1874.] C77) 
wait NOTES OF AN ENQUIRY INTO THE 
PHENOMENA CALLED SPIRITUAL, 
DURING THE YEARS 1870-73. 
By WILLIAM CROOKES, F.R.S., &c. 
oe 
Fhe a traveller exploring some distant country, the 
wonders of which have hitherto been known only 
through reports and rumours of a vague or distorted 
character, so for four years have I been occupied in pushing 
an enquiry into a territory of natural knowledge which 
offers almost virgin soil to a scientific man. As the traveller 
sees in the natural phenomena he may witness the action of 
forces governed by natural laws, where others see only the 
Capricious intervention of offended gods, so have I endea- 
voured to trace the operation of natural laws and forces, 
where others have seen only the agency of supernatural 
beings, owning no laws, and obeying no force but their own 
free will. As the traveller in his wanderings is entirely 
dependent on the goodwill and friendliness of the chiefs 
and the medicine men of the tribes amongst whom he 
sojourns, so have I not only been aided in my enquiry in a 
marked degree by some of those who possess the peculiar 
powers I have sought to examine, but have also formed 
firm and valued friendships amongst many of the recognised 
leaders of opinion, whose hospitalities I have shared. As 
the traveller sometimes sends home, when opportunity offers, 
a brief record of progress, which record, being necessarily 
isolated from all that has led up to it, is often received with 
disbelief or ridicule, so have I on two occasions selected 
and published what seemed to be a few striking and definite 
facts; but having omitted to describe the preliminary stages 
necessary to lead the public mind up to an appreciation of 
the phenomena and to show how they fitted into other 
observed facts, they were also met, not only with incredulity, 
but with no little abuse. And, lastly, as the traveller, when 
his exploration is finished and he returns to his old 
associates, colle¢ts together all his scattered notes, tabulates 
them, and puts them in order ready to be given to the world 
as a connected narrative, so have I, on reaching this stage 
of the enquiry, arranged and put together all my discon- 
nected observations ready to place before the public in the 
form of a volume. 
The phenomena I am prepared to attest are so extra- 
ordinary and so directly oppose the most firmly rooted 
