SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM. 249 



thus pendent. It was then held so that it should be entirely sur- 

 rounded by the wirework of the cage, and the results were, as before, 

 watched keenly by Mr. Crookes, Dr. Huggins, and Sergeant Cox. 

 After a while the instrument began to wave about, then the bellows 

 contracted, and the lower part (i.e. the key-board end) rose a little, 

 presently sounds were produced, and finally the instrument played a 

 tune upon itself in obedience, as Mr. Crookes supposes, to the 

 psychic force which Mr. Home exerted upon it. 



Before the publication of the paper describing these experiments a 

 proof was sent to both Dr. Huggins and Sergeant Cox, and each has 

 written a letter testifying to its accuracy, which letters are printed 

 with the paper in the Quarterly Journal of Science. 



Here, then, we have the testimony of an eminent lawyer, accus- 

 tomed to sifting evidence, that of the most distinguished of experi- 

 mental astronomers, the man whose discoveries in celestial physics 

 have justly excited the admiration of the whole civilized world ; and 

 besides these, of another Fellow of the Boyal Society, who has been 

 severely trained in " putting nature to the torture" by means of the 

 most subtle devices of the modern physical and chemical laboratory. 



Such testimony must not be treated lightly. It would be simple 

 impertinence for any man dogmatically to assert that these have been 

 deceived merely because he is unconvinced. 



Though one of the unconvinced myself, I would not dare to regard 

 the investigations of these gentlemen with any other than the pro- 

 foundest respect. Still a suggestion occurs to me which may appear 

 very brutal, but I make it nevertheless. It is this : That the testi- 

 mony of another witness of an expert of quite a different school 

 should have been added. I mean such a man as Dobler, Houdin, or 

 the Wizard of the North. He might possibly have detected some- 

 thing which escaped the scrutiny of the legitimate scientific experi- 

 mentalist. 



There is one serious defect in the accordion experiment. The cage 

 is represented in the engraving as placed under a table ; Mr. Homo 

 holds the instrument in his hand, which is concealed by the table, 

 and it does not appear that either Mr. Crookes, Dr. Huggins, or Ser- 

 geant Cox placed themselves under the table during the concertina 

 performance, and thus neither of them saw Mr. Home's hand. Such, 

 at least, appears from the description and the engraving. A story 

 being commonly circulated respecting some of Mr. Home's experi- 

 ments in Kussia, according to which he failed entirely when a glass 

 table was provided instead of a wooden one, it would be well, if only 

 in justice to Mr. Home, to get rid of the table altogether. 



It is very desirable that these experiments should be continued, for 

 two distinct reasons ; first, as a matter of ordinary investigation for 

 philosophical purposes, and, secondly, as a means of demolishing the 

 most degrading superstition of this generation. 



If Mr. Crookes succeeds in demonstrating the existence of the 

 psychic force and reducing it to law as it must be reducible if it is a 

 force then the ground will be cut from under the feet of spiritual- 

 ism, just as the old superstitions, which attributed thunder and light- 

 ning to Divine anger, were finally demolished by Franklin's kite. If, 

 on the other hand, the arch-medium, Mr. Home, is proved to be a 

 common conjuror, then surely the dupes of the smaller " medium- 

 istic' : fry will have their eyes opened, provided the cerebral disturb- 



