Modern Witchcraft. 125 



opinion. In connection with these phenomena, 

 Dr. Hammond calls attention to an experiment 

 of Professor Tyndall's, in which an egg is placed 

 in an egg-cup and a long lath balanced upon the 

 egg : if a dry stick of sealing-wax, which has been 

 well rubbed with a piece of woollen cloth, be held 

 over one end of the lath, the latter, no matter 

 how heavy, will rise to meet it. In dry weather 

 many persons can make the finger serve the same 

 purpose as the sealing-wax, by first shuffling their 

 feet for a few moments over the carpet. Taking 

 these things into consideration, Dr. Hammond 

 arranged an apparatus like that of Mr. Crookes, 

 and, applying the stick of sealing-wax just over 

 the fulcrum, where Mr. Home's finger-tips had 

 rested, the pointer of the balance at once de- 

 scended. The same result was immediately af- 

 terwards obtained when, after shuffling over a 

 thick rug, Dr. Hammond rested his finger on the 

 same place. So far, therefore, the strain on the 

 balance would seem to be due neither to ghosts 

 of departed men nor to " psychic force," but to 

 some peculiar manifestation of that commonplace 

 agent, friction electricity. How far Dr. Ham- 

 mond's experiments may be conclusive, it is not 

 in our power to say. What it concerns us to 

 notice is that his method of going to work, by 



