NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 133 



adopt in any other physical investigation. The parties with -whom I 

 have worked were very honorable, very clear in their intentions, suc- 

 cessful table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the 

 existence of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. 

 It is with nie a clear point that the table moves when the parties, 

 though they strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe that 

 they move it by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table 

 di-aws their hands ; that it moves first, and they have to follow it, 

 that sometimes it even moves from under their hands. With some the 

 table will move either to the right or left according as they wish or 

 will it, with others the direction of the first motion is uncertain ; 

 but all agree that the table moves the hands, and not the hands the 

 table. Though I believe the parties do not intend to move the table, 

 but obtain the result by a quasi involuntary action, still I had no 

 doubt of the influence of expectation upon their minds, and through 

 that upon the success or failure of their efforts. The first point, 

 therefore, was, to remove all objections due to expectation, having 

 relation to the substances which I might desire to use : so, plates of 

 the most different bodies, electrically speaking, namely, sand-paper, 

 millboard, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil, cardboard, gutta percha, vul- 

 canized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a bundle and placed on 

 a table under the hands of a turner. The table turned. Other bun- 

 dles of other plates were submitted to different persons at other times, 

 and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore, these substances may 

 be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither during their use 

 nor at other times could the slightest trace of electrical or magnetic 

 effects be obtained. At the same trials it was readily ascertained that 

 one person could produce the- effect; and that the motion was not 

 necessarily circular, but might be in a straight line. No form of ex- 

 periment or mode . of observation that I could devise, gave me the 

 slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No attractions, or 

 repulsions, or signs of tangential power, appeared, nor anything 

 which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical pressure 

 exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to ana- 

 lyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal direction : 

 doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A soft cement, 

 consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was pre- 

 pared. Four or five pieces of smooth, slippery cardboard were at- 

 tached, one over the other, by little pellets of the cement, and the 

 lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table ; the edges 

 of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil 

 line was drawn over the laps so as to indicate position. The upper 

 card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from 

 sight. Then, the table turner placed the hands upon the upper card, 

 and we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to 

 offer considerable resistance to mechanical motion, and also to retain 

 the cards in any new position which they might acquire and yet 

 Aveak enough to give way slowly to a continued force. When at last 

 the tables, cards, and hands all moved to the left together, and so a 



