248 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



was able, by an effort of its will, to make a magnetic needle suddenly 

 turn 30 degrees aside from its usual polar position ; that this same 

 animal could still by an effort of will overpower the gravitation of 

 pieces of gold leaf, cause them to be uplifted and outstretched from 

 their pendent position, could decompose iodide of potassium, and 

 perform many other "physical manifestations," simply by a volun- 

 tary nervous effort, and without calling in the aid of any souls of 

 other departed eels. 



Before this gymnotus was publicly exhibited it was deposited at a 

 French hotel in the neighborhood of Leicester Square. A burly fish- 

 monger's man, named Wren, brought in the daily supply of fish to 

 the establishment, when some of the servants told him they had an 

 eel so large that he would be afraid to pick it up. He laughed at the 

 idea of being afraid of an eel, and when taken to the tub boldly 

 plunged in both hands to seize the fish. A hideous roar followed 

 this attempt. Wren had experienced a demonstration of the " psychic 

 force" of the electrical eel, and his terror so largely exaggerated the 

 actual violence of the shock, that he believed for the remainder of 

 his life that he was permanently injured by it. He had periodical 

 spasms across the chest, which could only be removed by taking a 

 half-quartern of gin. As he was continually narrating his adventure 

 to public-house audiences, and always had a spasm on concluding, 

 which his hearers usually contributed to relieve, the poor fellow's life 

 was actually shortened by the shock from the gymnotus. 



The experiments which Mr. Crookes relates in support of his 

 psychic force hypothesis are as follows : In the first place he con- 

 trived an apparatus for testing Mr. Home's alleged power of modify- 

 ing the gravitation of bodies. As Mr. Home requires to lay his 

 hands, or at least his finger ends, upon the body to be influenced, 

 Mr. Crookes attached one end of a long board to a suspended spring 

 steelyard of delicate construction ; the other end of the board rested 

 on a fulcrum in such a manner that one half of the weight of the 

 board was supported by the fulcrum and the other half by the steel- 

 yard. The weight of the board thus suspended was carefully noted, 

 and Mr. Home put his fingers upon that end of the board immedi- 

 ately resting on the fulcrum in such a manner that he could not by 

 simple pressure affect the dependent end of the board. 



Dr. Huggins, the eminent astronomer, was present, and also Ser- 

 geant Cox, besides Mr. Crookes. They all watched Mr. Home, the 

 board, and the steelyard ; they observed first a vibration and fluctua- 

 tion of the index, and finally that the steelyard indicated an increase 

 of weight amounting to about three pounds. Mr. Crookes tried to 

 produce the same effect by mechanical pressure exerted in a similar 

 manner, but failed to do so. The details of the experiment are fully 

 described and illustrated by an engraving. 



Another and still more striking experiment is described. Mr. 

 Crookes purchased a new accordion from Messrs. Wheatstone, and 

 himself constructed a wire cage open at top and bottom, and large 

 enough for the accordion to be suspended within it by holding it 

 over the open top, while the bottom of the cage rested on the floor. 

 The accordion was then handed to Mr. Home, who held it with one 

 hand by the wooden framework of the bottom of the instrument, as 

 shown in an illustrative drawing. The keys were thus hanging 

 downward and the bellows distended by the weight of the instrument 



