The first attempt at serious investigation of alleged supernormal phenomena by an organised body of qualified observers was made by the London Society for Psychical Research, which was founded in 1882 by Henry Sidgwick (Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge), F. W. H. Myers and Edmund Gurney (Fellows of Trinity), W. F. Barrett (Professor of Experimental Physics at Dublin, and now Sir William), and a few friends. The membership grew, and the list now includes the most famous scientific names throughout the civilised world. In point of prestige, the society is one of the strongest in existence. The first important work undertaken was the collection of a large number of cases of apparition, etc., in which there seemed to be some supernormal agency at work, conveying knowledge; as in the case of Lord Brougham, who saw an apparition of his friend at the moment of the latter's death. The results of this investigation were embodied in the two stout volumes called _Phantasms of the Living_ (now out of print, but an abridged one-volume edition has recently been edited by Mrs Sidgwick (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1919), and in Vol. x. of the _Proceedings_ of the Society. As the outcome of this arduous investigation, involving the collection and consideration of about 17,000 cases and extending over several years of time, the committee made the cautious but memorable statement that "Between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone". This guarded statement was carefully worded in order to avoid committing the society to any definite (_e.g._ spiritualistic) interpretation. Some of the apparitions occurred within twelve hours before the death, some at the time of death, and some a few hours afterwards. But these latter of course do not prove "spirit-agency"--though indeed sometimes they seem to render it probable--for the telepathic impulse or thought may have been sent out by the dying person, remaining latent--so to speak--until the percipient happened to be in a sufficiently passive and receptive state to "take it in". Definite experimentation was also made, of various kinds, _e.g._, one person would be shown a card or diagram, and another (blindfolded) would maintain a passive mind, saying aloud what ideas "came into his head". Some of these experiments--which are still required and should be tried by those interested in the subject--indicated that the concentration of A's mind did indeed sometimes produce a reverberation in the mind of B. In a series conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge, the odds against the successes being due to chance can be mathematically shown to be ten millions to one. For this new fact or agency, Mr Myers invented the word "telepathy" (Greek _tele_, at a distance, and _pathein_, to feel), and defined it as "communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another, independently of the recognised channels of sense".