Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The problems of "psychic research". Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![was incori'cct, allliou<;'li, on the other luuul, h\’ tlie most delicate mierometric measure- ments Struve has l)een unable to detect any chang-e in an interval of thirty years of this century. We may call to mind that Maxwell showed that a spreadino- of the rino’s both outward and inward was a theoretical re- sult of the inevitable impacts between the constituent meteorites, which he used to describe as a shower of brickbats. Thus, Avhether or not the immen.se chang’es su.s- ])ected since 1051) are true, it remains al- most certain that changes of this kind are in prog-ress. I venture, then, to hazard a few words of speeulatiou as to the future of the ring.s. The outward spreading will in time carry many meteorites beyond Roche's limit; here there will uo longer be an obstacle to aggregation into a celestial body, such aggr('gation will i)robabIy ensue, and a ninth satellite will be formed^ The in- ward spreading will in time (aiVy the meteorites to Uje limits oJlijJitiu’n's atmos- phere, wher^heated bC Iriction as they rush througli the air, jtl^y will disinte- grate and on to the ])lau<^i as dust. After a tinic, Qjfc^iichujjo-e.griinate can be formed, the lang will have vanished, leav- ing the ninth .satellite as its de.seendant. Rut it must be admitted that all this is highly speculative, and we can only hoj)e that further investigations Avill give us firmer grounds for a forecast. It has only been jiossible to touch, briefly on these vast fields for inquiry, but enougii has been said to show how much we have yet to learn, and I trust that I may have enabled my readers to realize to some ex- tent the mystery and charm of Saturn’s rings. THE PRORLEMS OF “PSYCHIC RESEARCH.” - BY .JOSEPH .T.tSTBOW, PH D. ‘‘ I liavo no otlicu' tlieory’ to support Ilian that of the eonstanev of tlio n-clI-a.scertainc(J laws of nature- nn.l my contention is that where apparent departures from them take place through Imman instrumen’ t:i ay wo arc justihed m as.«uming in the first instance cilher fraudahnt deception, or nninVenlional sr//-deeephon, or ijoth combined, until the absence of cilher shall have been proved l>v everv coneeival.le tost that the sagacity of sceptical e.xperts can devise.”— ]ViUimn R Carpentev ' VN interesting commentary to the hi.s- tory of civilization can be read in the records of the strivings and pretensions of that ever-])resent body of enthusiasts who by occult and ambitious flights aim to .short-circuit the route to knowledge and immortality. The advance of science by slow and careful steps naturally .seems tame and tedious to these illumiuati, loudly proclaimiug the success of their wonderful di.scoveries, aiid at times suc- ceeding by their din in momentarily drowning the still small voice of truth. When this occurs the historian adds an- other page to the record of erroi-, already replete with the horrors of witchcraft, tli'e follies of alchemi.sts, astrologers, and their kind, the wide-S])read misery of ]).sychic ejiidemics, and the bestial .self-tortures of crazed ascetics. Such deviations from the normal progress of knowledge ap))ear to theevolutiojiist as reversions to a more ru- dimentary state of tliought. The savage, like the child,constantly meets with the unexpected; every experience lying the least outside his narrow domain strikes him with a .shock, and often fills him with fear—the handmaid of ignorance. Na- ture is pictured as a fearful monster, and the world peoi)led with tyrannical beings. Step by step the region of the known ex- pamls, and suggests the nature of the un- known; men expect, the}' foresee, they predict. The apparent chaos of mntnall v inimical forces gives way to the profound harmony of unifying law. So gradual is this development of rational exi)ectancy that one seems justified iu resei-ving its full realization lor the expert man of scieiice. ‘‘The received sjjirituali.stic the- says ?\Ir. Tylor, “belongs to the philo.soi)]iy of savages Suppo.se a wild North_ Ainericaii Indian looking on at a s])irit seance in London. As to the pre.sence of disembodied spirits, manife.st- ing them.selves by rap.s, noi.se.s, voices, and other physical actions, the savao-o would be perfectly at home in the proceed- ings; for such things are part and parcel his recognized .system of Nature ” Until the participation by intelligent per- sons in such ])roceedings and in the be- liefs which such an adherence implies .shall be looked upon as we now look upon](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22468006_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
