234 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



present besides myself and the medium, among 

 them a medical man, a barrister, and an acute 

 colonial man of business. The sitting was in my 

 own back drawing-room. No cloth was on the 

 table. The adjoining room and passage were 

 fully lighted. We sat an hour in the darkened 

 room before the flowers appeared, but there was 

 always light enough to see the outlines of those 

 present. We sat a little away from the table, 

 the medium sitting by me. The flowers appeared 

 on the polished table dimly visible as a something, 

 before we lighted the gas. When we did so the 

 whole surface of the four-feet circular table was 

 covered with fresh flowers and ferns, a sight so 

 beautiful and marvelous that, in the course of a 

 not uneventful life, I can hardly recall anything 

 that has more strongly impressed me. I begged 

 that nothing might be touched till we had care- 

 fully examined them. The first thing that struck 

 us all was their extreme freshness and beauty. 

 The next, that they were all covered, especially 

 the ferns, with a delicate dew — not with coarse 

 drops of water as I have since seen when the 

 phenomenon was less perfect, but with a veritable, 

 fine dew, covering the whole surface of the ferns 

 especially. Counting the separate sprigs, we 

 found them to be forty-eight in number, consist- 

 ing of four yellow and red tulips, eight large anem- 

 ones of various colors, six large flowers of Pri- 

 mula japonica, eighteen chrysanthemums, mostly 

 yellow and white, six fronds of Lomaria a foot 

 long, and two of a Nephrodium, about a foot 

 long and six inches wide. Not a pinnule of these 

 ferns was rumpled, but they lay on the table as 

 perfect as if freshly brought from a conserva- 

 tory. The anemones, primroses, and tulips, had 

 none of them lost a petal. They were found 

 spread over the whole surface of the table, while 

 we had been for some time intently gazing on the 

 sheen of its surface, and could have instantly 

 detected a hand and arm moving over it. But 

 that is not so important as the condition of these 

 flowers and their dewiness ; and — Dr. Carpenter 

 notwithstanding — I still maintain they were (to 

 us) " demonstrably not brought by the medium." 

 I have preserved the flowers and have them now 

 before me, with the attestation of all present as 

 to their appearance and condition ; and I have 

 also my original notes made at the time. How 

 simple is Dr. Carpenter's notion that I tell this 

 story, after ten years, from memory ! How in- 

 genious is his suggestion of the lining of a cloak 

 as their place of concealment for four hours — a 

 suggestion taken from a second-hand story by 

 Mr. Home about a paid medium, and therefore 



not the lady whose powers are now under discus- 

 sion ! How utterly beside the question his sub- 

 sequent remarks about conjurers, and hats, and 

 the mango-trees, produced by Indian jugglers ! 



In the case certified by Mr. T. A. Trollope, 

 the medium's person (not her dress only, as Dr. 

 Carpenter says) was carefully searched before 

 sitting down ; but now it is objected that " an 

 experienced female searcher " would have been 

 more satisfactory, and the fact is ignored that 

 phenomena occurred which precluded the neces- 

 sity of any search. For, while the medium's 

 hands were both held, a large quantity of jon- 

 quils fell on the table, " filling the whole room 

 with their odor." If Dr. Carpenter can get over 

 the " sudden falling on the table " of the flowers 

 while the medium's hands were held, how does he 

 explain the withholding of the powerful odor 

 " filling the whole room " till the moment of their 

 appearance ? Mr. Trollope says that this is, " on 

 any common theory of physics, unaccountable," 

 and I say that this large quantity of powerfully- 

 smelling jonquils was " demonstrably not brought 

 by the medium." I have notes of other cases 

 equally well attested. In one of these at a friend's 

 house, to which I myself took Miss Nicholl, 

 eighty separate stalks of flowers and ferns fell on 

 the table while the medium's hands were both 

 held. All were perfectly fresh and damp, and 

 some large sprays of maiden-hair fern were quite 

 perfect. On another occasion, I was present 

 when twenty different kinds of fruits were asked 

 for, and every person had his chosen kind 

 placed before him on the table or put at once 

 into his hands by some invisible agency. These 

 cases might be multiplied indefinitely, and many 

 are recorded which are still more completely be- 

 yond the power of imposture to explain. But 

 all such are passed over by Dr. Carpenter in 

 silence. He asks for better evidence of certain 

 facts, and, when we adduce it, he says we are the 

 victims of a " diluted insanity." * In the sup- 

 posed Belfast exposure by means of potassium 

 ferrocyanide, I objected that the only evidence 

 was that of a prejudiced witness, with a strong 

 animus against the medium. Dr. Carpenter now 

 prints this young man's letter (of which he had 

 in his lecture given the substance), and thinks 

 that he has transformed his one witness into two 

 by means of an anonymous " friend " therein men- 

 tioned. He talks of the " immediate detection of 

 the salt by one witness and the subsequent con- 

 firmatory testimony of the other" — this "other" 



1 Dr. Carpenter's " Mental Physiology," second 

 edition, p. 302. 



