the instruments of which he makes use in
his odic researches. The doctor could only
show his great air-stones—those weighing
more than a hundred-weight each—because
all the little ones were packed out of the
way; but, to recompense his guests for their
disappointment, he introduced them into
several apartments, so arranged as to be
perfectly dark. He calls these his black
chambers. Their furniture consists of
magnets, crystals, chemical preparations, and
divers scientific instruments which serve to
produce the phenomena of which the Doctor
is the discoverer and exponent.

When his friends had entered the mysterious
den, he shut the trap of introduction
(it is a contrivance of much more perfect
closing-powers than a door) and they were
suddenly plunged into total obscurity. The
party were unanimous in declaring that they
did not remember ever to have been placed
in a spot from which light was so absolutely
absent as this; for in the darkest night, in an
ordinary room, the position of the windows
may be perceived by a faint glimmer, how
feeble soever it may be. But here, every trace
of external light was entirely and completely
intercepted. The party might have remained
in this pleasant position for about half-an-hour,
when one gentleman announced, with
some astonishment, that he thought he could
see his own hands. He was a professor of
natural philosophy, holding a public chair, a
vigorous man in good health, who had
hitherto been adverse to the Od. At first,
doubts were expressed, and the fact contested;
but, at last, there could be no question that
he was able to see his own hands and to
follow their movements with his eyes. Before
long, a second person manifested sensitivity.
He also was a professor of natural science.
Not only did he see his hands, but he believed
that he could also distinguish the outlines of the
heads of the persons present. Soon, a third,
and finally a fourth, began to attest the existence
of similar phenomena. Had they
remained in darkness for a longer period, other
persons would also have testified to the
reality of the luminous apparitions shining
—in the midst of an absolute night. As
it is quite impossible, with our visual
apparatus, to see any object in the dark if
it emit no light whatever, incontestable
proof was thus given that the heads and
the hands, which could be illumed by no
possible light from without, were luminous of
themselves.

Von Reichenbach requested these gentlemen,
and other friends, to devote to him, each
one, a day, during which he led them singly
into his black chamber, and spent with them
there four or five hours. On these occasions,
they beheld a multitude of objects which are
never considered as luminous in the slightest
degree. Magnets and crystals appeared
enveloped in a light which was brighter
toward the poles, and which appeared to
diffuse itself in the atmosphere surrounding
those objects, like a luminous vapour.
These persons stated that everything
possessed of life emits light; that men have not
only their hands and their heads luminous,
but that their whole body is environed in a
brightness like a halo; that their breath even
emits light; that every chemical reaction
manifests it; that all friction, that the simple
flowing of water through a tube of glass, all
spread light. They saw luminous clouds
emanate from a bell, as long as they kept it
ringing. Nay more, those who rose from a
sofa furnished with cushions on which they
had been sitting, saw the place which they
had just occupied, shine. It was further
remarked that the light given out by many
bodies was not the same throughout; but
that, in polarised bodies, especially such as
magnets and crystals, one of the poles was
orange-yellow, and the other less bright and
greyish blue. The hands themselves shone
witlh different lights: the left hand appeared
brighter, more distinct, and of a reddish
yellow; the right hand was blue and less
clearly defined. A certain polarity of colouring
was thus manifested.

Strange to say that, in the midst of all these
surprising apparitions, Von Reichenbach
himself saw nothing at all. The weird seer could
not see. He was incapable of observing the
slightest trace of light, and had to feel his
way, like a blind man, in the darkest obscurity,
during the whole of these five hours. It is
a fresh instance of a man pursuing an inquiry
by the help of other people's senses. It
reminds us of blind Huber watching the habits
of ants and bees. Von Reichenbach is not
alone in his insensibility to odic influences.
It is not meant for a joke, to say that, after
repeated trials, he found very many people
to be just as blind in the dark as himself.
His long experience has made him acquainted
with hundreds of persons who could see the
luminous phenomena, and with hundreds of
others who could not see them. There are,
therefore, two sorts of men in the world:
those who perceive lights when they are in
absolute obscurity, and those who never see
them, however long they may remain in the
dark. The first only can really be Od
Fellows.

This phenomenon also offers another aspect
equally remarkable. When people as blind
as Von Reichenbach stretch their hands
over the poles of a magnet or a crystal
at the distance of from one to three inches,
they feel absolutely nothing; but, when
persons capable of beholding luminous halos,
perform the same experiment, they
perceive very particular sensations, resembling
sometimes those resulting from a tepid
breath: sometimes that of a cold breath;
in distinguishing which they are not
deceived, but obtain the same result at every
fresh trial.

In these phenomena of sensation there is