112 



THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



taking his cue from Mr. Crookes, who six rears 

 ago rebuked men of science generally, for their 

 "refusal to institute a scientific investigation 

 into the existence and nature of facts asserted 

 by so many competent and credible witnesses, and 

 which they are so freely invited to examine when 

 and where they please" ' Mr. Wallace charges the 

 periodical press with being in " a conspiracy of 

 silence" to prevent the spread of what Ac regards 

 as important and well-established truth. 



Reserving for another place 2 my reply to the 

 grave imputations which Mr. Wallace (indorsed 

 by the editorial authority of Mr. Crookes) has 

 cast upon myself personally, I shall now place 

 before the readers of Fraser a series of psycholo- 

 gical curiosities collected from the three sources 

 just indicated ; and, as the names of Messrs. 

 Crookes and Wallace will continually recur in this 

 connection, I think it well to explain my reason 

 for so frequently introducing them. 



Appreciating most highly the beautiful dis- 

 coveries recently made in physical science by 

 Mr. Crookes, and the large and varied additions 

 to biological knowledge and doctrine made at 

 different times by Mr. Wallace, I cannot blind 

 myself to the fact that the very scientific distinc- 

 tion they have so deservedly acquired is doing 

 great injury to the cause which I maintain to be 

 that of reason and common-sense. In the Uni- 

 ted States more particularly — where, since the 

 death of Prof. Hare, who thought he had ob- 

 tained precise experimental proof of the immor- 

 tality of the soul, not a single scientific man of 

 note (so far as I am aware) has joined the spirit- 

 ualistic ranks — the names of the " eminent Brit- 

 ish scientists " Messrs. Crookes and Wallace are 

 a "tower of strength." And it consequently be- 

 comes necessary for me, if I take any further 

 part in the discussion, to undermine that " tower," 

 by showing that in their investigation of this sub- 

 ject they have followed methods which are thor- 

 oughly imscientific, and have been led by their 

 " prepossession " to accept with implicit faith a 

 number of statements which ought to be rejected 

 as completely untrustworthy. 



My call to take such a part, which I would 



' It would seem that there is no longer the same 

 disposition to admit scientific inquirers to spiritual- 

 istic seances. Things do not go so well when skeptics 

 are present ; and while Mr. Home rebukes those who 

 would exclude nil lmt the "faithful," his reviewer 

 says that "all sitters in circle, and communicants 

 with the spirit-world, find it necessary to restrict the 

 company to those who are in sympathy with one an- 

 other, or of one marked form of thought, or degree of 

 moral development." 



a The forthcoming new edition of my lectures. 



most gladly lay aside for the scientific investiga- 

 tions which afford me the purest and most undis- 

 turbed enjoyment, seems to me the same as is 

 made upon every member of the profession to 

 which I have the honor to belong, that he should 

 do his utmost to cure or to mitigate bodily dis- 

 ease. Theoretical and experimental studies, ex- 

 tending over forty years, have given me what I 

 honestly believe (whether rightly or wrongly) to 

 be a rather unusual power of dealing with this 

 subject. Since the appearance of my lectures, I 

 have received a large number of public assurances 

 that they are doing good service in preventing 

 the spread of a noxious mental epidemic in this 

 country ; and I have been privately informed of 

 several instances in which persons, who had been 

 " bitten " by this malady, have owed their re- 

 covery to my treatment. Looking to the danger 

 which threatens us from the United States, of an 

 importation of a real spiritualistic mania, far 

 more injurious to our mental welfare than that 

 of the Colorado beetle will be to our material in- 

 terests, I should be untrue to my own convictions 

 of duty if I did not do what in me lies to prevent 

 it. I know too well that I thus expose myself to 

 severe obloquy, which (as I am not peculiarly 

 thick-skinned) will be very unpleasant to myself, 

 and unfm-tunately still more so to some who are 

 nearly connected with me. But I am content to 

 brave all, if I can console myself with the belief 

 that this expose will be of the least service, either 

 to individuals or to society at large. 



That I do not take an exaggerated view of 

 the danger, will appear, I think, from the follow- 

 ing citations from Mr. Home's book : 



" In dealing with spiritualism, it is the custom of 

 a certain class of weak minds to break loose from 

 all restraint. Eeason being weak and enthusiasm 

 strong, the very thought of communion with the 

 dwellers in another world appears to intoxicate 

 these unfortunates almost to madness. Their va- 

 garies are often scarcely distinguishable from those 

 beheld in mad-houses or at the wilder kind of re- 

 vival-meetings. The disease manifests itself in 

 a variety of ways. Some of the men and women 

 attacked by it pin themselves to a particular de- 

 lusion, with a fanatical tenacity which nothing can 

 affect." 



In another place Mr. Home speaks of "the 

 wild dances in which ' mediums ' (generally fe- 

 males) indulge under the influence of imaginary 

 Indian controls." 



Can anything be a stronger confirmation of 

 the doctrine of " Epidemic Delusion " than this 

 reproduction of the "Dancing Mania" under a 

 different form of " possession ? " 



