THE WATER-DIVINERS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 412, 8 November 1911, Page 6

THE WATER-DIVINERS.

Water-divining was described recently by Professor Sir Edward Ray Lancaster as a rather filly superstition. and naturally the people who have faith in the powers of the bent twig have protested very vigorously. Professor Barrett, a scientific man of some repute, writes in the Occult Heview that he has convinced himself by careful investigation that the. watordiviners frequently justify their professions. "'With all respect to the learned geologists who are consulted on the best site for sinking a well," he states, "the humble and often illiterate dowser has again and again been successful in certain regions where the best scientific advice has failed." A correspondent of the London Daily News related his own experience in the matter. lie said that he had been most, sceptical regarding the claims of persons who offered to find wells with the assistance of a bit of wood, but; he had been converted. He had been engaged in choosing a site for a new well when a farmer's wife told him that a certain voung domestic possessed powers of divination. The girl was sent for and she produced a freshly-cut forked twig, which she carried about the farm. When she reached a spot that appeared particularly unpromising, her hands were "violently agitated" and the twig announced the presence of water in the traditional way. A well was sunk at this point and writer was found at a depth of twelve feet, although all the other wells in the neigh bourhood were, at least thirty feet deep. But Sir Kay Lancaster refuses to be convinced. He says that cures of disease are often eltected after recourse has been had to charms, spells and faith medicines of various sorts, but that fact does not prove the curative efficacy of magic. He thinks that the finding of as common a thing us water may be the result of chance, assisted perhaps by unconscious observation of the lay of the country. It should be possible for the scientists to reach an exact conclusion of the subject by submitting some of the water-diviners to severe tests under varying conditions. But the public, of course, will cling to its superstitions despite all that science may say.