!cribed; but reinnrk. " It is necessary to eliminate every sign, ither in the direction of the eyes or in the ex- by which an indication can bo given,"

��makes it plain that the simple precaution of putting the performers in such a position that It should be impossible to give any indication by the expressioD or the direction of the eyes, was not attended to. We pass over the experiments in finding a watch hidden under oraiige<treeii, for the reason, that. In order to attribute any weight to them, it would be necessary to know, among other things, where the person stands who has hidden the watch, and nlietlier the one who finds U is blindfolded or not. That the experiments were performed in a garden In the en- vlroiis of Paris, that the orange-trees were cultivated in boxes, and thai they stood in two rows, are the only details that are given.

The last series of experiments was made by BIcbet and live of his friends, — friends from infancy, intel- ligent men, well-Instructed, and not at all mystical, — two of whom are mediums. Three of these men sit atone table, — the rapplng-table, — and two, A and B, at another. Some one thinks of a name. A moves a pencil along an alphabet which ia on the table io front of him; when he reaches a certain letter, the other table, by rapping, ringa a bell, and U write* down the letter indicated. In this way something like the tiatne thought of la written down, — Jeanr for Jfard, Foqdem for Esther, Dierooreg for Cheuv- reux, and, the only very good one, Cheval for Che- vaion. The person who bas the name in his mind n'ett ni ii la table nf H Calphabet; but, to such a degree doca Mr. Kichet'a talent for Inconiplete de- scription pursue bini, it ia not said thai he Is stand- ing where be cannot see the alpliabel. If that is the case, the experiment Is n very extraordinary one, totally different from simply divining what another person has in his mind. The medium, who sits laughing, talking, and singing with his friends, Is re- quired to give bis table a vigorous shaking at the instant that two persons near him, who are think- ing of the letters of the alphabet, happen to think of the some letter. Such magic as this throws even the ghosts of the English society Into the shade; and the observer will need to pile Pelion upon Oasa by way of proof, before he can hope to gain credence for II.

Admitting that Bichet's experiments were per- formed with a rigor with which they are not de- scribed, hia estimation of the iniprobahllily of their results arising by chance falls far short of llie truth. He Fays, after combining the results of all his ex- periments, — those made with medinms, with 'sensi- tives,' and with the non-hypnotlzable, — that the probabiilly in favor of mental suggestion may bo represented by 5- This number is the ratio of the difference between the actual number and the probable number of successes to the whole number of trials. But a comparison of this sort affords no measure of the iniprohabiUty of the observed facts being the result of chance. It is not the deviation from an average, but the probability that a given deviation should arise, that givrs the value of the evidence in favor of Iheoperalion of a cause. Bicbet does not aeem to know that there is a maibematicoi formula by which this probability Is determined. For Instance: In three series of experiments In guess-

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