Abstract
IT is certainly advisable to inquire into the foundation of all popular beliefs. In some cases popular feeling, or superstition—call it what you will—has undoubtedly led to the discovery of truths not at first understood or accepted by men of science. As, for instance, the danger in the proximity of the barberry-plant to crops of corn; a danger well known, though unexplained until the microscope was used to trace out the life-history of the minute organism which causes the mischief. On the other hand, careful and unprejudiced inquiry may prove the utter baselessness of some universally accepted belief. We have an instance of this in the statistical inquiry into the connection between the changes of the moon and of the weather. Such a connection is apparently taken for granted by every sailor and farmer; yet a careful analysis of the records shows that the belief is entirely groundless. We are inclined, therefore, to welcome a scientific investigation into the common use of the divining rod for the purpose of finding water or metallic ores.
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The Divining Rod1. Nature 56, 568–569 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056568a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056568a0