470 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



Government service, in speaking to him on the subject, once 

 described how he had actually seen a spiritual medium rise in the 

 air and waft himself out of the window. "Judge," answered the 

 Professor, "you never saw that, and, if you think you did, you are 

 in a dangerous mental condition. If you do not give this delusion 

 up you will be in the insane asylum before you know it. As a 

 loving friend I beseech you to take warning of what I say, and to 

 reflect that what you think you saw is a mental delusion which 

 requires the most careful treatment." 



He used frequently to relate a curious circumstance as an illustra- 

 tion of the character of this legerdemain A noted spiritualist had 

 visited Washington during Mr. Lincoln's administration, and held 

 several seances with the President himself. The latter was ex- 

 tremely desirous that Professor Henry should see the medium, 

 and give his opinion as to how he performed his wonderful feats. 

 Although Henry generally avoided all contact with such men, he 

 consented to receive him at the Smithsonian Institution. Among 

 the acts proposed was that of making sounds in various quarters 

 of the room. This was something which the keen senses and 

 ready experimental faculty of the Professor were well qualified to 

 investigate. He turned his head in various positions while the 

 sounds were being emitted. He then turned toward the man with 

 the utmost firmness and said, " I do not know how you make the 

 sounds, but this I perceive very clearly : they do not come from 

 the room but from your person." It was in vain that the operator 

 protested that they did not, and that he had no knowledge how 

 they were produced. The keen ear of his examiner could not be 

 deceived. 



Sometime afterward the Professor was traveling in the east, and 

 took a seat in a railway car beside a young man who, finding who 

 his companion was, entered into conversation with him, and in- 

 formed him that he was a maker of telegraph instruments. His 

 advances were received in so friendly a manner that he went further 

 yet, and confided to him that his ingenuity had been called into requi- 

 sition by spiritual mediums, to whom he furnished the apparatus 

 necessary for the manifestations. Henry asked him by what medi- 

 ums he had been thus engaged, and was interested to find that among 



