A Great Scientist's Theory

Let us begin with that great master of modern science, Sir William

Crookes, the inventor of the celebrated "Crookes' Tubes," without which

the discovery of the X-Ray and Radio-Activity would have been

impossible. Several years ago, this eminent scientist, addressing the

Royal Society, at Bristol, England,--a gathering made up of

distinguished scientists from all over the world, most of the members

being extremely scept cal concerning occult phenomena--said to the

brilliant gathering: "Were I now introducing for the first time these

inquiries in the world of science, I should choose a starting point

different from that of old (where we formerly began). It would be well

to begin with Telepathy; with that fundamental law, as I believe it to

be, that thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to another

without the agency of the recognized organs of sense--that knowledge may

enter the human mind without being communicated in any hitherto known or

recognized ways. * * * If Telepathy takes place we have two physical

facts, viz., (a) the physical change in the brain of A, the transmitter,

and the analogous physical change in the brain of B, the recipient of

the transmitted impression. Between these two physical events there must

exist a train of physical causes. * * * It is unscientific to call in

the aid of mysterious agencies, when with every fresh advance in

knowledge it is shown that ether vibrations have powers and attributes

abundantly able to meet any demand--even the transmission of thought.



"It is supposed by some physiologists that the essential cells of nerves

do not actually touch, but are separated by a narrow gap which widens in

sleep while it narrows almost to extinction during mental activity.

THIS CONDITION IS SO SINGULARLY LIKE A BRANLY OR LODGE COHERER [a

device which led to the discovery of wireless telegraphy] AS TO SUGGEST

A FURTHER ANALOGY. The structure of brain and nerve being similar, it is

conceivable that there may be present masses of such nerve coherers in

the brain, whose special function it may be to receive impulses brought

from without, through the connecting sequence of ether waves of

appropriate order of magnitude. Roentgen has familiarized us with an

order of vibrations of extreme minuteness as compared with the smallest

waves with which we have hitherto been acquainted; and there is no

reason to suppose that we have here reached the limit of frequency. It

is known that the action of thought is accompanied by certain molecular

movements in the brain, and here we have physical vibrations capable

from their extreme minuteness of acting direct upon individual

molecules, while their rapidity approaches that of internal and external

movements of the atoms themselves. A formidable range of phenomena must

be scientifically sifted before we effectually grasp a faculty so

strange, so bewildering, and for ages so inscrutable, as the direct

action of mind upon mind."