Babbit's Principles of Light and Color IX

From the 1878 book by Edwin Babbit.

Written at the turning point in human spiritual evolution when the Kali Yuga age of materialism reached its end. Babbit was one of the researchers of the time investigating the non-material, etheric aspects of earthly phenomena. In this chapter he discusses the "finer" frequencies of color.

CHAPTER NINTH. CHROMO-DYNAMICS, OR THE HIGHER GRADE LIGHTS AND FORCES.

1. INTRODUCTORY POINTS. 1. At last we come to a triumphant series of facts in proof of the fine fluidic forces which constitute the inner soul of things, and also in corroboration of the etherio-atomic law. By their aid we may ascend toward the key-stone of the great archway of power, and deal with those more subtile laws and potencies of vegetable, animal, human, and even world-life which are revealed by the higher grades of light and color.

2. We have seen in Chapter Fifth, XXIII, that there are strong proofs of new and beautiful grades of light and color above that which impresses the outward vision. The following semi-prophetic and semi-philosophic passage from Professor Tyndall, hinting at the fact that man has powers which may yet be developed to see these higher colors, is already being verified by actual facts:—"If we allowed ourselves to accept for a moment that notion of gradual growth, amelioration and ascension implied by the term evolution, we might fairly conclude that there are stores of visual impressions awaiting man far greater than those of which he is now in possession. For example, Ritter discovered in 1801, that beyond the extreme violet of the spectrum, there is a vast efflux of rays which are totally useless as regards our present powers of vision." That many persons are able to see these colors, and that many more can be developed into this power, will be shown more fully in the next chapter, in which also rules will be laid down for attaining it. This chapter will be devoted principally to the explanation of Odic light and color, together with some of the marvelous forces connected with man and nature which are revealed thereby, while the next chapter will deal more especially with man.

Baron Reichenbach, one of the most eminent scientists of Austria, made the discovery that a fine force issues from all known elements and substances, and appears in beautiful lights and colors which can be both seen and felt by persons whom he called sensitives. Having a spacious castle near Vienna, admirably adapted to his investigations, with an abundance of philosophical and chemical apparatus, and a private cabinet containing minerals and substances of every kind, he instituted thousands of experiments which extended over years of time and were conducted with a skill, a patience and a severe love of truth, which must make his name immortal, especially as connected with the great force of nature whose laws and phenomena he thus discovered. This subtile power he named OD, or ODIC FORCE, or ODYLIC FORCE.
Also see: Borderland Experimenter: ODIC OBSERVATIONS

As these fine invisible emanations constitute the basic principles of all other forces, and are forever working through all things, it is of vast moment to understand them, and it would seem almost criminal for our medical and other scientists to be so indifferent with reference to them, so long as human happiness and upbuilding are so greatly promoted by a knowledge of their laws. "Nature is eternal," says Reichenbach. "After a thousand million years will the odic light flow and shine as it does to-day, but the endeavors to overcome such a truth when it has once happily been found and disclosed, are paltry and poor." While such men as Berzelius, the great chemist of Stockholm, and Dr. Gregory of the Edinburgh University, and Dr. Elliotson, President of the Royal Chirurgical Society of London, and various other eminent thinkers and scientists, have freely admitted the greatness of the discovery of Reichenbach, too many even to this day ignore, or rather keep themselves ignorant of the whole matter. Even so well known a physician as Dr. Brown-Séquard sneers at the odic and other fine forces, and hosts follow in his track, thus riveting the shackles of prejudice more and more tightly about the people by their example. A body of rather superficial physicians of Vienna, anxious seemingly to combat Baron Reichenbach, rather than ascertain the exact truth, met together and had Miss Reichel, one of the sensitives whom Reichenbach had experimented with, attempt to describe the odic lights. They surrounded her, held each of her hands, overpowered her by their own hostile atmosphere, mocked her and jeered at her, till the poor sensitive girl, in her anger and excitement, could do little or nothing to illustrate a great principle and then condemned her and the cause. It is well on the whole, perhaps, that they took such a course, otherwise we should not have had such a scathing and crushing exposure of their folly by Reichenbach as a warning to all similar cases of folly and ignorance. Dr. William B. Carpenter, the well known physiologist, considers Baron Reichenbach's experiments unreliable because he employed so many women in testing them. To this I would answer, 1st, that his experiments would more likely have been unreliable if he had not employed ladies freely in the matter, for woman's perception of the fine forces is as much superior to man's as man's ratiocinative talent is generally superior to woman's, and it is singular that so able an observer has overlooked this fact; 2dly, the Baron did employ numerous men who could see the Odic lights, including Prof. Endlicher, member of the Vienna Academy; Baron August von Oberlaender, Dr. Ragsky, Imperial Professor of Chemistry, Vienna; M. Karl Schuh, Natural Philosopher, Berlin; Dr. Huss, Physician in ordinary to the king of Sweden, and other gentlemen of scientific attainment. In all he experimented with about 60 persons, including many who were in sound health as well as many who were sick, having a greater number of ladies than gentlemen, as it should be in this class of researches, as the former were able to see longer flames and generally describe them more definitely than the latter. Some of the ladies, including the Baroness Natorp, Baroness von Augustine, and others, were persons of culture.

2. Aided by the knowledge of atoms, chromo-chemistry and chromo-Therapeutics, I think we may easily see the inner meaning and potencies of the odic colors, and ascertain their scientific bearing in a way which Reichenbach himself was unable to do without these aids. We should remember that every color has a certain exact style of power, no matter what the grade of fineness or coarseness may be; the odic blue and violet, like the visible blue and violet, being electrical, penetrating and cool in their nature, while the red either in a drug, or in the visible sunlight, or in the finer invisible odic rays, is a warming and exciting principle; in short, that every color must ever work after the same law, the only difference being that a color of a finer grade has a softer and more penetrating power than the same color of a coarser grade, and has also a greater influence on the finer mental forces, though not so direct an influence on the physical system. It is proper now to inquire into the nature of Odic light, as viewed by Reichenbach's sensitives. In some cases I shall condense his points, in others quote his exact language.

III. NATURE OF ODIC LIGHT AND COLOR.

1. Odic Light exhibits exactly the same laws and phenomena as the ordinary visible light. "The odic light appears in five forms, producing different sensuous impressions, namely, in the condition of 1, incandescence; 2, flame; 3, threads, streaks and nebulæ; 4, smoke; 5, sparks." Prof. Endlicher and others, when the flame at the end of magnets was blown upon, saw it flicker about and grow larger just as ordinary flames do before the wind. Madame Kienesberger woke up in the night and seeing the iron window frame on fire with odic light, became alarmed, supposing it to be real fire. When she went to put it out it vanished, then reappeared when she lay down. In other words, when she was perfectly quiet and impressible, she saw the lights, but when moving around, her finer vision was interrupted. When a magnet became very weak there was "incandescence with no flame, only a little smoke," just as is the case with a smouldering fire. "Od shares with heat the peculiarity of two different conditions, one inert, slowly making its way through matter, a radiation. The od from magnets, crystals, human bodies, is felt instantaneously through a long suite of rooms." Odic light follows the same laws of refraction as common light, as it may be condensed and brought to a focus by a lens, and also the same laws of reflection, although the same substances that reflect ordinary light, are not always of the right grade to reflect odic light, as the latter is often able to pass through opaque bodies and make them transparent.

2. An Odic Atmosphere or static ether must exist and bear the same relation to odic light as the ordinary atmosphere does to the ordinary light. As the odic light is twice as fine in its vibrations as ordinary light, the odic atmosphere must also be NATURE OF ODIC LIGHT AND COLOR. 419 twice as fine, and its luminelles on the average, about twice as small as the ordinary luminelles. This is a deduction from the analogies of nature, and also from the fact ascertained by mathematicians, that the vibrations, which are twice as fine and rapid as those in the thermel, occur a little above the violet just about at the place where the odic thermel in the new color-octave would be expected to commence. In this finer atmosphere odic electricity, odic magnetism, odic thermism, as well as odic light and color exist with all their activities, as we shall see hereafter. To show that the odic light is not dependent upon our atmosphere, being in reality partially smothered by it, and that it must have its own peculiar atmospheric medium, I will quote an account which Reichenbach gives of his experiments with a magnet as viewed in the dark while the air is being withdrawn by an air pump:—"M. Firka, Johann Klaiber, and Mme. Kienesberger, also saw nothing at first: but when the air was half removed, they saw the contents of the bell jar become luminous, the magnet in the odylic glow. On further exhaustion, Klaiber saw the flame appear on both poles, first dull, then brighter as the air was removed more completely, increasing in vividness at every stroke of the piston, so that at last very bright flames flowed about under the bell jar. When the air was admitted, all light suddenly disappeared to the three observers, and it returned as soon as the pump had again been worked for a time." Mlle. Zinkell saw the flames beautifully brilliant, especially after the exhaustion of the air, one pole being blue, the other red, with a mixture of rainbow hues. Several others, including a blind man by the name of BOLLMAN, saw the same variations. These facts seem to indicate that there is a finer grade of oxygen and hydrogen and carbon, or some similar elements, to feed these flames, and a finer grade of gaseous or rather of ethereal matter as their basis, for those essences which are finer than the gases may be termed ethers.

3. The Odic Light may appear in connection with all known objects, but more especially when these objects are under the action of the fine forces, such as electricity, magnetism, heat, light, etc. I will quote the summing up of results obtained by a vast number of experiments, from Dr. Wm. Gregory's translation of Reichenbach's "Researches (Dynamics) on Magnetism, Electricity, etc., in their Relations to the Vital Force." (London Edition): "The time-honored observation that the magnet has a sensible action on the human organism is neither a lie, nor an imposture, nor a superstition, as many philosophers now-a-days erroneously suppose and declare it to be, but a well-founded fact, a physicophysiological law of nature which loudly calls on our attention. It is a tolerably easy thing and everywhere practical, to convince ourselves of the accuracy of this statement; for everywhere people may be found whose sleep is more or less disturbed by the moon, or who suffer from nervous disorders. Almost all of these perceive very distinctly the peculiar action of a magnet, when a pass is made with it from the head downwards. Even more numerous are the healthy and active persons who feel the magnet very vividly; many others feel it less distinctly; many hardly perceive it; and finally the majority do not perceive it at all. All those who perceive this effect, and who seem to amount to a fourth or a third of the people in this part of Europe, (Vienna), are here included under the general term 'Sensitives.' The perceptions of this action group themselves about the senses of touch and of sight; of touch, in the form of sensations of apparent coolness and warmth; of sight, in the form of luminous emanations, visible after remaining long in the dark, and flowing from the poles and sides of magnets. The power of exerting this action not only belongs to steel magnets as produced by art, or to the loadstone, but nature presents it in an infinite variety of cases. We have first the earth itself, the magnetism of which acts more or less strongly on sensitives. There is next the moon which acts by virtue of the same force on the earth, and of course, on sensitives. We have further all crystals, natural and artificial, which act in the line of their axes: also heat, friction, electricity, light, the solar and stellar rays, chemical action especially, organic vital activity, both that of plants and that of animals, especially that of man; finally the whole material universe. The cause of these phenomena is a peculiar force, existing in nature and embracing the universe, distinct from all known forces and here called ODYL" (p. 209).

5. Length of Odic Flames. These appeared of various sizes according to the intensity of the force by which they were produced and the clearness of vision possessed by the sensitive.  "Prof. Endlicher saw, on the poles of an electro-magnet, flames 40 inches high, unsteady, exhibiting a rich play of colors and ending above in a luminous smoke which rose to the ceiling and illuminated it. M. Delhez saw the flames of the same size, but did not distinguish the colors. The flames appeared to him darker below (red), brightest in the middle (yellow), and darker again above (blue). Mlle. Glaser saw, over the poles of the same electro-magnet, flames five feet high and smoke rising from them to the ceiling. The flames exhibited the most beautiful and varied play of colors, blue predominating over the northward, reddish yellow over the southward pole. Mlle. Zinkel saw the flame of the northward pole 40 inches high, that of the southward pole upwards of one foot in height. Both were colored, blue predominating in the former, red in the latter" (p. 342). An odic flame which appeared 16 inches long to Miss Glaser when issuing from a nine-bar horse-shoe magnet, was lengthened to 64 inches when a current from the electrical machine was applied to it. Miss Sturman while in a dark room perceived a "flame-like light" over a large rock crystal, "half the size of a hand, blue, passing into white above, remarkably different from the magnetic light," which had more of the yellow and red in it. She also said that "isolated filaments of a reddish color ran up in the upper part of the white." Streams of light several inches long would often be seen issuing from human fingers, and also from different parts of the body, from plants, and various other substances.

5. Odic Polarization. As the solar ethers polarize the atoms of substances through which they pass, or follow the laws of substances already polarized as in many crystals, so do the odic forces either polarise bodies or sweep through atomic channels already polarized. "It was discovered that every crystal presented two such points in which the force peculiarly resided. And these points lay diametrically opposite to each other in every crystal; they were the poles of a primary axis of the crystal. Both acted in the same way, but one much more strongly than the other, and with the distinction that from one appeared to issue a cool, from the other a softer, gently warm (seeming) current of air." (Dr. Ashburners Translation of Reichenbach, p. 56.) Reichenbach uses the word seeming in this and other cases, not being sure that when the sensitives so constantly told him that the fine influences were warm or cold, it could be anything but an apparent effect, as it would not move a thermometer. This comes from his being unaware of the fact, 1st, that there are different grades of heat and cold, the finer of which cannot be measured by coarse instruments, any more than meal can be measured in a coal seive; 2dly, the cold end of crystals and other polarized objects always emitted a blue flame, which as we have seen is constantly the effect of the cold and electrical current; 3dly, it always produced the cooling and contracting effect on the sensitive which comes from cold, while the other pole would produce the warming and exciting effect of heat and have red for its predominant color. These phenomena show the truth of many points already laid down in the previous part of this work. Reichenbach admits that the scientists of his day were unsettled as to which should be called the positive or negative end of a magnet, or a crystal, and being in doubt himself finally concluded to call the north end from which the blue rays emanate the negative, and the south or red end the positive pole, which is exactly wrong, as the more powerful external force, like the north pole, must be positive, and the weaker south pole negative. He finds the whole right side of the human body emitting the cold blue rays in predominance, and the left side the warm red rays, and so calls the former negative, the latter positive, which would seem still more improper than the terms as applied to a magnet. The power of a magnet comes especially from its electrical currents arranged in curves, and the positive principle of electricity is in the blue; if we are speaking of an object in which thermism rules, then the red constitutes the positive principle of power. It would be better to designate the different ends of a polarized substance as electrical and thermal, as these terms afford an exact meaning. The reader who has become familiar with the atomic theory will see just why a polarized substance must be warm at one end when it is cold at the other, as cold and heat move in exactly contrary directions. Reichenbach's sensitives found the small end of crystals warm and with thermal colors predominating, while the larger end was cold with blue predominant, the upper parts of plants and trees cold, the lower warm, etc. They could point out the main axis and its poles in crystals, by the crystallic force itself, and in many crystals, especially such decided ones as "sulphuret of iron, selenite, fluor spar, heavy spar, sphene granite, etc., they would also discover other axes, the poles of which were much less strongly opposed." "Very frequently the main axis was not longer, but shorter, as in selenite."

IV. WARM AND COLD SUBSTANCES.

1. The sensitives in deciding what elements and compounds were od-warm and od-cold, and thus arriving at their interior chemical character more minutely than the chemists themselves have generally done, have proved irresistibly the importance of understanding these odic forces. Baron Reichenbach enumerates 172 elements and compounds of every kind which were determined by Mlle. Maix and Mlle. Reichel. Nearly every metal and alkaline substance were declared to be warm, potassium being at their head in this respect, while the electro-negatives generally, oxygen being at the head, and nearly every acid were declared to be cold, thus being a grand argument in favor of the correctness of the principles developed in the chapter, on Chromo-Chemistry, and of the laws of chemical affinity, as explained in Chapter Third, XXXVII. Sulphuric acid, next to oxygen is pronounced the coldest substance, and water is ranged on the cold side, but very feebly so. The table is far more correct as giving the chemical power of substances, than those giving what is called their specific heat, though, perhaps, presenting slight inaccuracies.

2. "Mlle. Reichel saw most metals red, almost as if red hot; some of them gave a white light, some a yellow. Copper, as we have seen, gave a green light. A delicate vaporous flame played over all, undulating backwards and forwards. More complex substances showed flame only at their points when crystallized. Otherwise they were either surrounded by luminous vapor, or were luminous in their mass as if red hot."

3. Reichenbach's sensitives constantly affirm that the sun's rays and ordinary fire are odically cold, but I think this effect, at least sometimes, comes from the thermo-electricity generated by the warm rays, as electricity is always developed by heat, especially as the temperature of sunlight was frequently measured by placing a metal plate in the sun, a few moments after which the sensitive felt cold sensations, in other words, the cold was felt after the plate had had a little time to get warmed and charged by the light. The solar rays, as we have seen, must come equally through both the electrical and thermal portions of atmospheric atoms, although the electrical rays are doubtless more active in cold weather. The moon's rays were always pronounced warm. Its grade of heat is not coarse enough to be measured by an ordinary thermometer, but it is known to be the cause of nervous excitement in many sensitive organizations.

4. "The sensitive patient felt all radiations from electrified bodies cold. The feeling of cold increased rapidly, the faster I turned the plate of the machine, perceptible, not immediately, but several seconds later than the electrical charge." This is another confirmation of the statement so often made in this work, that electricity acts on the law of cold.

5. The roots of plants are stated to be warm, and the ends of the leaves above cold. The warm currents flow downward through the plant, the cold currents upward. Most flowers were found to be cool, but warm on their stem.

V. INFLUENCE OF SOLAR AND LUNAR RAYS.

1. Sunlight. Reichenbach put various plates in the sunlight and connected them by a wire 13 yards long with Mlle. Reichel, who held the point of the wire upward. The whole came through darkened rooms. In less than a minute after he had put the plates in the sunlight she saw a stream of light 10 or 12 inches high emerge from the wire. When his daughter stood in the sunlight in the place of the metal plate, the flame rose about 9 inches high. When he brought different metals from the sunlight into the darkened room, flames issued from them, especially from the sharp angles of the upper portions, green and blue from copper, clear white from gold and silver, dull white from tin, reddish white from zinc, etc. 2. Objects charged with Sunlight. I have already, in Chapter Sixth, XVII, shown the great power of substances charged with sunlight in healing, vitalizing or soothing the human system, including the discoveries of Dr. von Gerhardt, of Germany, which consists of sugar of milk, charged with the electrical rays by means of a prism, as a nervine and anti-spasmodic, and my own discoveries and inventions for securing the exquisite power of light, including a yellow-orange hollow lens, and a blue hollow lens, both of which when filled with water, and held in the light, answer as powerful lenses to focalize their respective rays upon the parts of the body externally, while the water within answers as a very soft, but subtile and penetrating influence to take internally, the former being a cerebral and nerve stimulant, vitalizing to the system, and laxative to the bowels, while the latter is cooling, quieting, anti-inflammatory, and soporific upon a system which is over-excitable and sleepless. This healing power of the sunlight comes not only from the ordinary visible colors, but from the odic colors which form the next color-octave above the visible range, for the blue glass transmits a large amount of odic rays, and even those which are still finer, while the yellow-orange glass transmits a portion of them also. 3. Moonlight. The sensitives always felt a warm current from objects that had been held in the moon, and saw a flame 10 inches high arise from the wire held in the moonlight with a plate at the outer end. Miss Maix felt an attractive force draw- ing her hand along the wire. The fact that the thermal influ- ences of the moon, especially in the range of odic rays, overbal- ance the electrical rays of the same, seems remarkably confirmed by authorities quoted by Dr. Forbes Winslow, in his "Influence of Light," in which it is shown that especially in warm climates such diseases as diarrhœa, dysentery, hemorrhage, fevers, con- vulsions, nervous irritability, lunacy, etc., are worse in the full of the moon (or sometimes in the new moon), just as we might expect from predominance of yellow and red rays. "In India," says Dr. Winslow, "death has occasionally been known to arise from what is termed a coup de lune, or stroke of the moon; and in Egypt blindness has often been produced in persons who have imprudently fallen asleep with their faces exposed to intense lunar light." Blue glass or a blue veil would offset the exciting effects of moonlight, which in the negative condition of sleep, might at times be hurtful. Dormant conditions would be benefited by moonlight, and walking under the open moonlight, would in most cases bring much more benefit than harm. 

VI. MAGNETISM AND ODIC FORCE.

1. Points in which they differ. Reichenbach enumerates thirty points in which Magnetism and Odyl differ. Some of these are as follows:—1st, Odyl is in most cases developed without the aid of magnetism, but magnetism never without odyl; 2dly, clouds over the sun's face arrest odyl, nothing can arrest magnetism; 3dly, all bodies may be charged with odyl, only a few bodies with magnetism; 4thly, odyl cannot attract iron filings, the magnet can; 5thly, magnetism, according to Barlow, lingers near the surface of bodies, odyl penetrates through and through them, making them translucent, sometimes transparent; 6thly, the odic flame of a magnet is sometimes extinguished by the approach of a living being, while the magnetic action remains in force; 7thly, an iron bar placed horizontally in the magnetic meridian will have its north end odically cold and its south end warm, but if placed with its north end inclined downward at an angle of 65°, which is the true magnetic dip in Vienna, and the best position for magnetic force, then its north pole will be odically warm and its south pole cold, in harmony with the ascending electricities, and contrary to the descending magnetic currents, for, as we have seen, there are currents of electricity which move directly upward as well as other currents which move northward, a fact which Reichenbach was not aware of. 2. The Magnetic Poles. The odic light is described as being especially brilliant at or near the poles of a magnet, and those who have clear vision can see a fringe-work of light over the whole surface. From the north pole a brilliant white light ascends which merges into delicate horizontal layers of red, yellow, green, and lastly blue, which last is so abundant as to constitute the predominating tint of the whole flame. From the south, or negative pole, a still more luminous light, but of much smaller dimensions, descends with white and colored rays in which the red predominates. The sensitives generally would speak of the negative (south) pole as being red, the middle of the magnet green, and the positive pole blue. The reason the south pole is more luminous is because the red and yellow predominate, while the north pole is stronger in its electrical currents and conesquently more blue. We have seen that a keen grade of magneto-electricity rules at the north pole, while the weaker chemico- electricity issues from the south pole, but the greatest power of the magnet is in the former which, sending its blue forces in one direction, must naturally send its affinitive red in the other direction.

VII. OPAQUE BODIES BECOME TRANSPARENT.

Mlle. Atzmannsdorfer in the "state of somnambulism" saw "the glowing steel transparent almost like glass." "Friedrich Weidlich saw the flame in air two inches long. I then sank the magnet, lying in a glass basin, into water. The flame (for the most part) instantly disappeared, but he saw the magnet glowing and translucent, almost like the glass itself." "Metals in the odylic glow, appear to sensitives translucent, glowing through and through hollow balls." A mercantile gentleman of my acquaintance, in New York, can become so en rapport with these finer grades of light, as to be able to see through the human body as though it were made of glass. Here, then, is the philosophy of clear-seeing or clairvoyance, although many have the faculty so feebly developed that they are liable to commit mistakes.

VIII. IS ODYL AN IMAGINARY POWER?

1. Miss Nowotny's hand, while she was in an unconscious cataleptic condition, would be drawn and held to the magnet as would a piece of iron. Reichenbach once had a person go into another room from where his patient lay, and open a magnet of 90-pound sustaining power unknown to her. She immediately became uneasy and "complained that a magnet must be open somewhere, desiring that some one would look and relieve her from the pain. The armature was replaced without her knowl- edge, and she became quiet again."

2. M. Baumgartner, Professor of Physics, desiring to see if imagination affected Miss Nowotny in her judgment of the power of the magnet, took out a magnet in her presence, which he said was the strongest one in his collection. She however declared that it was the weakest of all the magnets, and "it seemed to her almost without influence." Baumgartner then laughed, and said "that it had been deprived of its magnetism, before leaving home, by friction in the reverse direction," so that it was little else than a mere plain piece of iron. 3. The charging of water and other objects by means of the magnet, by human hands, held or darted near the water, by sunlight, by crystals and other substances, was believed in by the great chemist Berzelius, of Stockholm, by Dr. Gregory, of the Edinburgh University, by the eminent Dr. Elliotson of London, by Dr. Lutze, a physican of vast practice in Germany, and very many others. "Nothing could be more disagreeable," says Reichenbach, "than the reappearance of apparently so absurd a thing which all physicists and chemists are horrified even to hear of. But in spite of this, I could not refuse to admit what I saw before my eyes as often as I tried it; namely, that the girl always determined and unfailingly distinguished a magnetized glass of water from an unmagnetized. The force of facts cannot be combatted by any reasoning; I was compelled to recognize what I was by no means able to comprehend, but when I again met with the same, subsequently, in Misses Sturman, Maix, Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, and others, and saw it in a still stronger degree, I gave up all doubt and opposition." Speaking of Reichenbach's many experiments on the magnetizing of water and other substances, Dr. Ashburner, a prominent British physician, says:—"The facts stated in this, have been exhibited in my house hundreds of times. Water has been magnetized with magnets, mesmerized with the fingers, by breathing, by the exertion of the will: over and over again, the tumblers in which these specifically treated quantities of water have been contained, have been instantly detected by somnambulists in the lucid state of sleep-waking, who have been in another room when the fluid was charged." "I have darted my hands 200 times over the surface of water, and have been told that the blue haziness has overflowed the tumbler. Several persons have said the same thing. I have placed a watch before me while I held the tips of my right hand fingers in the mouth of the decanter. Several lucid individuals have separately indicated the precise hight of the blue haze in the water at the same interval of time. A few minutes were sufficient to charge a quart decanter. All concur in the fact that the fluid sinks in the water. Is it, then, imponderable?"

4. In cool weather when the air is electrical, I can make one, two, or three strokes over tissue or other paper, and throwing it into the air within a foot of the wall, it will spring to it like a thing of life and cling there for hours, sometimes even for days. A mere stroke will make it attractive of everything around it, although it will generally repel another magnetized sheet, unless this sheet is magnetized with the same strokes as they lie together. Thousands of others can do the same thing, and some better than myself. I have made one magnetized newspaper lift and carry around another several times as large as itself. Now what is this power except the odic or vital force, combined with frictional electricity? It is not the ordinary ferro-magnetism, as it will not influence iron filings in the least, but must be this finer power thrown into attractive curves on the same general plan. It is sometimes called animal magnetism, which name, although it has been abused, is not very improper, and yet so well known a physician as Dr. Brown-Séquard, in a course of lectures delivered in Boston, almost questions its very existence. But too many of our medical scientists are dropping behind the age in ignoring these finer basic principles of things directly in the face of the fact, that thousands of persons can see the luminous pathways of these forces, as they emanate from human beings or other objects, and hundreds of thousands can feel their influence.

5. In the light of such facts, the folly of attributing these phenomena to imagination, prepossession of ideas, or mere subjective conditions, as do Drs. Braid, Carpenter, and so many others, is too apparent to need comment, and shows that the diseased subjective conditions are not with Reichenbach's sensitives who constantly prove their own points by stubborn facts, but with the doctors themselves who cling to their own theories in spite of all facts. In Dr. Carpenter's late lectures on "Mesmerism," etc., he uses the following language about Reichenbach, which is almost the only point that would give any trouble to one who is enlightened with regard to these fine forces, although the whole book would tend to mislead the ignorant:—"The fact which Von Reichenbach himself was honest enough to admit— that when a magnet was poised in a delicate balance, and the hand of a 'sensitive' was placed above or beneath it, the magnet wasnever drawn towards the hand—ought to have convinced him that the force which attracted the 'sensitive's' hand to the magnet has nothing in common with physical attractions, whose action is invariably reciprocal; but that it was the product of her own conviction that she must thus approximate it." The sophistry of the above will appear, I think, from the following points: 1st, it is not the coarser forces of the magnet, which are known as magnetism, that act upon a sensitive person, but the finer odic and other forces which this magnetism wakens into action, so that the attraction is not direct but secondary. These finer forces have their attractive curves similar to the magnetic, which are sufficiently subtile to act on the nervous system, as will be shown in the next chapter; 2dly, it is probable that there is a slight secondary attraction of the magnet, though not enough to move a gross mass of iron. In the experiments with paper which I have just detailed, the paper itself will readily be attracted to a human being and will also attract sensitive human beings. 3dly, the assertion that "it was the product of her own conviction that she must approximate it," is overwhelmingly overthrown by several facts given by Reichenbach, Ashburner, etc., in some of which the subject was asleep or in an unconscious cataleptic fit, when the hand would be immediately drawn to the magnet and held rigidly to it. Dr. Ashburner speaks of persons who would be drawn six feet to the magnet, and of a boy who, if the armature was removed six feet off, would rush to it and fall asleep on the way. But multitudes of cases could be given in which human magnetism, crystals, and other objects have drawn unconscious subjects in the same way; 4thly, the experiments which I have just quoted with reference to Miss Nowotny and others, show that these forces operate entirely independent of one's consciousness. But the fact that Doctor Carpenter could overlook a whole volume of marvelous phenomena against his theory, and hitch to some little weak point shows the power of a "prepossession of ideas" in his own case quite similar to what he is fond of charging upon others. Wallace and Crookes having driven him into a close corner, he writes an article in Nature, Oct., 1877, in which, as he looks about for sympathizers, he makes the following remark:—"I asked my personal friend Prof. Hoffmann of Berlin, whether the doctrine (of Odic force) any longer finds support  among scientific men in Germany. His reply was a most emphatic negative; the doctrine, he said, being one which no man of science with whom he is acquainted would think worthy of the slightest attention." Is Prof. Hoffmann correct when he would thus indicate that German scientists are so deeply obscured in their perceptions that they utterly neglect these fine forces which are the vivifying power of all forces? I think there are many noble German thinkers who would consider this a slander upon their people.

VIII. PROOF THAT ODIC LIGHT COMPRISES FLUIDIC FORCES.

1. Odic Light is manifested in flames which stream forth in various directions, and as the ordinary visible flames consist of luminous gases which are fluids, so must these odic flames consist of the finer fluids which we call ethereal forces. While none can see the inner essence of odyl, or magnetism, or electricity, or the solar ethers, yet the luminous pathway which their flow enkindles may be seen, and, judging by all analogies of the known external universe, we must consider that some marvelously swift fluidic force is passing. We have seen how the red odic fluid pours from the fingers of the left hand, and the blue odic fluid can be thrown from the right hand until a tumbler is filled to the top and made to overflow.

IX. DOES ODIC LIGHT PRODUCE THE AURORA BOREALIS?

Baron Reichenbach performed ingenious experiments to prove that odyl was the cause of the Aurora Borealis, but he seemed to forget that odic light, however intense, cannot possibly be seen by the ordinary vision, while the Northern Lights can be seen by everyone. He has skillfully shown that the magnet working in connection with a hollow iron globe, with its north and south pole at the respective poles of the globe, sends forth its blue and iridescent lights at the north, its red, etc., at the south, much the same as does the Aurora Borealis, and thereby achieves the following grand result; namely, by showing just how magnetism on a small scale can develope such colors in connection with the odic atmosphere, he shows just how the mightier play of a world's concentrated magnetism at the poles may ignite the ordinary coarser atmosphere with its nebulous matter, and so cause a similar effect to the ordinary vision. See Chapter Fourth, IX, and X, 3. 4.

X. TERRESTRIAL DYNAMICS.

1. In Chapter Fourth, X, we have seen that the law of heat awakens and propels thermo-electricity in two directions, namely, from the earth vertically, into the colder regions of the upper sky, and also from the warmer regions of the torrid and temperate zones towards the colder regions of the poles, the law of movement for electricity ever being from the warm to the cold. The sun's course, also, from east to west carries a line of luminous force, attended with some heat, westward, while in the east the tendency must be the other way. What, then, should be the colors that would naturally represent the main points of the compass, if we are to get at the real power of the earth's forces? Plainly blue for the north, with its kindred electrical colors on each side of it; red for the south, with its kindred thermal colors on each side of it; the luminous yellow for the west, and slight blue with some shadowy or gray elements for the east. This, we find, is exactly indicated by the odic lights and colors as discovered by Reichenbach's sensitives, although the Baron himself had not ascertained just why this arrangement in nature takes place. It being of vast importance that these great fundamental laws of force should be understood, it will be well to illustrate it at some length.

2. Vertical Forces. Let us commence first with electricity which moves from the earth vertically into the sky. If there is such a force of the cold principle, its manifestation must consist of the blue or violet as the leading element, while in the direction towards the centre of the earth the thermal colors, especially the red, must prevail. This we find to be the case with the odic colors, for when a bar magnet was placed vertically with the north pole upward, the blue would become more intense above and the red below; when this direction was inverted, both ends would be so contrary to the forces of nature that their colors would be almost smothered. "When the bar was placed vertically, she (Miss Zinkel) saw it, contrary to all expectation, glow- ing with a bluish gray light at the upper end and with a whitish red below." "When both poles stood pointed upward, the north- ward (blue) flame was increased, the southward diminished." "Blue predominated at the northward, red at the southward pole. But still the flames arranged themselves into a most beautiful iris on each pole." On the lower portion of Plate III, may be seen the general plan of odic colors as they appear at each pole, arranged as closely as possible after Reichenbach's description, although, of course, incomparably less exquisite than the tints of nature. The following is a description of colors emanating from an electro-magnet as seen by Mme. Kienesberger:—"Close to the (north) pole, which stood vertically, appeared a red stra- tum, next to that a stratum of orange, then one of yellow, then one of green, one of light blue, one of dark blue, and lastly one of violet-blue (indigo and violet), above which arose a gray vapor. At the same time, the positive (south) pole exhibited close to the iron a blood red stratum (probably thermel), then light red, and above this orange, from which a thick heavy smoke rose to the ceiling. She described the appearance as one of extraordinary delicacy and splendor. Some weeks later, I made the same ex- periment with Mlle. Zinkel. She described the appearances in the same way as Mme. Kienesberger, being about equally sensi- tive, and added that each colored stratum was not uniform, but subdivided into smaller strata of different shades of color, so that the whole iris had the appearance of a great number of col- ored bands overlying each other. Beyond the violet she ob- served a narrow streak of pure red, in which the violet ended, after becoming gradually redder, and which passed above into smoke." Here we have the whole scale of odic colors described, together with the thermel and red of a still finer scale above the violet, or in other words the psychic thermel and red. Next to the magnet comes doubtless the heaviest and coarsest color which would naturally be called red by most persons, but which is probably odic thermel, with a very slight tinge of blue in it, while the more ethereal psychic thermel and red naturally come in at the top, being more refrangible than even the odic violet. On the south or warm pole most senitives saw only the red or red and yellow, but under the aid of a strong battery Mlle. Zinkel saw also the blue, and if her vision had been still clearer she would perhaps have seen the other colors also, although the electrical colors predominate at the north pole, and the thermel at the south pole. As we have seen, a weaker grade of electricity exists at the south pole, otherwise there could be no magnetic attraction there. If a piece of card board or glass should be laid upon the sides of the poles as they lie horizontally, and sprinkled with iron filings, the magnetic forces will arrange the filings into curves resembling the dotted lines in the plate, and if a sensitive look at these in the dark, they will coruscate like countless stars on account of the currents that are passing through them. The figures at the positive (north) pole represent colors as follows:— 1, gray-colored smoke; 2, psychic red; 3, psychic thermel; 4, violet (odic scale); 5, indigo; 6,6, blue which predominates; 7, green; 8, yellow; 9, orange; 10, red; 11, thermel. N is north pole, S, south pole. It will be seen on reflection how admirable is the law by which the cold currents are made to go upward and thus prove cooling to the brains of human beings as they stand or sit, while the warm currents pass downward and thus help the feet. In the following paragraphs it will be shown how a person may lie in sleeping so as to get the advantage of still colder currents for the head and still warmer ones for the feet.

3. Horizontal Forces. The great forces of the earth caused by sunlight, heat, magnetism and electricity, and which are more nearly horizontal, may be arrived at by studying the following brilliant experiment of Baron Reichenbach, a beautiful illustration of which I have drawn up as nearly correct as possible, and had engraved in the circular figure of Plate III:—"I now tried the effect of a circular surface or disc. A disc of iron plate, 13.2 inches in diameter, was well flattened, and an iron wire folded into its circumference, so that a smooth, round, clean border, one twelfth of an inch thick, ran round it. It was suspended by a small hook in the middle, horizontally above the pole of the magnet, and could be fixed at any hight. I could now let it down on the northward pole of the magnet which stood vertically. * * I showed the disc to Mlle. Pauer. The odylic glow instantly spread over it. The colors were developed as might have been expected; on the upper centre, a blue spot, on the lower, in contact with the magnet, a red spot, both upwards of two inches in diameter. They passed into a surrounding yellowish zone, faintly tinged with red on the under, with green on the upper surface, and this again lost itself in a gray zone. This last continued to the border, where it was surrounded by a downy fringe of light, 0.6 of an inch thick and colored gray, blue, yellow and red in east, north, west and south respectively. In north-west, south-west, south-east, she saw respectively green, orange and gray-red (red-gray); in north-east violet with a short patch of red. These colors formed a continuous wreath of tints passing into each other, and thus a kind of a circular rainbow.

"I varied the experiment as follows with Mlle. Zinkel; I connected with the poles of a Smec's voltaic battery of more than two and a half square feet of surface, the two surfaces of the disc; the wires being only separated by its thickness, about one twenty-fifth of an inch. Immediately the observer saw around the upper centre of the disc connected with the silver, a spot of blue glow forming more than two inches in diameter. At the same time a similar red spot appeared on the under surface, connected with the zinc. No flame appeared. But the whole disc acquired a colored glow, not merely on its border, but over its surface, blue, yellow, red and gray, appearing respecttively in the north, west, south and east positions, green in the north-west, etc., as before. The blue and red central spots each formed a kind of a star of innumerable points, or rather ray-like prolongations, stretching out toward the circumference, and uniformly exhibiting the color corresponding to the point of the compass toward which they were directed. On the rest of the surface the colors were arranged around the central spot in successive zones, so as to form a rainbow of parallel circles. A luminous web of fine downy fibres, enveloped the border of the disc. Besides this border, the whole surface was covered with a similar downy light or flame, rising as high as the thickness of a thin quill." (p. 424-426.) I have taken the liberty to put a slight tint of blue with the gray of the east as the sensitives frequently described the eastern portion of a soft bar of iron, or other objects as "blue gray" or "gray with traces of blue," etc. The second red coming next to the violet will be recognized by the reader as belonging to the third or psychic grade of colors.

This second red so often spoken of by the sensitives puzzled the Baron. He made a hollow globe of iron, inserted a magnet through it at its poles—found blue at the north, red at the south, and other colors exactly as already given in describing the disc, with a very brilliant red just below the violet of the north-east. "This remarkable red," he remarks, "was very brightly luminous and strongly red, much brighter than any part of the red on the south side of the ball. Red, therefore, occurred at both ends of the spectrum, on the one side from the yellow, on the other side from the blue. * * * Why this red, which in the ordinary spectrum appears only as violet in a part of the blue, stands forth independently in the odylic, is a fact, the causes of which can only be ascertained by further researches of another kind." Reichenbach did not seem to have the least idea that there could be any spectrum of colors higher than the odylic, for which reason the facts thus presented are perhaps all the more valuable, as they are not warped by any theories, or rather are given contrary to his suppositions in the matter.

4. Miscellaneous Points. The principal direction of the earth's electricities as signified by the foregoing and many other experiments is north as shown by the blue, somewhat north-east as shown by the still finer violet, somewhat west of north as signified by the blue-green, and upward as signified generally by the intensifying of the blue and violet principles when the magnet is held vertically. Mlle. Pauer saw the soft iron bar give out "to the south yellowish red, vertically upward, pale yellow (at a certain distance pale bluish), to the north blue." Here it is said that pale yellow was the appearance which presented itself on the upward pole at a certain distance from the object, which may be true when the sun is high in the sky and throwing its luminous rays downward, but most experiments showed the power of the blue in that direction, though a more luminous and feeble blue than that at the north.

XI. TERRESTRIAL DYNAMICS IN HUMAN LIFE.

1. How Applied to Human Life. Thus far we have ascertained how the great forces of the earth move—in what direction the electricities play, and whither the thermal rays tend. We have also ascended one grade higher on the ladder of power than ordinary electricity, or magnetism, or thermism, or the visible rays of sunlight, even into the range of odic lights, colors and forces, which open up a new heaven and a new earth to man. We have seen that whatever may be the direct power of light, heat or electricity upon the human system, they call into action those finer interior potencies which almost take hold upon the very springs of life itself. In all this we have not been building upon dreams or mere theories, but upon an array of carefully established facts which to a candid and thorough mind should be irresistible.

2. Physiological Adaptation. The first question to be considered is—how shall we receive these terrestrial forces in a way best to harmonize with the natural constitution of the human system? One thing is pre-eminently plain at the start, which is that the head is the warmest, and the feet the coldest part of the body, while nearly every inharmonious condition tends to bring too much blood or nervous action to the brain, and perhaps viscera, while the extremities are left too cold and dormant. For this reason the earth's magnetisms and electricities, which belong to the cooling category of forces, should move from the feet towards the head, while the opposite thermal forces should pass towards the feet; consequently in sleeping, the head should be towards the north or north-east to receive the blue or violet forming currents, and the feet towards the south, or south-west to receive the warm currents signified by the red and orange. Another important matter to observe is to have the forces of the earth flow harmoniously with the same kind of forces in the human body. Thus it has been ascertained repeatedly that the cooling blue emanations flow from the whole right side of the head, arms and body, while the red emanations flow from the whole left side. In other words the electrical currents enter on the left side, and issue from the right side, while the warm currents must necessarily flow in the opposite direction. This was repeatedly demonstrated by the sensitives. To show that odic force was stronger than that developed by the earth's magnetism and illustrate the polarity of the body, I quote the following:—"I caused Mlle. Zinkel to hold between two fingers and conformably in the meridian a four-inch needle, not strongly magnetic. When I held the southward pole in my right finger points, the blue northward became three times as long as before. This showed the feebleness of the needle in comparison with my hand. But when I held the same pole with the fingers of my left hand, the blue flame disappeared, and the red flame took its place. When I made the experiment at the other end of the needle, with my left fingers on the negative (positive) pole, the red flame of the opposite pole became brighter and three times as long as before. But when I applied the fingers of my right hand to the same negative pole, the red flame disappeared and was replaced by a blue one." Such being the case it must be evident that when the earth's electrical currents strike the right side of a sensitive person, it must conflict with the natural currents of the system and give distress. In illustration suppose a person should lie on his back with his head to the west. The northward electrical and magnetic currents, which are strongest, would then strike him in the right side, and, conflicting with the natural electricities which move in the other direction would tend toward inharmony. Besides this the yellow forming currents which flow westward must be highly exciting to the brain, and thus the west-east position in sleeping must be doubly bad. In proof of this and the first physiological law, I will now quote some examples from Reichenbach, especially as even persons who are not sufficiently sensitive to perceive the difference must in the long run be injured by violating these simple laws of nature, while persons of active brains and susceptible nerves must at times be affected ruinously by such violation, for the finer the force, the more deeply does it work either for good or ill.

3. "M. Schmidt, Surgeon in Vienna, had experienced a chill in his right arm, while traveling on a railway, and had for some time suffered in consequence, from severe rheumatism in the limb, with most painful spasms from the shoulder to the fingers. His physician employed the magnet, which quickly subdued the spasms; but they always returned. I found him lying with his head towards the south. In consequence of my remarks on this, he was so placed as to lie in the magnetic meridian, with his head towards the north. As soon as he came into this position he expressed instantly feelings of satisfaction, and declared that he felt, generally, refreshed in a singular degree. The previously existing chilliness and rigors were instantly exchanged for an agreeable uniform warm temperature; he felt the strokes of the magnet now beyond comparison more agreeably cooling and beneficial than before; and before I left him, the rigid arm and fingers had become movable, while the pain entirely disappeared."

4. Mlle. Nowotny had intuitively sought out the north and south position, that is, with the head to the north and feet to the south. She insisted upon occupying this position, and "it had been necessary to remove a brick stove to allow of her wish being gratified." Baron Reichenbach had much trouble in persuading her to lie for a little while with her head to the south. "Before long she began to complain. She felt uncomfortable and restless, became flushed, and her pulse became more frequent and fuller; a rush of blood to the head increased the headache, and very soon the disagreeable sensations affected the stomach, producing nausea. We hastened to change the position of the bedstead on which she lay, but stopped when we had turned it round to the extent of a quadrant, her head being now towards the west. Of course she now lay in the plane of a magnetic parallel. This direction was to the patient absolutely intolerable, far more disagreeable than the former, that, namely, from the south to north. This was at half past 10 A. M. She was afraid, from her sensations, that she would soon faint or become insensible if kept in this position, and entreated to be quickly removed from it. She was now placed in her own originnal position, her head towards the north. Instantly, all the painful sensations yielded, and in a few minutes they had so completely vanished, that she was again quite cheerful." On another day the same experiments were tried with still severer results, causing "shuddering; restlessness; flushing of the face; acceleration of the pulse; a rush of blood to the head; headache; and finally pain of stomach, ringing in the ears, failure of the senses, and the approach of fainting. We were, compelled to bring her in haste into the north and south position, in order to restore her, otherwise she would have fallen from the chair. When this was done, the rapidity with which all these painful sensations disappeared was astonishing." The east and west position also affected her severely, but more mildly than the others.

5. Mlle. Sturmann, of the Clinical Hospital of the University of Vienna, lay in the west-east position. When she was turned to the north-south position, everything was changed instantly. "The patient immediately gave signs of satisfaction; the previous restlessness left her; a painful smarting of the eyes, from which she had recently suffered, disappeared. Instead of the intolerable heat which had before tormented her, she felt refreshing coolness, and a general sense of relief pervaded her frame while we observed her. There followed a night of such quiet refreshing sleep as she had not for a long time enjoyed. From that time forward her bed was kept in the same position which she earnestly entreated." When she was turned to the south-north position all her bad symptoms returned, and these were removed by turning her head northward again.

6. Mlles. Maix, Reichel and Atzmannsdorfer found the same kind of improvement in the direction of north and south, the west to east position being the worst. M. Schuh had the singular habit of turning his head to the foot of the bed for his morning nap which was much more refreshing than all the rest of his sleep. "When he failed to obtain this he felt wearied the whole succeeding day." His bed was found to be in the south-north position. After he had turned it so that the head came north, he felt no need of the morning nap, and forever abandoned it, as his sleep was good and strengthening.

7. Another fact of vast importance with reference to sensitive patients was ascertained in these experiments, which is that when they lay in directions contrary to the harmonious flow of forces such as the south-north or west-east position, all use of medicines or of the magnet for mitigating disease seemed to be either powerless or to have a very perverted action, giving distress rather than relief. Ignorance of this fact has worked countless blunders in the medical world, and many mistakes in the effort to acquire a knowledge of the fine forces. Is it not criminal for physicians to neglect to inquire into these momentous facts, and thereby allow nervous patients and those of active brains and over-heated systems to languish and die from want of knowledge of these resistless forces? To tell people that it is important to sleep with the head to the north is often to provoke a smile of incredulity. There is no power that knocks them down when they sleep in other directions, and so they stupidly think that one direction is as good as another. There is a force that is viewless and voiceless, and intangible, and a million times softer than the evening breeze. Does that show that it is weak? It is vastly swifter than lightning, wafts all worlds on its bosom, and holds the entire universe in immutable chains, so that even a grain of dust cannot stir without its permission. It is called gravitation. Then kindling up all things are these glories of light and color, some of which are so exquisite as to conceal themselves from common eyes, and yet they are mighty in controlling human life, and their radiance reveals the secret hidings of power. Although many persons may have that sturdy and coarser physical power which does not take direct cognizance of odic lights and forces, yet a long continued violation of their laws must demand their penalty. For this reason I have striven to make the laws underlying these forces clear to my readers and have clinched them with this extensive array of facts. I could give many more facts from acquaintances of mine, some of whom say they cannot sleep well at all except with the head to the north, or somewhere near the north. When I have been in strange places and have found myself tossing in bed for hours without being able to sleep, I have noticed that I had been lying with the head to the south or west. On changing my bed to the north or north east I would get to sleep in a short time, as the brain pressure would be gone. I can sleep quite comfortably also with the head to the east. I have taken pains in these remarks to show the philosophy of these directions, so that, aside from the facts, people may not consider it a whim. When speaking to incredulous friends and urging them to change the position of their beds, I have referred them to the fact that the cold magnetic forces of the earth as they move northward, give the magnetic needle its direction, and as the head, being charged with blood, has need of the cooling element, and as I have fortified my theories with facts, I have not had much difficulty in getting thoughtful people to admit the force of the argument.

8. Position in Sitting. When it is convenient it is better to sit with the back to the north or north-east, or at least to the east, in preference to the other directions, especially when taking a sun bath, or receiving any kind of treatment. "All these patients," says Reichenbach, "now recollected how painful it had always been to them to remain for any length of time in the church. All Roman Catholic churches are built from west to east, so that the members of the congregation find themselves when opposite the altar, in the position from west to east; conesquently in that position, which is to sensitive persons, of all others, the most intolerable. In fact they often fainted in that position and had to be carried out. At a later period Mlle. Nowotny could not even bear to walk in the street, or in the garden, in the direction from west to east, if her walk lasted but for a short time" (p. 71). There is no danger that people in general, especially in good health, will attain to any such extreme sensitiveness as this, but I quote it to illustrate a principle.

9. Nervous Diseases. Considering the great ignorance on this subject, and that there is scarcely a family but has one or more members afflicted with distressing nervous symptoms of some kind, the sweetness of womanhood and the dignity of manhood being too often turned to gall even when they are not innately hateful, would it not be well to turn for instruction and help to this beautiful radiation of light, including the finer as well as the coarser grades which seem to reach up more or less into the soul forces themselves, and attune them to greater harmony?*

10. The North East Position. I would recommend a direction for sleeping not exactly north-east, but some 30° east of north, or about one third of the way from the north to the east, as this would enable a person to receive the strong and cool northward currents over the head and upper body, and also some portion of the eastern electricities. By looking at the circular plate it will be seen that this would bring the head somewhat into the violet odic rays, which are above all soothing to the nervous system. A scientific gentleman, possessing exact habits of observation, has informed me that he sleeps better with head rather to the north-east than to the north, and for years I have slept with great comfort at an angle of 30° or more east of north. The main streets of New York inclining a little to the north-east and south-west are a very good model in this respect for a city. Reichenbach mentions a single case with whom the north-east position for the head disagreed, but the full north-east position, or a little farther around, would bring the head into a grade of red, and this of course is wrong. The advantages in laying out a city with streets which run as above recommended, east of north and west of south in one direction, and at right angles to these in the other, are as follows: The beds can be in the best position and still be in harmony with the form of the rooms. The sunlight can reach all sides of a house each day with its healing and purifying influence. Every street at the different times of the day will have a sunny side for street walkers in the cooler seasons, and a shady side for use in the hotter seasons. The front, back and side door-yards will each receive the sun some portion of every sunny day.