ESSAY-REVIEWS 141 



until the atmosphere of caprice and uncertainty which now surrounds these 

 phenomena can be dispersed by further discovery, no real progress in psychical 

 investigation is possible. And so long as this atmosphere is assumed to be the 

 reflection of actual human caprice on the part of certain assumed human 

 " operators " who get " annoyed " when certain experiments are tried, so long no 

 real inquiry will even be attempted. Whatever else the spiritualist hypothesis 

 may do, it certainly acts as a bar to real investigation. We want to know why 

 these phenomena are so irregular and so uncertain, why they require darkness or 

 a red lamp, why we may not investigate them by any method we can think of, 

 such as surprising the "operators." If we content ourselves with the answer that 

 the operators like it so, or do not like it, we shall naturally not get very far. In 

 the early days of electricity it was found that, while glass or sealing-wax could 

 easily be electrified and made to attract small particles, this could not be done 

 with metal rods. If the inquirers had been content with the explanation that the 

 spirits did not like metals, our knowledge of electricity would soon have reached 

 a limit. Dr. Crawford tells us that his "operators" were generally (not always) 

 anxious to aid his investigations, the implication being that they approved and 

 wished to demonstrate his doctrine of spiritualism. From this point of view it is 

 unfortunate that the most impressive manifestations seem to be given to those 

 who already believe and are not in need of further proof. He gives it as one of 

 the prime conditions, " before we can expect anything worth having in the way 

 of results," that the medium and sitters must be " imbued with the seriousness 

 and wonder of the phenomena presented." Fortunately for our wounded, if we 

 are taking an X-ray photograph of an injured limb, it is not found that the 

 believer in radiography has any advantage over the incredulous : the photograph 

 comes out just the same. Nor does the efficacy of a vaccine or serum depend 

 in any degree on the faith of the patient, but protects equally the just man and the 

 anti-vivisectionist. And if Dr. Crawford's " operators " were really sane human 

 beings anxious to prove their and his thesis, we should expect them not only to 

 welcome the opportunity to demonstrate before unbelievers, but also eagerly to 

 fall in with any experimental tests whatever, especially those designed to test 

 their own good faith. If one-tenth of the energy now being wasted in getting 

 useless messages from the other world could be devoted to finding out exactly 

 what it is that happens, and how it happens, psychical research would begin to 

 justify itself, and there would be a speedy end of the complaints that scientific 

 men refuse to consider the subject seriously. 



In this respect Dr. Crawford has made a very good beginning which ought to 

 be followed up. But we trust he will see fit to remove from his next edition the 

 pages devoted to a " spirit photograph." It is almost incredible that such passages 

 should have been allowed to creep into a book professing to be a sober and 

 scientific record of facts. It is literally true that if unfounded hypothesis and 

 ill-regulated imagination be taken out of this account, which is given with an air 

 of the most solemn respect, there is nothing left but a shapeless smudge on a 

 photograph. 



It is unfortunate that from so many of these books one gets an impression of 

 credulity, eagerness to embrace favourable evidence and to ignore what is 

 unfavourable, a lack of the rigid independence and love of truth for its own sake, 

 which are necessary not merely to inspire confidence but to obtain any success in 

 the search for truth itself. For instance, Sir William Barrett speaks of Dr. 

 Crawford " devising elaborate and ingenious apparatus to test the phenomena." 

 Surely this is at least adequate for a weighing machine, a spring balance, and an 



