SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM. 247 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM. 



A BATHER startling paper in the current number of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Science, from the pen of Mr. William Crookes, F.E.S. (who 

 is well known in the scientific world by his discovery of the metal 

 thallium, his investigations of its properties and those of its com- 

 pounds, besides mau} r other important researches, and also as the 

 able and spirited editor of the Chemical News), is now the subject of 

 much scientific gossip and discussion. 



Mr. Crookes has for some time past been engaged in investigating 

 some of the phenomena which are attributed on one hand to the 

 agency of spiritual visitors, and on the other side to vulgar conjur- 

 ing. Nobody acquainted with Mr. Crookes can doubt his ability to 

 conduct such an investigation, or will hesitate for a moment in con- 

 cluding that he has done so with philosophical impartiality, though 

 many think it quite possible that he may have been deceived. None, 

 however, can yet say how. 



For my own part, I abstain from any conclusion in the mean time, 

 until I have time and opportunity to witness a repetition of some of 

 these experiments, and submitting them to certain tests which appear 

 to me desirable. Though struggling against a predisposition to pre- 

 judge, and to conclude that the phenomena are the results of some 

 very skilful conjuring, I very profoundly respect the moral courage 

 that Mr. Crookes has displayed in thus publicly grappling with a 

 subject which has been soiled by contact with so many dirty fingers. 

 Nothing but a pure love of truth, overpowering every selfish consid- 

 eration, could have induced Mr. Crookes to imperil his hard-earned 

 scientific reputation by stepping thus boldly on such very perilous 

 ground. 



It is only fair, at the outset, to state that Mr. Crookes is not what 

 is called a " spiritualist." This I infer, both from what he has pub- 

 lished and from conversation I have had with him on the subject. 

 He has witnessed some of the "physical manifestations," and, while 

 admitting that many of these may be produced by the jugglery of 

 impostors, he has concluded that others cannot be thus explained ; 

 but, nevertheless, does not accept the spiritual theory which at- 

 tributes them to the efforts of departed Iranian souls. 



He suspects that the living human being may have the power of 

 exerting some degree of force or influence upon bodies external to 

 himself may, for instance, be able to counteract or increase the 

 gravitation of substances by an effort of the will. He calls this 

 power the " psychic force," and supposes that some persons are able 

 to manifest it much more powerfully than others, and thus explains 

 the performances of those " mediums" who are not mere impostors. 



There is nothing in this hypothesis which the sternest, the most 

 sceptical, and least imaginative of physical philosophers may not un- 

 hesitatingly investigate, provided some first sight evidence of its pos- 

 sibility is presented to him. We know that the Torpedo, the Gym- 

 notus, the Silurus Electricus, and other fishes, can, by an effort of 

 the will, act upon bodies external to themselves. Faraday showed 

 that the electric eel exhibited some years ago at the Adelaide Gallery 



