there was a well about 20 feet deep which was useless, this is
perfectly true, because the water in it was foul and smelt
badly. The supply found is a very much more copious one than the
old well, which contained very little water.'"[60]

The Index to Professor Barrett's Reports enumerates between three and
four hundred persons with whom experiments with the Divining Rod are
described. A list of the names of "dowsers" is also given. This list
includes the names of about seventy professional "dowsers," and of
nearly as many amateur "dowsers." These figures show the extent to which
the use of the rod prevails, and also the work which the preparation of
the Reports involved. As a specimen of the kind of evidence presented by
Professor Barrett from miscellaneous sources, the following may be
quoted:--

"In the present Report numerous independent witnesses of unimpeachable
integrity, and some with high scientific attainments, testify to the
same class of facts, viz.:--(1) The automatic and apparently
irresistible motion of the twig in the hands often of a complete novice;
and (2) that, when the forked twig does _not_ move in a person's hands,
if the dowser takes one link of the twig, or even places his hand on the
wrist of the insensitive person, the previously inert twig now turns
vigorously and often breaks in two in the effort to resist its motion.
As regards (1), see the letter from the President of the Royal
Geological Society of Cornwall on p. 219,[61] who states that the Clerk
of his Parish Council, on finding the rod suddenly twist in his hands,
called out--'It is alive, sir, it is alive!' Mr. Enys adds: 'This
exactly describes the sensation when the rod moves.' ... Mr. Bennett, of
Oxford, on p. 176, refers to the frantic motion and the ultimate
breaking of the twig 'held firmly' in the dowser's hands.... As regards
(2), see Mr. Morton's letter to _The Engineer_, given on p. 172; Mr.
Morton found the rod would not move in his hands, but when the late John
Mullins, the dowser, 'laid his hands on my wrists and grasped them
firmly, then the twig instantly began to turn, and continued turning
till he removed his hands. He never touched the twig while it was in my
hands.' Mr. Montague Price in his letter on p. 181 states: 'I held one
side of the forked rod myself and the diviner the other, and when we
came to water [alleged underground water] the strain was so great on my
fingers I was obliged to ask him to s