Book reviews from ordovico

Tales Of the Divining Rod

by E W Beaven

The gist of Beaven's argument is that dowsing (water finding with a divining rod) deserves to be treated as a science, and he expects that it soon will be (as of 1899). The anecdotes of water finding in Great Britain (and a little in South Africa) that he recounts are presented with a smidgen of scientific curiosity -- that is, he shows interest in the why and wherefore of the similar experiences of successful experiences by people using the divining rod to dowse for water and for gold, silver and other metals. For example, he several times mentions the loss of effectiveness of the divining rod when the user steps on well-known electrical insulators, such as glass tumblers. He is, of course, recounting after the fact experiences of other people, none of whom seemed to have a clear idea of how to attempt isolation of physical evidences for the presumed force field that affects a divining rod (in the hands of a sensitive person). He reports no attempt of his own to set up experimental circumstances from which scientific evidence might be drawn.Overall, Beaven's work is particularly interesting because of the large number of people whose experiences he recounts in a factual format. Those who wish to learn what to expect when dowsers seek water will be quite satisfied with this presentation. The book is sprinkled with short poems of unspecified authorship, evincing a mood of sentimentality that perhaps the author thought would be expected by his Victorian audience. Chapters XVIII, XIX and XX take an excursion into an admixture of pagan and Judeo-Christian speculative fable about the metaphysical significance of water finding. Such material, which is unexpected today, does not derogate from the factual presentations and may be safely skipped by those who are not interested in the history of writing styles.This book is justly compared with a contemporaneous work, "The Theory of Water Finding", by B. Tompkins. The authors mention each other's work. Beaven was basically a writer who popularized scientific subjects, and Tompkins was a professional dowser (water finder). Both volumes recount interesting stories, but Tompkins' work is briefer and focused almost exclusively on his own work -- and no wonder, because his book was basically an advertisement for his work. I found Beaven's work to be much broader, more interesting, and better written.I purchased a Kessinger Legacy reprint of this book, which was originally published in 1899. The reprint is a paperback, excellently reproduced.