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. Generally, but not always, this
was shown to the members of the family present in the room; but no one
member was always present, and we were sometimes entirely alone. We then
recalled the child, one of us always assuring himself that, when the door
was suddenly opened, she was at a considerable distance, though this was
usually a superfluity of caution, as our habit was to avoid all utterances
of what was chosen. On re-entering, she stood--sometimes turned by us with
her face toward the wall, oftener with her eyes directed toward the
ground, and usually close to us and remote from the family--for a period
of silence varying from a few seconds to a minute, till she called out to
us some number, card, or whatever it might be."