NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 155 



custodiet ipsos encodes ? But if there was any class of men who had duties 

 in this direction, it was those of our specialty. Our reports contain the record 

 of many cases of insanity said to have been produced by it. It was im- 

 portant, whether true or false, or mixed, that its precise depth, length, and 

 nature, should be studied out. As is well-known, mystery always loses its 

 terrific character when boldly met, and opened to the light of noon-day. Dr. 

 Bell remarked, that on his return home from the meeting at Washington, he 

 had a peculiar wish to verify his previous observations on what are techni- 

 cally known as the physical manifestations of this new science. He could 

 not pretend to doubt his repeated personal observations, addressed to his 

 sight, hearing and touch, and separated, as he believed, fronfany possibility 

 of error or collusive fraud. Yet the offer by Professor Henry, of a large sum 

 to any person who would make one of his tables move in the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and the obvious incredulity of many of the "brethren," had in- 

 duced the desire again to see some full and unequivocal experiments in table- 

 moving. An opportunity was not long wanting. On the occasion of the visit 

 of a well-known gentleman long connected with the insane, and who never 

 had seen any of these phenomena at the Asylum, Dr. Bell invited him to go 

 to a family where a medium of considerable power was visiting. The medium 

 was a young lady of eighteen or twenty, of very slight figure, weighing eighty 

 or ninety pounds, and had discovered herself to be a medium while on a 

 visit to these distant relatives. A family, from character and position more 

 entirely beyond the suspicion of even winking at any thing like fraud or irreg- 

 ularity, does not exist in the world. They were so fortunate as to find the 

 medium at home, and the circle was made of five persons. The ordinary 

 manifestations of raps, beating of musical tunes and responses to mental and 

 spoken questions, were very completely presented, as well as the movements 

 of the table under the mere contact of fingers' ends. Finding that things 

 appeared veiy favorable to a full exhibition of what he wished to see, as 

 .evinced by the very facile movements of the table under contact, Dr. Bell 

 proposed .trying the grand experimentum crucis of the physical manifestations 

 the movement of the table without any human contact, direct or indirect. 

 He was permitted to arrange things to suit himself, and began by opening 

 the table more widely, and inserting two movable table-leaves, which in- 

 creased the length from about six to perhaps nine or ten feet. This he felt 

 also gave him an opportunity to see and upset all wires and mechanism con- 

 cealed, or at least to answer positively as to their non-existence. The table 

 was a solid structure of black- walnut, with six carved legs the whole of such 

 a weight that, when the castors were all in the right line for motion, he could 

 just start it by Che full grasp of the thumb and fingers of both hands. The 

 persons stood on the sides of the table, three and two, and back from its edge 

 about eighteen niches. As Dr. Bell is some six feet two inches hi height, he 

 averred that he had no difficulty in seeing between the table and the persons of 

 all present. The hands were raised over it at about the same height of a foot 

 and a hall 7 . At a request the table commenced its motion, with moderate 

 speed, occasionally halting, and then gliding on a foot or two at once. It 

 seemed as if its motion would have been continuous, if the hands above it had 



