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TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and satisfied themselves that, even with an exact 

 knowledge of what was required and with any 

 amount of preparation, they could not substitute 

 anything connecting the two handles and having 

 the same exact resistance as the human body with- 

 out a long course of trial and failure, and without 

 a person in the other room to tell them if more or 

 less resistance were required, during which time 

 the index spot of light of the galvanometer was 

 flying wildly about. Comparative steadiness of the 

 index could only be secured by a steady and con- 

 tinuous grasp of the two handles. 



Having thus described the apparatus, let us 

 now consider how the test was carried out. The 

 gentlemen invited to witness it were three Fellows 

 of the Koyal Society, all of special eminence, and 

 three other gentlemen. They examined the libra- 

 ry ; fastened up the door to the passage as well as 

 the window with strips of paper sealed with their 

 private seals ; they examined all the cupboards 

 and desks ; they noted the position of various 

 articles, and measured their distances as well as 

 that of the bookcase from the handles to be held 

 by the medium. The library was connected with 

 the laboratory by a door close to where the me- 

 dium sat, and this door was wide open, but the 

 aperture was close d by means of a curtain. Every- 

 thing having been thus arranged, Eva Fay was in- 

 vited to enter the library, having up to this time 

 been in the drawing-room up-stairs, and having 

 come to the house alone. She then seated herself 

 in a chair placed for the purpose, and, having 

 moistened her hands as directed, took hold of the 

 two handles. The exact " electrical resistance " 

 of her body was then noted, as well as the deflec- 

 tion shown by the galvanometer : and, the gas in 

 the library having been turned down low, the gen- 

 tlemen took their places in the laboratory, leaving 

 Eva Fay alone. 



In one minute a hand-bell was rung in the li- 

 brary. In two minutes a hand came out at the side 

 of the door farthest from the medium. During the 

 succeeding five minutes four separate books were 

 handed out to their respective authors, a voice 

 from the library calling them by name. These 

 books had been taken from the bookcase twelve 

 feet from Eva Fay : they had been found in the 

 dark, and one of them had no lettering on the 

 back. Mr. Crookes declares that although he, of 

 course, knew the general position of the books in 

 his own library, he could not have found these 

 books in the dark. Then a box of cigars was 

 thrown out to a gentleman very fond of smoking, 

 and finally an ornamental clock which had been 

 standing on the chimney-piece was handed out. 

 Then the circuit was suddenly broken, and, on in- 

 stantly entering the library, Eva Fay was found 

 lying back in the chair senseless, a condition in 

 which she remained for half an hour. All the 

 above phenomena occurred during the space of 



ten minutes, and the reflecting galvanometer was 

 steady the whole time, showing only those small 

 variations which would occur while a person con- 

 tinued to hold the handles. 



On two other occasions Mr. Crookes carried out 

 similar tests with the same medium and always 

 with the same result. On one occasion several 

 musical instruments were played on at the same 

 time, and a musical-box was wound up while the 

 luminous index of the galvanometer continued 

 quit| steady, and many articles were handed or 

 thrown out into the laboratory. On the other oc- 

 casion similar things happened, after all possible 

 precautions had been taken ; and in addition Mr. 

 Crookes's desk, which was carefully locked before 

 the seance, was found unlocked and open at its 

 conclusion. 



Every one must look forward with great in- 

 terest to Dr. Carpenter's promised " explanation " 

 of how all these scientific tests were evaded by an 

 unscientific impostor. 



Note A.— Since this article was in the printer's 

 hands, a proof-sheet of the new edition of Dr. Carpen- 

 ter's Lectures has been forwarded to me at the au- 

 thor's request, in order that I may see what further 

 explanations he has to give to the above case. Dr. 

 Carpenter now attempts to justify his assertion that I 

 had "recently expressed my full faith in Mr. Lewis's 

 self-asserted powers" by a statement of what Dr. Simp- 

 son told him several years ago, a statement which 

 appears to have been never yet made public, and 

 which, therefore, could not possibly have been taken 

 into account by me, even had it any real bearing on 

 the question at issue. It is to the effect that Mr. Lewis 

 might have received information of the exact hour at 

 which the lady he had promised to try to mesmerize at 

 a distance fell asleep in Prof. Gregory's house, and 

 that he might have afterward given a false statement 

 of the hour at which he attempted to mesmerize her. 

 Dr. Carpenter is excessively indignant when any 

 doubt is thrown by me on the truthfulness or impar- 

 tiality of any of his informants, but it seems the most 

 natural thing in the world for him to charge false- 

 hood or fraud against all who testify to facts which he 

 thinks incredible. But even admitting that Dr. Car- 

 penter's memory of what was told him many years 

 ago is absolutely perfect, and admitting that Mr. Lew- 

 is (against whose moral character nothing whatever is 

 adduced) would have told a direct falsehood in order 

 to magnify his own powers, how does this account 

 for the fact that the lady was overcome by the mes- 

 meric sleep at all, when her mind and body were 

 both actively engaged at the piano early in the after- 

 noon ? And how does it account for the headache 

 which had troubled her the whole day suddenly ceas- 

 ing f It is not attempted to be shown that Mr. Lew- 

 is's statement— that he returned home at the hour 

 named, and at once proceeded to try and mesmerize 

 the lady— is not true ; so that, except for the sup- 

 posed incredibility of the whole thing in Dr. Carpen- 

 ter's opinion, there would be no reason to doubt the 

 exact correctness of the statements made. But, even 

 if the reader adopts the view that Mr. Lewis was 

 really an impostor, that does not make Dr. Carpenter's 



