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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



could afford has been repeatedly given, by mo- 

 tion, both turning and tilting, of the table occur- 

 ring without any contact whatever. Thus, in the 

 Report of the Committee of the Dialectical So- 

 ciety, we have (p. 378), Experiment 13, nine 

 members present; all stood quite clear of the ta- 

 ble, and observers were placed under it to see 

 that it was not touched, yet it repeatedly moved 

 along the floor, often in the direction asked for. 

 It also jerked up from the floor about an inch. 

 This was repeated when all stood two feet from 

 the table. Experiment 22. Six members present, 

 the same thing occurred under varied conditions. 

 Experiment 38 (p. 390). Eight members present; 

 the conditions were most rigid ; the chairs were 

 all turned with their backs to the table at a foot 

 distant from it ; every member present knelt on 

 his chair with his hands behind his back; there 

 was abundance of light, yet, under these test- 

 conditions, the table moved several times in va- 

 rious directions, visible to all present. Finally, 

 the table was turned up and examined, and found 

 to be an ordinary dining-table with no machinery 

 or apparatus of any kind connected with it. Simi- 

 lar movements without contact have been wit- 

 nessed elsewhere and recorded by Sergeant Cox 

 and by Mr. Crookes, as well as by many other per- 

 sons ; yet the man who comes before the public 

 as the " historian " of this subject tells his au- 

 dience and his readers that " he is not aware that 

 any one affirms that he has demonstrated the 

 absence of muscular pressure ! " How are we to 

 reconcile this statement with Dr. Carpenter's ref- 

 erences to each of the books, papers, or letters, 

 containing the facts above quoted or referred to ? 

 But we have evidence of a yet more conclusive 

 character (from Dr. Carpenter's own point of 

 view), because it is that of a medical man who 

 has made a special study of abnormal mental 

 phenomena. Dr. Lockhart Robertson, for many 

 years an editor of the Journal of Menial Science, 

 and Superintendent of the Hayward's Heath Asy- 

 lum, declares that his own heavy oak dining-table 

 was lifted up and moved about the room, and this 

 not by any of the four persons present. Writing 

 was also produced on blank paper which the me- 

 dium "had not the slightest chance of touching" 

 ("Dialectical Report," p. 248). Dr. Carpenter 

 is always crying out for " skeptical experts," but 

 when they come — in the persons of Robert Hou- 

 din and Dr. Lockhart Robertson — he takes very 

 good care that, so far as he is concerned, the 

 public shall not know of their existence. What, 

 therefore, is the use of his asking me (in a note 

 at p. 10S) whether my table ever went up within 



its crinoline in the presence of a " skeptical ex- 

 pert ? " The very fact that I secretly applied tests 

 (see " Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," p. 134) 

 shows that I was myself skeptical at this time, 

 and several of my friends who witnessed the ex- 

 periments were far more skeptical, but they were 

 all satisfied of the completeness of the test. The 

 reason why some skeptical men of science never 

 witness these successful experiments is simply 

 because they will not persevere. Neither Dr. 

 Carpenter nor Prof. Tyndall would come more 

 than once to my house to see the medium through 

 whom these phenomena occurred, or I feel sure 

 they might, after two or three sittings, have wit- 

 nessed similar phenomena themselves. This has 

 rendered all that Dr. Carpenter has seen at odd 

 times during so many years of little avail. He 

 has had one, or at most two sittings with a me- 

 dium, and has taken the results, usually weak or 

 negative, as proving imposture, and then has 

 gone no more. Quite recently this has happened 

 with Dr. Slade and Mrs. Kane ; and yet this mode 

 of inquiry is set up as against that of men who 

 hold scores of sittings for months together with 

 the same medium ; and, after guarding against 

 every possibility of deception or delusion, obtain 

 results which seem to Dr. Carpenter incredible. 

 Mr. Crookes had a long series of sittings with 

 Miss Kate Fox (now Mrs. Jencken) in his own 

 house, and tested the phenomena in every way 

 his ingenuity could devise. Dr. Carpenter was 

 recently offered the same facilities with this lady 

 and her sister, but as usual had only one sitting. 

 Yet he thinks it fair and courteous to make di- 

 rect accusations of imposture against both these 

 ladies. He revives the absurd and utterly insuffi- 

 cient theory that the "raps" are produced by 

 " a jerking or snapping action of particular ten- 

 dons of either the ankles, knees, or toes." The 

 utter childishness of this explanation is manifest 

 to any one who has heard the sounds through 

 any good medium. They vary from delicate tick- 

 ings to noises like thumpings with the fist, slap- 

 pings with the hand, and blows with a hammer. 

 They are often heard loudly on the ceiling or on 

 a carpeted floor, and heard as well as felt on the 

 backs or seats of chairs quite out of reach of the 

 medium. One of the skeptical committees in 

 America tested the Misses Fox by placing them 

 barefooted on pillows, when the " raps " were 

 heard as distinctly as before on the floor and 

 walls of the room. Mr. Crookes states that he 

 has heard them on the floor, walls, etc., when 

 Miss Fox was suspended in a swing from the 

 ceiling, and has felt them on his own shoulder. 



