Prof. W.F. Barrett, Professor of Physics in the Royal College of Science
for Ireland, conducted the most of the experiments. The report to the
Society says: "We began by selecting the simplest objects in the room;
then chose names of towns, people, dates, cards out of a pack, lines from
different poems, etc., in fact, any thing or series of ideas that those
present could keep in their minds steadily. The children seldom made a
mistake. I have seen seventeen cards chosen by myself named right in
succession without any mistake. We soon found that a great deal depended
on the steadiness with which the ideas were kept before the minds of the
thinkers, and upon the energy with which they willed the ideas to pass. I
may say that this faculty is not by any means confined to the members of
one family; it is much more general than we imagine. To verify this
conclusion, I invited two of a neighbor's children to join us in our
experiments, with excellent results."
The report gives the methods of the experiments, as follows: "The inquiry
has taken place partly in Mr. Creery's house, and partly in lodgings, or
at a hotel occupied by some of our number. Having selected at random one
child, whom we desired to leave the room and wait at some distance, we
would choose a pack of cards, or write on a piece of paper a name of a
number which occurred to us at the moment.
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