about in the garden behind Mr. Phippen's
house until the stick became so agitated that he
could not keep it steady; it bent down at a spot
which he asserted must have water underneath
it. Mr. Phippen caused a digging to be made,
and water was really found at the spot indicated.
As a means of testing Adams's powers in relation
to metals, three hats were placed in a row
in the kitchen, and three silver spoons under
one of the hats. Adams walked among the hats,
and his rod told him which of them covered the
treasure. Then three kinds of valuables, gold,
silver, and jewels, were placed under three
hats, one kind under each; and he found out
which was which. On another occasion, he
dowsed for water in the grounds of the Rev. Mr.
Foster, of Sodbury, in Gloucestershire; using
the same method as before, he announced the
presence of water at a particular spot, twenty
feet beneath the surface. A pamphlet published
by Mr. Phippen concerning these curious facts
attracted the attention of Mr. Marshall, partner
in the great flax factory at Leeds. Water
was wanted at the mill, and the owners were
willing to see whether dowsing could effect
anything in the matter. Mr. Marshall invited
Adams to come down and search for springs.
On one occasion, when blindfolded, Adams
failed, but hit the mark pretty nearly on the
second attempt, excusing himself for the first
failure on the ground that "he was not used to
be blindfolded." Of the main experiments Mr.
Marshall afterwards said, in a letter to the
newspapers,"I tested Adams by taking him over some
deep borings at our manufactory, where he could
have no possible guide from anything he could
see; and he certainly pointed out nearly the
position of the springs, as shown by the produce
of the bore-holes—some being much more
productive than others. The same was the
result at another factory, where Adams could
have had no guide from what he saw, and could
not have got information otherwise."

There was one Edward Seebold who, about the
same period, created some sensation in Germany
by his exhibition of this sort of underground
knowledge. It was not, with him, a divination
of hidden metals or springs, however; it was
simply that a divining-rod, spontaneously as it
would seem, turned round in his hands when
held out horizontally. Dr. Herbert Mayo, being
at Weilbach in the year 'forty-seven, and having
his thoughts directed to certain experiments
which had come under his notice as a reader,
applied a particular test to Seebold, suggested
by something which Reichenbach had mentioned.
It consisted in holding three pieces of metal and
one fork of a divining-rod in the right hand, and
holding with the left hand the other fork of the
rod bound round with silk. Seebold walked up
and down, with these articles in his hands. The
youth had scarcely made five steps, says Dr.
Mayo, when the end of the fork began to
ascend. Seebold laughed with astonishment at
the result, and said that he experienced a
tickling or thrilling sensation in his hands.
Continuing to walk up and down, the fork in his
hands described a complete circle, then another,
and so on as long as he continued to walk. The
experiment was repeated with similar success
several times within a month. At subsequent
periods, when the youth's health was somewhat
impaired, the phenomena either disappeared
altogether, or were only partially exhibited. Dr.
Mayo lost sight of Seebold for four years; when,
being again at Weilbach, he inquired after him,
and found that the power, whatever it may have
been, seemed to have entirely left him. When
tried by other persons, the results were fitful
and contradictory, the end of the rod sometimes
going upwards, when, according to the theory,
it should have gone downwards.

Now comes the question: Is the divining-rod
a verity? and, if not, what are we to think of
all these recorded phenomena? Are they
frauds, like some exhibitions that are not many
months old, among ourselves? If they be honest,
but mistaken, how does the mistake arise? If
they are honest and correct likewise, what real
agency is concerned in the matter? That they
are all frauds is a supposition which cannot be
admitted for a moment. That they are all true,
is a supposition which the past and present
teachings of science render very improbable. It
is in the middle region of conjecture that the
solution will probably be found. Some of the
experimenters and their friends have offered a
surmise that there may be a few persons,
representing a fraction more or less of the whole
population, who are electrical, or have more
electricity in them than the rest of us. This may
possibly be so; but then it is strange that a
hazel-rod, and of a particular shape too, should
be the necessary means of developing or
manifesting this power.

More than fifty years ago, Chévreul, the
eminent French chemist and natural philosopher,
devised a small pendulum, consisting of an iron
ring suspended by a hempen thread, to test an
alleged power possessed by a Parisian lady, of
detecting hidden metals and springs of water by the
spontaneous oscillation of the pendulum. What
he saw induced him to extend his researches further.
He addressed a letter to Biot, a still more
eminent French savant, expressive of an opinion
that there is a mental process concerned in these
phenomena, which needs to be taken into account.
About forty years afterwards, circumstances led
him to take up the inquiry at greater length and
in a more systematic manner. The Académie
des Sciences, in eighteen fifty-two, requested
MM. Chévreul, Boussingault, and Babinet to
report on a volume by M. Riondet on the
subject of the divining-rod; and the attention of
Chévreul was about the same time attracted by
the public displays of table-turning and spirit-
rapping, with which Paris was just then almost
intoxicated. He thought of his old pendulum;
he thought of the divining-rod of the dowsers;
and he worked out the details of a theory which
might possibly furnish a clue to a large number
of marvellous recitals, spiritual and non-spiritual.
His theory is this; He believes that, there is a
condition of mind which may be called expectant