Notes & Queries,

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 November 1883, Page 7

Notes & Queries.

ANSWERS 5, —In answer to the query of “T” as to whether Dr. W. B. Carpenter acknowledged the truth of the phenomena of Spiritualism, Mesmerism &c, I beg to answer that Carpenter puts down the belief in Table-rapping, Table-turning etc, as an example of “ a variety of aberrant actions bordering on Insanity,” classing it with the Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages &c. As to Mesmerism, the following quotation will perhaps suffice:—“ With respect to the modes in which the ‘ Mesmeric ’ Somnambulism is induced,it appears to him that they are all referable to those states of monotony of sensory impressions and of expectation, to which reference has been already made, as among the most potent of the predisposing causes of conditions allied to Sleep. It is asserted by Mesmerists, that they can induce the ‘ Mesmeric ’ state from a distance, without the least consciousness on the part of their £ subjects’ that any influence is being exerted on them, an assertion which if true would go far to establish the existence of a force altogether sui generis, capable of being transmitted from one individual to another. Here, however, as in regard to the ‘ higher phenomena ’ last adverted to, the Author feels compelled to state that no evidence of an affirmative kind has yet been adduced, which can be in the least degree satisfactory to a scientific enquirer, who duly appreciates all the sources of fallacy to which these occurrences are open.” First quotation from “ I des-motor Actions”—second quotation from “Functions of the Cerebrospinal Nervous System”—Carpenter’s Physiology.— T,, New Plymouth. 3.1 n answer to “ A Freethinker’s ” query re Southwell, I take the following from Mr. G. J. Holyoake’s well known “ History of Co-operation : “ Ultimately Mr. Southwell left England and settled in New Zealand, a singularly unsuitable retreat for one so fiery and fearless of spirit, unless he intended to set up as a Chieftain, On the stage, or the platform, or in the Secular press, he might have found a congenial sphere; but. nothing fell to him available except the editorship of a Wesleyan Newspaper. It must have, been a livelier publication in his hands than its readers had known it before. Its orthodox articles must have been written by proxy. When death befell him, as it did after a very few years sojourn there, he was waited on by members of the proprietary whom he served, to offer him the religious consolations available to that body, and were surprised to be told by their patient that he had edited their paper because no other employment was open to him, but he never undertook to edit their principles. He could not deny that Wesleyanism was a form of opinion he could live by, for he had lived by it, and he was much obliged to them for the opportunity of doing that. He, however, preferred to die in the principles in which he had Jived, He was an Atheist.”—lvADlCAL.

3.The following is authentic ; Mr. Campbell having known Southwell intimately : in Auckland about 1855 or 6, and, after trying his powers as an actor, became editor of the Auckland Examiner, which he conducted with ability until he died. He was buried in

the Cemetery, and a few Freethinkers subscribed and put a fence round his grave, and & headstone bearing the following inscription :—"ln Memory of Charles Southwell, Editor and Lecturer, who died 7th August, 1860 ; aged 46." He did not become a Wesleyan, nor a preacher, nor editor of a Wesleyan paper. — A. Campbell, Auckland.

4.—" Tyro " will find a reliable statement of Odylism in Dr Carpenter's work, " Spiritualism and Mesmerism."

QUERIES.

1.-— ln a lecture delivered recently on the scientific evidence of the Old Testament stories, the lecturer stated that the gastric juices would have had no effect upon Jonah, if he had kept continually walking up and down for three days and nights in the Whale's belly. Can any of your readers inform me if this lecturer was Gordon Forlong Esq. (formerly a Deist)?—

2. — ln the Contemporary Review for July Cardinal Manning makes a statement in toxicology which I would like to have some information upon, as follows : — " When Socrates was accused of atheism, he was condemned to henbane." I always understood the poison given to Socrates, and used by the Athenians to carry out the last sentence of the law, was hemlock.

3. should be glad if anyone acquainted with the writings of John Stuart Mill can inform me if it is true that that great writer and thinker proved David Hume's argument against miracles to the fallacious. —A Rationalist. 4.—lt would be interesting and instructive to have a clear and succinct explanation of Pantheism as a system of thought. Theist. s. —ls there any great school or college in England in which theological teaching is forbidden. —A.B.C. 6.—" What are the fundamental principles of Positivism 1 Humanitas.