The New International Encyclopædia/Divining-rod

DIVINING-ROD (often called virgula divina, baculus divinatorius, caduccus or wand of Mercury, rod of Aaron, etc.). A forked branch, usually of hazel, and sometimes of iron, and even of brass and copper, by which it has been pretended that minerals and water have been discovered beneath the surface of the earth. The rod, when suspended by the two prongs, sometimes between the balls of the thumbs, is supposed to show by a decided inclination the spot under which the concealed mine or spring is situated. Other powers are ascribed to the divining-rod, but this is the chief. Many persons, even of some pretensions to scientific knowledge, have been believers in the occult power ascribed to this magic wand. Agricola, Sperlingius. and Kirchmayer all believe in its supernatural influence. Bayle, in his dictionary, under the word abaris, gives some ingenious arguments both for and against the divining-rod. In a work published in 1847 and 1851, entitled On the Truth Contained in Popular Superstitions, Dr. Herbert Mayo gives a curious collection of alleged discoveries made by this divining-rod.