THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1879. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A SCIENTIFIC QUESTION". 



AN OPEN LETTER TO PKOFESSOB HERMANN ULRICI, OF HALLE, 

 By Professor WILHELM WUNDT, 



OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPSIC. 

 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY EDWIN D. MEAD.* 



RESPECTED SIR : In the latest number of your " Zeitschrift fur 

 Pkilosophie und philosophische Kritik" I have read a paper 

 from your valued pen, in which you embody a detailed discussion of 

 the spiritualistic phenomena observed here in Leipsic in the presence 

 of the American medium, Mr. Henry Slade. You remark that, accord- 

 ing to your conviction, the reality of the facts attested by eminent 

 men of science can no longer be doubted, and that the so-called spirit- 

 ualism has thus become a scientific question of the highest importance. 

 I should have no occasion to enter upon a discussion of this view of 

 yours, except for the fact that in connection with references to certain 

 of my colleagues in the course of your article, my own name is men- 

 tioned in a way which makes it desirable for me to remove every 

 doubt, which you and your readers may have, as to my attitude to- 

 ward the " scientific question " which you have raised. 



You remark that there were present at the seances held with Mr. 

 Slade in Leipsic, besides those scientific men who became convinced of 

 the actuality of the spiritualistic phenomena, certain other members 



* Translator's Note. To most regular readers of "The Popular Science Monthly" 

 this letter will be its own sufficient explanation, yet an introductory word may not be su- 

 perfluous. Spiritualism in Germany, as in England, presents certain phenomena almost 

 precisely opposite to what is seen in America. * With us, while the belief has obtained a 

 great popular following, affecting almost all classes of society, becoming a kind of religion 

 as it were, it has not succeeded in making converts of really scientific men, numbering 

 almost no eminent scholars in its ranks being simply neglected, for the most part, by 

 vol. xv. 37 



