The Solution.—Examination of the genuineness of the phenomena—Od-motions produced by bodies in their most inert state—Analysis of the forces which originate them—Od-motions connected with electrical, magnetic, chemical, crystalline, and vital influences—Their analysis.
The present letter might be entitled “An account of some motions recently discovered, to the manifestation of which an influence proceeding from the living human body is necessary.” The contrivance by which these motions are elicited I have called an Odometer, from the conviction that the force which sets it in movement is no other than the Od-force of Von Reichenbach. For the same reason I have called the objects with which it is tested Od-subjects, and the motions themselves Od-motions.
The odometer is a pendulum, formed of a ring, or other small body attached to a thread, the other end of which is wound round a finger or the thumb. The odometer employed in the following experiments was a light gold ring, having a greater mass of metal on the unattached side, and suspended to the last joint of the right forefinger, the suspending medium being either silk, or fine cotton, or the hair of a horse. The experiments were made by myself. In order to avoid the confusion resulting from220 a multiplicity of details, I shall state the results obtained through testing a limited number only of Od-subjects, so selected as to represent the leading divisions of the provinces of nature, and of dynamics. With some of the principal the reader will be already acquainted through Letter XII., the contents of which will have prepared him for, and probably suggested to him, the following question, as a desirable subject of preliminary consideration.
I. Are the motions referred to worth examining at all? Are they more than the simple results of impulses conveyed to the pendulum by movements of the hand or wrist, or some general sway of the experimenter’s person, unintentionally going with the expectation or conception of this or that motion of the ring? Such a solution of the phenomena is not wanting in probability. It is metaphysically and physically certain, that when we maintain one and the same bodily posture or gesture, as in standing, sitting, or holding out the hand, whatever be the seeming continuousness and unity of the effort, the posture or gesture is really maintained only by a series of rapidly succeeding efforts. What is more likely than that, in such a continual renewing of voluntary actions, our fancy, or the sympathy between our will and our thoughts, should give a bias to the results, even when we most try to neutralize its influence? The fact which I propose first to mention is in complete agreement with this view. I can at will cause the odometer to move exactly as I please. Although I hold my hand as steadily as possible by leaning the arm against a table, and endeavour to keep my person absolutely still, yet I have only to form a vivid conception of a new path for the odometer, and a motion in the so-imagined direction is almost immediately substituted for that which was be221fore going on. In like manner, I have only to conceive the cessation of motion, and the odometer gradually stops. I must farther admit that my first trials of the odometer were made under the full expectation that the results which ensued would follow. And I cannot say that it is impossible, that when other and new motions emerged, they were not often either realizations of a previous guess, or repetitions on the same principle of what occurred at first as an accident.
On the other hand, I am not unprepared with an array of facts which seem to me capable not only of neutralizing the force of the preceding argument, but of making it appear, most likely, that some other influence than that of the experimenter’s mind is often in operation in bringing about these results; an influence sufficiently curious, as I think, to justify me in continuing this investigation and the present letter. I beg the reader’s candid construction of the following statements.
If, when trying the odometer, I have caused it, by conceiving a different motion, to change its path and move in a wrong direction, I now endeavour to divert my mind from considering its motion at all, the odometer invariably resumes its previous right movement. It is, indeed, difficult to observe a strict mental neutrality in this instance. For the odometer moves imperfectly and uncertainly, unless I frequently look at its performance. Or, as I interpret the fact, unless I keep my attention fixed to a certain extent on what I am doing, my hand loses its steadiness, and communicates all sorts of distracting impulses to the pendulum. And the uncertainty hence arising admits, it appears to me, of being obviated by the comparison of numerous careful repetitions of the experiments.
Many of the motions which I at first thought were222 genuine Od-results, I afterwards found out I had been mistaken in. And the correction of these errors was mostly due to frequent and careful repetitions of the experiments, unattended by an expectation of finding the results reversed or otherwise modified, and instituted simply to secure their genuineness and certainty.
Then there was one result which at one time I confidently anticipated; but it never came up. I had found the ring make gyrations in the direction of those of the hands of a watch, when held over the small end of a living unincubated egg. Opposite gyrations were obtained over the big end. I thought this might have to do with the sex of the embryo. And I tried, accordingly, a dozen eggs, expecting that in some the direction of the gyrations at the two ends would be reversed. But this event never occurred, much as I laid myself out for it. If my fancy could have decided the matter in spite of my care to prevent its interference, I am clear that for a time, at least, I should have obtained in these experiments upon the egg a double set of results. I was much delighted two months later at coming upon the explanation of the question, why gyration like that of the hands of a watch is manifested at the little end of the egg. I had known from nearly the first that this direction of the rotatory Od-motion is manifested when the pendulum is swung over the right side of the human body. Then I fell upon an old physiological reminiscence, (and found a drawing of the fact in my outlines of Physiology,) that the embryo chick lies in the egg transversely upon its face, with its right side towards the little end.
Then there were two other results, which were directly at variance with my anticipations, but which never failed to present themselves. I made a voltaic arrangement by means of two plates, one of zinc, the other of223 copper, fixed in contact in a solution of salt in water. Now, when held opposite the middle of the zinc disc, the odometer always rotated like the hands of a watch; while over the copper disc the phenomenon was reversed. These results are constant. But I have had the satisfaction of lately discovering that, if I present the ring to any part of the circumference of the two discs, its motion is the opposite, and in accordance with theory.
One of the tests on which I have much relied in determining whether the motions I obtained were genuine Od-motions, consisted in producing their reversal by altering the Od-relations of my hand or of my person. What gives particular value to this test is, that the versed or complimentary motion is subject to different laws. One set of secondary oscillations changes into oscillations in a plane at right angles to the plane of the primary oscillations. In another series the motion continues in the same plane; but the excursions, which were before longest in one direction, are now longest in the opposite, as if a repellent current had been substituted for an attracting one. The Od-oscillations, it may be observed, are always dependent upon the action of a constant rectilinear force counteracted by the gravitation of the pendulum. The means I usually employ to reverse the primary Od-motions is, bringing the end of the right thumb into contact with the odometer-finger, where the thread is wound round it. But the experimenter cannot be too careful not to bring the thumb even near to the odometer finger, or to allow his other fingers to close upon the ball of the thumb, for the phenomena are thus again liable to be reversed.
The other means of reversing the results of the experiments are:—
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a. To substitute a hair of a mare for the suspending media above-named.
b. To hold a sovereign in the left hand.
c. To apply the forefinger of the left hand to the odometer finger.
d. To have either hand of a person of the same sex laid on your right hand or right ear.
e. To have either hand of a person of the opposite sex laid upon your left hand or left ear.
The various substances employed as Od-subjects admit of being divided into two great classes; one consisting of unorganized or organized bodies in which a minimum of internal activity is present; the other, of bodies of both classes, in which the more energetic properties of matter are at work.
I. Let me first notice the results obtained with the first class of bodies. These, again, are reducible to two forms. The Od-subject may either be of a regular figure and equal thickness throughout—as a piece of money, for instance; or it may be of an irregular figure, with an unequal mass of matter at one part—as, for instance, when it consists of an aggregate of several pieces of money variously arranged. I shall first treat of the first and simpler case.
It does not matter how you face in making these experiments. The influence of your person makes the various meridians of the Od-subject. The movements which we have first to examine are the results of holding the odometer over the middle of various uniform discs, such as I have supposed. They consist of two series of oscillations—one directed longitudinally to and from the experimenter; the other transversal, or in a plane at225 right angles to the plane of the first series of oscillations. Then it is highly convenient to have terms denoting the four cardinal points at which these oscillations cut the edge of the circular disc. These points may be termed distal, proximal, dextral, sinistral. It will likewise be found convenient to have terms to denote the direction of the motions manifested. The terms distad, proximad, dextrad, sinistrad, will serve our purpose. These terms refer to the person of the experimenter. Two other terms are still wanting; sometimes rotatory motion supervenes, which maybe either in the direction of the motion of the hands of a watch, or the reverse. I call the first of these two motions clock-rotation, the second versed-rotation.
The present class of Od-subjects present the following remarkable differences among themselves:—
Over one class, including gold, zinc, and polished glass, a circular mass of bicarbonate of soda, the odometer primarily oscillates longitudinally.
With the other class, which includes pearl, ground glass, copper, a circular mass of tartaric acid, the odometer held over the centre primarily oscillates transversely.
Over polished glass, an odometer of resin oscillates transversely; over ground glass longitudinally.
Each of these movements is replaced by the other, when the thumb is brought into contact with the odometer-finger. (See figs. 1 and 2, in which the continuous line represents the primary motion; the dotted line, the secondary or complementary or reversed motion.)
II. Analysis of the forces, or currents conducing to, or implicated in the movements of the odometer just described.
It has been said that the above movements manifest226 themselves when the odometer is held over the centre of the Od-subject. Let us now examine the consequences of holding the odometer extra-marginally to, or beyond the edge of, the Od-subject.
Figs. 1-8
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Figs. 9-14
a. Let the odometer be held a quarter of an inch away from, and over each cardinal point of a sovereign, or zinc circular disc, in succession. Result—Held near the distal point, its motion is proximad. Held near the proximal point, its motion is proximad. Held near the dextral point, its motion is sinistrad. Held near the sinistral point, its motion is sinistrad. (See fig. 3.)
But the first two impulses thus attained correspond with the direction of the primary oscillations of the odometer, the last two with its complementary oscillations;228 and if the odometer be held now over different points in succession of the two diametral lines, suspended, of course, by the finger alone over the first series of points, and by the finger touched by the thumb over the second, it will be found that the primary oscillations originated over every point of the longitudinal diameter of the zinc disc are proximad; and that those obtainable over any part of the transverse diameter of the zinc disc are sinistrad.
Then the forces or currents are made manifest by which the two sets of oscillations are produced; and the marvel of the prompt substitution of one for the other is at an end; for it is evident that these two forces, whether produced or only revealed by the presence of the odometer, co-exist; and that the changed Od-relations of the experimenter to the odometer, (effected by disjoining the thumb from, or joining it to, the forefinger,) simply act by giving temporary predominance to one of the two co-existent currents.
If these experiments be made at the edge of the copper disc, they elicit opposite but parallel results. (See fig. 4.) They evince the existence of two currents, one dextrad, the other sinistrad, from which the same conclusions may be deduced.
It is important to notice, that in all this class of the experiments, the distad and dextrad currents are manifested in combination; and in like manner the proximad and sinistrad.
This combination is further exemplified in the next experiment, which I shall describe.
b. Excite the above extra-marginal motions of the odometer held near the two plates in succession; and then apply the thumb to the finger in each experiment. Result—Tangential motions are manifested parallel to the diametral motions before displayed. (See figs. 5 and 6.)
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We cannot, however, suppose these extra-marginal tangential motions to be the lateral limits of the four great currents, inasmuch as they are obtained by the versed process to that which obtains the central motion; and the question arises, what then are the limits of the central currents?
c. Hold the odometer over the zinc disc at its centre; of course, longitudinal oscillations determined by the proximad current manifest themselves. Then shift its place on the transverse diameter more and more to the left. First Result—For something more than a quarter of the whole diameter, the motion continues longitudinal, proving that the central current has a breadth at least something exceeding half the diameter. Same result on the other side of the centre. Second Result—When the odometer nears the sinistral cardinal point of the zinc disc, its longitudinal proximad motion is replaced by the motion I have called clock-rotation. When it is held near the dextral cardinal point, versed rotation manifests itself.
This second result establishes that the longitudinal proximad current extends laterally to the edges of the disc; but that, when near to them, the force of the co-existing transverse current asserts itself, driving the odometer (on the left) off in a sinistro-proximad diagonal, which ends in the establishment of clock-rotation; on the right driving the central current off, in a dextro-proximad diagonal, resulting in versed rotation. (See fig. 7.)
Parallel and opposite results are obtained by the odometer when these experiments are repeated with the copper disc; and necessarily the clock-rotation appears near the proximad margin of the disc, the versed rotation near the distal edge.
Therefore it is evident that the great longitudinal and transverse currents extend over the whole disc, but not beyond it. Experiment a, section II., and figs. 3 and 4,230 show that, immediately beyond the cardinal points, single forces are in operation.
Other interesting results follow from trying with the odometer the extra-marginal spaces between the cardinal points.
d. First let the central points between each pair of cardinal points be tried with the zinc disc. Result—(see fig. 9,)—a dextro-proximad current is manifested between the sinistral and distal points, and between the proximal and dextral points; a sinistro-proximad current is manifested between the dextral and distal, and between the proximal and sinistral points—giving the impression that there exist two diagonal forces, comparable to the longitudinal and transverse forces.
Fig. 10 gives the corresponding, but opposite, results obtained upon the copper disc.
It is, however, doubtful whether these currents traverse the whole disc. For if the experiment is made of following each upon the disc, their influence disappears at less than a quarter of the diameter, where the odometer is found to obey on the zinc disc the proximad current, on the copper disc the dextrad current. Or, probably, these currents are the simple expression of the action of two equal forces moving the body operated on by them (at right angles to each other) in the diagonal. These effects thus form a remarkable contrast with the results given in figs. 7 and 8, wherein rotatory movements are manifested; and they seem to show that an essential element in these rotatory movements is, that one of the two currents acting on the odometer must, in the latter case, be of superior force to the other.
e. Repeat the last experiments versed, or with the thumb applied to the forefinger. Results—(see figs. 11 and 12)—Tangential forces are developed, the directions of which are opposite, as obtained over the zinc and over the copper discs.
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f. Repeat the extra-marginal trials of the odometer in all the halves of the inter-cardinal spaces, both with the zinc and with the copper discs. (See figs. 13 and 14.) Result—A complicated series of rotatory movements, eight for each disc; four in each case showing clock-rotation—four versed rotation—but opposite in the corresponding spaces of the two discs. On applying the thumb to the odometer finger, the rotations become exactly inverted so that, in that case; fig. 14 represents what is now manifested in the zinc disc, fig. 13 what is now manifested in the copper disc.
III. Motions of the odometer obtained over the same class of substances, when of irregular figure and unequal thickness.
a. Let the odometer be held over the middle of a line of four sovereigns disposed either longitudinally, transversely, or obliquely. Result—Long oscillations over the axis of the line of sovereigns. But the oscillations are not of equal length. At one end of the line they extend to the edge of the fourth sovereign. At the other, they pass an inch beyond it.
b. Repeat the experiment, touching the odometer-finger with the right thumb. Result—Axial oscillations as before, and unequal as before, but in the contrary direction.
c. Dispose four sovereigns in a line; then place two others upon any one of the four, and hold the odometer over the table at three inches to one side of the middle of the line. Result—The odometer swings in each instance towards that sovereign on which the two additional are placed—but unequally. We will suppose that it has swung with sufficient strength to reach the disc of the loaded sovereign,—the oscillation in the contrary direction is but two inches in length.
d. Repeat the experiment, with the thumb applied. Results—Oscillations ensue of the same length, and they are again unequal, but in the contrary direction. Now they do not reach the pile of sovereigns by an inch, but they pass three inches in the opposite direction.
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Figs. 15-24
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Figs. 25-29
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Thus a force is brought into view having this new quality: when the Od-relations of the experimenter are versed, a change ensues, not into motion in a plane transverse to the former one, but the direction of the new motion is simply the opposite of the first, or the odometer appears to be attracted or repelled towards the Od-subject alternately.
e. Try the same experiment with a single sovereign, or with the zinc disc. Result—The odometer held at four inches distance is attracted and repelled just as in the preceding instance.
Then an irregular form of the Od-subject, or its unequal mass at different parts, have nothing to do with this new motion; and it is evident that the relation of the latter to the former class of oscillatory motions will be easily determinable.
f. Lay the proper disc before you (see fig. 15,) and hold the odometer over the production in each direction of its transversal line beyond the limits of the disc. Results—When held near the right edge of the disc, as before mentioned, a dextrad motion is developed; that is to say, the odometer moves off from the dextral cardinal point of the disc, oscillatively. This movement, or those oscillations outward, are fainter and fainter, as the odometer is held over points more and more remote from the disc. At length, at the distance of an inch and a half, the odometer becomes absolutely stationary. When moved, however, still farther off, motion begins again, which is very lively at four to five inches distance from the disc, its direction being sensibly toward the disc. Moved farther off, still the same motion continues, and is detectable ten to twelve inches off the Od-subject.
When the same experiments are made on the left edge of the Od-subject, phenomena just the reverse are manifested for the same distance. The extra-marginal dextrad motion is transverse for an inch and a half. Then there235 occurs a point of quiescence; on the other side of which the odometer swings in free and long sinistrad or repelled oscillations.
g. Repeat these experiments (fig. 16,) with the thumb applied. Result—On the left side the near extra-marginal dextrad motion is replaced by a tangential proximad motion; and the centrifugal oscillations beyond the point of quiescence are replaced by centripetal oscillations. On the right side again, the near dextrad extra-marginal oscillations are replaced by a proximad tangential current: while beyond the point of quiescence, the remote centripetal oscillations are reversed into centrifugal ones.
Effects parallel to these are attained at each of the cardinal and inter-cardinal points of the whole circumference, upon the zinc or copper disc, but as usual a............