124 DR. HAMMOND AND THE [vm. 



nection 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 

 ringer 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 after- 

 wards 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. Hammond'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 searching for some analogous 



