MR HELLER’S SECOND-SIGHT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2294, 13 September 1870, Page 2

MR HELLER’S SECOND-SIGHT.

To the Editor of the Evening Star.

Sir, —No one could see that part of Mr Heller’s performance which he called Secondsight, without wishing for an explanation of the apparent mystery. The following extract from a well-known American writer, shows how such a performance may be managed without the .aid of electro-biology or even ventriloquism, merely by a cleverly concerted system of communication and a good memory. Mr Marsh in bis lectures on the English language gives the following illustration of the extent to which purely conventional articulate symbols may bo made to supply the place of a more natural language. “Take,” he says, “ the exhibitions often witnessed, where, when you show an object to one in the secret, a confederate blindfolded or in an adjoining room will instantly name it. A method of communication in such cases is this. The parties agree to designate certain words of frequent occurrence, chiefly names of familiar objects by numerals, and the table of words and their corresponding numbers is committed to memory by both. The simple digits up t-5 nine, including also the cipher, will represent words, which may without exciting suspicion ba used in asking the name of the object. Let us suppose Ito stand forwhat,’ 2 for “is,” and 3 for “this ;” and further that the number corresponding to “ penknife is 123. The performer, when a spectator produces a penknife, asks “What is this?” The confederate combines the corre«ponding numerals 1, 2, 3, into the number 123, the answer to which is “penknife.” Or again, 4, 5, and 6 may stand respectively for “tell, ” “me,” and “now,” and the number 645 for “pencil.” A pencil is held up by a spectator, the conjuror cries, “Now, tell me?” and the answer 6, 4, 5 —645, a “pencil,” is at once given. I have known this numeral vocabulary carried up to four thousand words, and the principle is capable of almost unlimited variation, and extension. G.P.A.