726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



thing out of the usual course of Nature (as observed by Dr. Carpen- 

 ter), and the scientific testimony of Profs. Crookes and Wallace (reen- 

 forced by that of eminent men and women in Great Britain, France, 

 Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United States, whose numbers and 

 moral and intellectual capacity would outweigh any Royal Society or 

 French Institute), is of no more value than the most fanciful mediaeval 

 legends of Catholic saints, which science does not condescend to notice. 



2. Some individuals can be brought by a proper operator into a 

 waking mesmeric condition of passive credulity and obedience to the 

 voice : therefore we should believe everybody liable to this condition, 

 and believe nothing that anybody tells us which is different from the 

 usual course of Nature, as Dr. Carpenter tinder stat ids it. 



3. The usual course of Nature under our own observation we beg 

 pardon. Dr. Carpenter'' s observation is all of tchich Nature is capahle^ 

 and no new laws or agencies which Dr. Carpenter does not know are 

 to be expected or developed by investigation. Whoever asserts that 

 any such laws or agencies exist, is to be regarded as a liar or a victim 

 of hallucination ; and, \\\ fact, the chief phenomena of mesmerism and 

 spiritualism have been discovered to be cheats. 



4. Mesmer advanced certain preposterous and unscientific preten- 

 sions; certain mesmeric operators have made failures; and Dr. Car- 

 penter affirms that he has several times failed to discover any clairvoy- 

 ance in celebrated clairvoyants, and has detected some pretenders to 

 clairvoyance as impostors: therefore, mesmerism is a delusion. 



It is difficult to treat such a mass of absurdity and misstatement 

 with the gravity and courtesy apj^ropriate to scientific discussion. 

 When a dogmatic adult insists on proving to us that the earth is en- 

 tirely flat, he takes rank, as a first-class bore, Avith Dr. Carpenter; 

 and tlfe only method of disposing effectively of such nuisances is 

 that adopted by Mr, Alfred R. Wallace a heavy wager to be set- 

 tled by actual measurement of a portion of the earth's surface. If 

 Dr. Carpenter had courage enough to endure the wager-test, he 

 too might receive his quietus from Mr. Wallace. But there is no 

 hope of that ; the large reward offered in England, to any one who 

 will produce certain spiritual phenomena by physical means, will never 

 be called for. 



The first proposition may pass for what it is worth. If there are 

 any who agree with Dr. Carpenter in his assumption that the super- 

 stitious tales of an ignorant age are as worthy of credence as the 

 elaborate investigations of the most distinguished scientists men 

 whose testimony would be decisive in any court of justice where life 

 was at stake it is not worth while to reason with them. The as- 

 sumption of Dr. Carpenter is slanderous against his distinguished 

 scientific opponents ; but its extreme silliness renders it entirely harm- 

 less to any but himself. The same argument would destroy the credi- 

 bility of medical, surgical, and physiological works of to-day, because 



