Part 19
Statistically this must be rated a failure. But it is quite possible that in fact there is an underlying real connection. Perhaps Mrs. S had read the life of Napoleon, and had been aware that he was by education primarily an artillerist, and that the increased and peculiar use of artillery was the chief distinctive feature of his campaigns. If so, it is quite possible that the idea of cannon, struggling for emergence in her mind, by association of ideas got sidetracked to Napoleon, and became expressed in “Black Napoleon hat and red military coat.” I have not discovered what the uniform of Napoleon’s artillerists was; his infantry, at any rate, wore coats brilliantly faced with red.
Footnote 22:
Let it be understood that there were reproductions rated as Suggestive, Partial Successes or even Successes, where there was no such “correspondence.” That is to say, the reproduction might not recognizably represent any living thing, might even be indeterminable as to its nature, and yet so notably imitate the leading features of the original (though omitting something necessary for identification) as to give it one grade or another of ranking otherwise than Failure.
Footnote 23:
Here the original was not a drawing but a “red flower” that Mr. Sinclair was simultaneously reading about.
Footnote 24:
Mathematically, that is, on the basis of a large number of counted experiments in guessing.
Footnote 25:
Unless by “involuntary whispering,” a theory to be attended to later.
Footnote 26:
There was one experiment with drawings. One of the Danish experimenters drew a candlestick, with a lighted candle in it. The other in response drew what in the cut looks like a crooked milk-bottle with a short curved line proceeding from one end and two short curved lines proceeding from one side. The latter says he meant it for a cat, but does not know why he furnished it with only two “legs.” The only use made of this drawing in the pamphlet is to compare it with a selected and very poor example from the Richet series and to assert that it is as good a reproduction. The utmost I should grant for the Richet drawing is that, regarded as one of a series containing a number of far more impressive ones, it is Suggestive, and the most I could grant for the “cat,” is that it may possibly be Slightly Suggestive. But did Hansen and Lehmann think there was any resemblance between their reproduction and original? If so, how did they know that there was no thought-transference and why did they not continue to experiment with drawings? Were they afraid that if they did, they might have an intractable problem on their hands? But if they thought there was no real resemblance, what possible weight had their failure against a series of experiments wherein a large percentage of the reproductions beyond question _did_ notably resemble the originals?
Footnote 27:
S.P.R. _Proceedings_, VI, 164–5.
Footnote 28:
Professor Sidgwick declared that the whispering of himself and his colleagues was certainly voluntary, and that there was no success otherwise.
Footnote 29:
Neither M. C. S. or I ever made the faintest trace of a sound during an experiment. That was the law. And I never knew which drawing she was holding. I had just one order: to watch steadily, and be able to say that she never “peeked.” I did this, and I say it, on my honor. This is an honest book.—Upton Sinclair.
Footnote 30:
She was undergoing the menopause; hence the special depression. It is important that every such fact should be stated. It might even be that the condition heightened the telepathic faculty.
Footnote 31:
Of course Mrs. Sinclair is solely responsible for this as every other of her expressed opinions.
Footnote 32:
This was written when it was expected that the experiments with the brother-in-law would continue some time. The general character of the objects is stated. In fact neither duck nor basket of fruit figured. The experiments with “Bob” soon ceased, not only because they involved a strain upon him in his then condition of health but because Mrs. Sinclair suspected that she was telepathically having her own feelings of depression increased by his.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. P. 66, changed “lizard, camelian, reds” to “lizard, chameleon, reds”. 2. P. 69, changed “Also, an the automobile ride to Pasadena” to “Also, on the automobile ride to Pasadena”. 3. P. 190, did not alter February 29, 1929. 4. Ignored variations in “MacDougall” and “McDougall”. 5. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 6. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. 7. Footnotes were re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 8. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.