74 Notices of Books. (January, 
After all, the evidence is only the assertion of so many 
individuals that each had witnessed something which he 
describes, and carries with it only the weight of one voice. But 
the Investigation Sub-Committees are of vastly more importance, 
for they were appointed to witness the alleged phenomena, and 
to apply to them such tests as ingenuity might devise. Five- 
sixths of their members were entirely sceptical, and went to the 
work confident that they should discover a delusion or an 
imposture. They adopted every practical security against 
deception: they would not employ a professional medium, but 
looked for, and fortunately found, one in private life—a lady in 
high social position—who gave them her assistance through the 
entire of their protracted enquiry; and this lady had never seen 
any of the phenomena previously to its being accidentally dis- 
covered that they occurred in her presence. 
Sub-Committee No. 1 was the most regular and persevering, 
holding altogether no less than forty meetings, of each one of 
which a careful note was taken, which is published inthe Appendix 
to the volume before us. The Report states briefly and clearly 
the results of that careful examination. 
_ Although five-sixths of the members were wholly sceptical 
when they commenced the inquiry, at its close all who had 
attended the meetings, so as to witness the phenomena and 
apply the tests, were completely satisfied that the phenomena were 
genuine—that it was not imposture nor delusion, as they had ex- 
pected ; and they state their conclusions to be :— 
‘First: That under certain bodily or mental conditions of 
one or more of the persons present, a force is exhibited sufficient 
to set in motion heavy substances, without the employment of 
any muscular force, without contact or material connection of 
any kind between such substances and the body of any person 
present. 
‘‘Second: That this force can cause sounds to proceed, dis- 
tin@tly audible to all present, from solid substances not in contact 
with, nor having any visible or material connection with, the 
body of any person present, and which sounds are proved to 
.proceed from such substances by the vibrations which are 
distinétly felt when they are touched. 
“Third: That this force is frequently directed by intelli- 
gence.” 
It will thus be seen that the Committee of the Dialectical 
Society, comprising a large body of sceptics, after cautious 
examination by a different class of experiments from those 
detailed in this journal, arrived at the same conclusion as 
Mr. Crookes,—that there is a psychic force that operates upon 
inanimate matter beyond the bounds of actual muscular contact 
or connection; that this force is associated with some special 
organisation in certain persons; and that it is often directed by 
