Science and Pseudoscience in The Moonstone

The Moonstone offers an interesting mix of the scientific and the mystical. It is worth noting that Victorians were inhabiting a time in which both science and various researches into parapsychology were both prevalent and that sometimes little distinction was made between the quality of research or legitimacy of either. In fact the two texts Ezra Jennings offers as support for his experiment are Carpenter's Human Physiology and John Elliotson's Human Physiology. Critics Jenny Bourne Taylor and Alison Winter have pointed out that thought the titles are are the same Carpenter was a respected psychologist awhile Elliotson was a marginalized advocate of mesmerism.

Somnambulism (sleep-walking), animal magnetism (from the French term Mesmer used to refer to the magnetic animating force which animates both humans and animals), Mesmerism (from Franz Mesmer a German doctor who believed energy could transfer between animate an inanimate sources, phrenology (which involved reading bumps on the skull) and clairvoyance (from the French words for clear and seeing was referred to second senses) were all areas of research and public interest.

(Just for fun (though it is quite a bit later than the Collins novel) a 1903 volume: Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism by A. Alpheus for those who might want to try some table-tipping or mind-reading at home).

All of these are of particular interest to The Moonstone since both are used in the solving of the mystery. We have examples of early forensic evidence: the smeared paint on the door, the garment that smeared the paint, the footsteps in the sand, a gold thread are all key to deciphering the mystery. Also the collection of testimony and each character being limited to his or her personal knowledge rather than relying on heresay have become such mainstays of mysteries and police procedural dramas that as a modern audience we hardly notice them.

It is also worth noting Collins interest in spiritualism. He claimed he was frequently mesmerized by one of his mistresses, Caroline Graves, to ease his pain. He recounted his experiences including magnetized glasses of water and 'sensitives' seeing the future in an article called "Magnetic Evenings at Home" which ran in The Leader.

At the same time, there is a great interest in science. Darwin's The Origin of Species was published in 1859. Trains were revolutionizing the existence of Londoners, new anaesthetics like ether and chloroform would replace hypnosis as a form of anaesthesia.

This duality that runs throughout the story allows Collins to have it both ways. The celebrated detective can trace the time the paint was smeared, but the moonstone might be cursed. An important step in solving of the mystery is a controlled experiment in sleep waking and talking under the influence of an opiate. It is both a scientific experiment and questionable, as is expressed by both Cuff and Betteredge. This layering makes of levels of mystery that resound on a more psychological level.