ABBE’S STRANGE POWERS

Evening Star, Issue 22807, 16 November 1937, Page 10

ABBE’S STRANGE POWERS

LOST PERSONS FOUND I-'" ■" 1 .The recent death of Abbe Mermet Wsmoves yet another of those Catholic priests who, like Mendel, will be remembered rather for their services to science than for their eminence in the Church (writes the . Geneva cprresponjdent of the .* Observer ’). The Abbe Mermet practised and demore than 50 years a system of radio-sesthetics concerning which [there is still some doubt whether it should be _classed as pure science or as science with an admixture of art and personality. The Abbe himself always strenuously denied that his own per-sonality-had. anything to do with his remarkable achievements in radicles tbetics, and maintained to the last [that he was as much a scientist as any student of chemical reactions. . l£ke many of .those whose life-work lias lam in French Switzerland, the Abbe Mermet was a Frenchman, having been bom near Annecy 71 years ago. But the whole of his working life was spent in Switzerland, and throughout all his experience in the strange science which he did so much to develop he remained a simple, hardworking parish priest. [WATER DIVINING. T|te 'AhWa radio-iesthetics. sprang horn lis interest in' the age-old practice of water divining. In 1883 there was a terrible drought in Western Switzerland, and the Abbe did great service tohis parishioners of the moment in discovering hidden streams for them by means of a “ pendulum ” ■ which he had invented, and which he spent a large part of the rest of his life in perfecting. The remarkable feature of Abbe Mertoet’s early “ divinations ” was their accuracy. Time and again the depth at which he announced, that water would be found was correct within a few inches, and so were his predictions about the flow per minute of the water. Some of Ms successes in the sphere of water divining have passed into legend Sp Switzerland. They are, nevertheless, historical facts. , In later years the Abbe extended the ■Me of his “ pendulum ”■ to the discovery of diseases in the human body. Indeed, he may be said to have been the forerunner of a new and successful method of diagnosis. ‘‘PENDULUM METHOD. The Abbe’s “ pendulum ’” method 9jas also been applied with success to {the discovery of petrol, and even in the search for objects or persons who E»vo disappeared. There is one wellattested story of his having found the ■{body of a child who had been carried toff by an eagle in the Valais moun■flains. In the matter of disappearances, however, as the Abbe himself would E»ve been the first to admit, his method was not always successful. Thus he failed when called in over the •(Prince affair. .There can be little doubt that the Personality of the Abbe himself nounted for mat*, in the. proper employment of his “pendulum.” Those Who saw him at work said, that the Instrument seemed to come alive in his hands, and there must remain some (doubt whether anyone but the Abbe Jiimeelf could _ have divined water (merely by using his “pendulum” fever » large-scale map. But the Abbe’s town successes remain incontestable. Furthermore, he had disciples who Slave obtained good results from folpwing his methods. It is to he presumed that the science (or art) of radio-sesthetics will not die with this pimple and devout old priest.