TEE RADIOMETER AND ITS LESSONS. 



33 



viz., that they read books or played cards with 

 their eyes bandaged, or deciphered words in closed 

 boxes put into their hands. But the skeptic's 

 "common-sense" inference from the very same 

 ■facts would be that, in the first case, the eyes of 

 the supposed clairvoyants had not been effectually 

 blinded ; and, in the second, that they had either 

 taken a sly peep into the boxes (as George Goble 

 was detected in doing), or had guessed the word 

 by " fishing " with the help unconsciously given 

 by the questioner, as I saw Alexis and Adolphe 

 do many times. And that this latter inference is 

 the true one, is indicated, on the one hand, by the 

 failure of one performer after another under ade- 

 quate test-conditions (as in the cases investigated 

 by the French Academy of Medicine and Sir John 

 Forbes, and in many besides), and, on the other, 

 by the detection of the mode in which the cheat 

 was practised. I am confident that Mr. Wallace 

 cannot point to a single case of clairvoyance thor- 

 oughly investigated by a skeptical expert, which 

 has survived such investigation. But of cases 

 which satisfied intelligent and truthful witnesses, 

 upon whose testimony we should rely in the ordi- 

 nary affairs of life, and who were yet afterward 

 proved to have been completely taken in, there 

 are enough to show how little such testimony is 

 worth as to matters requiring special qualifica- 

 tions for their thorough investigation. 



Of the two distinct claims set up by Mr. 

 Crookes, therefore, to the discovery of a new 

 agency in Nature, I hold the one to have been as 

 scientific as the other was unscientific. The facts 

 of radiant repulsion did not rest upon the unsup- 

 ported testimony of Mr. Crookes and his friends ; 

 they could be exhibited to as many as wished to 

 see them, and could be verified for himself by 

 every one who could construct the apparatus. 

 And while his inference from the first series of 

 those facts (ascertained by the torsion-balance) 

 was regarded by some of our most eminent phys- 

 icists as by no means improbable, there were 

 few, if any, among those who saw the radiometer 

 spin round when a candle was brought near it, 

 who did not for a time accept his view. In as- 

 suming, however, that there was such a quanti- 

 tative relation between radiant repulsion and 

 light as justified the use of his radiometer as a 

 photometer, Mr. Crookes undoubtedly went be- 

 yond what his facts warranted; and his claim to 

 have " weighed a beam of light " I feel sure that 

 he would now abandon. But no sooner was ade- 

 quate ground shown for calling in question his 

 interpretation of the phenomena, and a vera 

 causa found in an agency already known, than 

 3 



Mr. Crookes evinced the spirit of the true philoso- 

 pher in varying his experiments in every conceiv- 

 able mode, so as to test the validity of his original 

 interpretation. And if he still shows some linger- 

 ing unwillingness to surrender his position, it is 

 no more than the best of us would probably feel 

 under the like circumstances in regard to a pet 

 hypothesis. 



Yet at the very time that Mr. Crookes was car- 

 rying out this beautiful inquiry in a manner and 

 spirit worthy of all admiration, he gave to the 

 public, in his " Notes of an Inquiry into the Phe- 

 nomena called spiritual," x the most conclusive 

 evidence that his mind has its unscientific as well 

 as its scientific side ; so that, while pursuing with 

 rare ability and acuteness a delicate physical in- 

 vestigation in which nothing is taken for granted 

 without proof satisfactory to others as well as to 

 himself, he has yet allowed himself to become so 

 completely possessed by a " dominant idea " in 

 regard to the " phenomena called spiritual," as to 

 accept either the products of his own imagination, 

 or the deceptions practised upon him by others, 

 as facts that should command the same credence 

 as the demonstrations of his radiometer. Of 

 " The Alteration of Weight of Bodies," a class of 

 phenomena capable of precise physical determi- 

 nation, Mr. Crookes simply says, "I have re- 

 peated the experiments already described in this 

 journal, in different forms, and with several me- 

 diums." But why does he not tell us precisely 

 what were the weights so altered, and what force 

 was exerted by the medium, as determined in 

 each case by the precise measurement he so well 

 knows how to apply ? Of his yet more extraor- 

 dinary assertions, the following are samples : 



" On one occasion I witnessed a chair, with a 

 lady sitting on it, rise several inches from the 

 ground. On another occasion, to avoid the suspi- 

 cion of this being in some way performed by her- 

 self, the lady knelt on a chair in such a manner 

 that its four feet were visible to us. It then rose 

 about three inches, remained suspended for about 

 ten seconds, and then slowly descend. At another 

 time two children, on separate occasions, rose from 

 the floor with their chairs, in full daylight, under 

 (to me) most satisfactory conditions ; for I was 

 keeling and keeping close watch upon the feet of 

 the chair, and observing that no one might touch 

 them. — On three separate occasions I have seen 

 Mr. Home raised completely off the floor of the 

 room, once sitting in an easy-chair, once kneeling 

 on his chair, and once standing up. There are at 

 least a hundred recorded instances of Mr. Home's 

 rising from the ground, in the presence of as many 

 separate persons. 



1 Quarterly Journal of Science, January, 1S74. 



