116 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



Wallace's own case no precautions whatever had ' 

 been employed I The " medium " was Miss Nichol 

 (of whom more anon) ; and the production took 

 place for the first time, and " at a very early 

 stage of her development." The only shred of 

 evidence adduced by Mr. Wallace that the flow- 

 ers and ferns had not been brought in by the 

 " medium," consists in what he asserts to have 

 been their condition — they being "all absolutely 

 fresh as if just gathered from a conservatory, 

 and covered with a fine, cold dew." This, in Mr. 

 Wallace's opinion, made it " absolutely impos- 

 sible " for Miss Nichol to have kept them con- 

 cealed about her person " in a very warm, gas- 

 lighted room four hours before the flowers ap- 

 peared." Now, granting Mr. Wallace's testimony 

 on this point — as to which I fully admit that he 

 was specially qualified to judge — to have been 

 entirely unbiased, there is one little defect in his 

 narrative, which, as will presently appear, serious- 

 ly impairs its probative value. The whole thing 

 happened more than ten years ago ; and such a 

 triviality as Miss Nichol's having left the room 

 during these four hours, or having had an opera- 

 cloak brought in to prevent her feeling chilly 

 ( it being mid-winter), may have escaped Mr. Wal- 

 lace's attention at the time, or slipped his mem- 

 ory since. But, even taking the case exactly as 

 Mr. Wallace puts it, what is the proof of his 

 "absolute impossibility?" Every one has seen 

 conjurers tumble piles of bouquets out of a hat, 

 in which it was "absolutely impossible" that 

 they could have been all contained. And most 

 people who have been long in India have seen 

 the celebrated " tree-trick," which, as described 

 to me by several of our most distinguished civil- 

 ians and scientific officers, is simply the "greatest 

 marvel I ever heard of. That a mango-tree 

 should first shoot up to a height of six inches, 

 from a grass-plot to which the conjurers had no 

 previous access, beneath an inverted cylindrical 

 basket whose emptiness has been previously 

 " demonstrated," and that this tree should ap- 

 pear to grow in the course of half an hour from 

 six inches to six feet, under a succession of tall- 

 er and yet taller baskets, quite beats Miss Nichol. 

 Does Mr. Wallace attribute this to "spiritual 

 agency," in like manner as Mr. Benjamin Cole- 

 man insists that Messrs. Cooke and Maskelyne, in 

 spite of their disclaimer, " are the best of living 

 mediums for the production of physical effects ? " 

 Or, like the world in general, and the perform- 

 ers of the "tree-trick" in particular, does he 

 regard it as a piece of clever jugglery ? If the 

 former, we are free to entertain our own opinion 



of the healthful condition of Mr. Wallace's mind. 

 If the latter, what is the probative value of the 

 "demonstrative" performance in Mr. Wallace's 

 drawing-room ? 



But now for the other case specially cited by 

 Mr. Wallace, that of Mr. T. A. Trollope. Here 

 the " medium's " dress had been carefully exam- 

 ined by Mrs. Trollope before the seance began, 

 and a previous search of the room had been 

 made by the gentlemen of the party. Now, con- 

 sidering how cleverly (as will be presently shown) 

 the concealment of the " properties" required for 

 " spirit materialization " can be managed by in- 

 genious ladies, it would have been more satisfac- 

 tory if the examination of Miss Nichol's dress 

 had been effected by an experienced female 

 searcher ; and the assistance of a clever detec- 

 tive might have been a useful help to the gentle- 

 men-searchers of the room. But even if all these 

 precautions had been adopted, a trick so simple 

 that (as M. Robin the conjurer said) " it makes 

 one laugh to see how easily people can be de- 

 ceived," would have been quite sufficient to get 

 over the little difficulty. 



In the case of a " medium " known to Mr. 

 Home {op. cit., page 353), " in more than one in- 

 stance, after the most rigid scrutiny of her dress 

 had been made, flowers, and even small branches 

 of shrubs with the leaves attached, were brought, 

 in total darkness, of course." One evening, 

 however, a gentleman who had come too late to 

 be admitted to the seance, but to whom, after its 

 conclusion, one of the little " spirit-branches " 

 had been given to examine, happened to notice a 

 leaf hanging from the lower part of the red opera- 

 cloak worn by the "medium ; " and, finding that 

 it corresponded exactly with the leaves of the 

 twig he held in his hand, he caught up the 

 cloak, and showed to all present that the " spirit- 

 ual " productions had been concealed in its lin- 

 ing. And "it was then remembered that the 

 ' medium ' had, after being searched, complained 

 of feeling chilly, and had requested permission 

 to put on the red opera-cloak which she had left 

 (quite promiscuously, of course) in the hall." 



Thus, in addition to a very thorough search, 

 alike of the " medium " and of the apartment, 

 before the seance, it would be essential that after 

 its commencement nothing shoidd be brought in. 



Even this precaution, however, would not 

 suffice to " demonstrate " the " spiritual " intro- 

 duction of the articles in question. For there 

 would remain full scope for the exercise of con- 

 federacy, which, says Mr. Home, " plays a great 

 part on these occasions. ... I have known of 



