THE SEX-PENDULUM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 524, 3 June 1909, Page 5

THE SEX-PENDULUM.

TOY OR SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT. . '.The Wellington' Philosophical Society 1 seemed scarcely to know .what to mako of the' experiments .and theories put forward last evening by Mr. B; Couplaftd Harding, who delivered an interesting address on the. "Sex Pendulum,"; which lately received- notice iu ; aii' almost sensational'article in 1 Mr;.'W. T. Stead's "Koview of Reviews.',' The naiiie of ■ "Saxophone", was used by Mrl Stead, but was unsuitable (sai.d ; Mr. Harding), because the instrument gave out no note of sound, many experiments, he differed from: Mi-. Stead and some others, as lie found that the pendulum l only reacted when held in tho hand. It indicated tho malo sox by a'rotary, motion, aiid tho" female sex-by an oscillating motion,! and it Iwould be clearly affected' by dead animal matter,. such as a bit of bone or a- mummy.. Mr. Stead had spoken only of steol as tho material of the penduluiu, but ho (Mr. -Harding) found that quite a variety .of .materials—wood, cork, '.or shell—would answer, the purpose. He had discovered that; about one-third of tho people who had tried the instrument' got no result. It would be,of value to experimental psychologists, but it must; always be roroembered that <its '.-manifestations varied; greatly with; dif« fctent experimenters,' and almost ceased when the experimenter olosed his eyes. To illustrate this point Mr. Harding '.held' the 'pendulum over the hoad of. a press representative, and had the satisfaction - of. seeing it sway with a .rotary motion. He then closed his eyes and promised to think' of other matters, and the motion of tho pendulum, gradually grew less. This would show, . said the lecturer, that Mt., Stead was mistaken in saying' that suggestion i'id nothing to do with tho success of experiy nts with the instrument. It was still in the i y stage, and it offored great possibilities for fraud. Ho had not himself tried the elicit of conscious volition on tho instrument, but his daughter had by this'means caused it to reverse its rotary motion and also to oscillate north and soutlij then easfc and west, and then north-east and south-west. As an instrument of divination in iits simplest use it was absolutely .unreliable .and delusivo; Ho "had found it tc« spond correctly when hold over a photograph of .a man-or woman,, arid also when held over books, moving according to whether the writer was a _ man or n woman. (Laughter.) ' But when he did not know beforehand who the author, was, the instrument was just as wrong as right. As a further illustration, Mr. Harding produced a book containing a number of portraits, and held one of his pondulums over, page after page, deolaring that it reacted correctly, every time according to the wr. of t''e . persons represented, Ho bclWed lt>c' ".•i"'f-''flHons w?-" .produced by tho mil>cousciim.- i-;ird of the operator, bnt the subject might, have'somo Influoneo. Though a toy to-day, it would in, time. become one of tho most valuable instruments of psychological research; The president did not invito di'eilSsinn on the address, but. called on the next speaker.