238 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



not what is called " a spiritualist.'' This I infer, both from 

 what he has published and from conversation I have had 

 with him on the subject. He has witnessed some of the 

 " physical manifestations," and, while admitting that many 

 of these may be produced by the jugglery of impostors, he 

 has concluded that others cannot be thus explained; but, 

 nevertheless, does not accept the spiritual theory which at- 

 tributes them to the efforts of departed human souls. 



He suspects that the living human being may have the 

 power of exerting some degree of force or influence upon 

 bodies external to himself may, for instance, be able to 

 counteract or increase the gravitation of substances by an 

 effort of the will. He calls this power the "psychic force," 

 and supposes that some persons are able to manifest it 

 much more powerfully than others, and thus explains the 

 performances of those "mediums" who are not mere im- 

 postors. 



There is nothing in this hypothesis which the sternest, 

 the most sceptical, and least imaginative of physical philos- 

 ophers may not unhesitatingly investigate, provided some 

 first-sight evidence of its possibility is presented to him. 

 We know that the Torpedo, the Gymnotus, the Silurus 

 Electricus, and other fishes, can, by an effort of the will, 

 act upon bodies external to themselves. Faraday showed 

 that the electric eel exhibited some years ago at the Ade- 

 laide Gallery was able, by an effort of its will, to make a 

 magnetic needle suddenly turn thirty 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 voluntary nervous effort, and without calling in the aid 

 of any souls of other departed eels. 



Before this gymnotus was publicly exhibited it was de- 

 posited at a French hotel in the neighborhood of Leicester 

 Square. A burly fishmonger'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 



