240 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



top and bottom, and large enough for the accordion to be 

 suspended within it by holding it over the open top, while 

 the bottom of the cage rested on the floor. The accordion 

 was then handed to Mr. Home, who held it with one hand 

 by the wooden framework of the bottom of the instrument, 

 as shown in an illustrative drawing. The keys were thus 

 hanging downwards and the bellows distended by the 

 weight of the instrument thus pendent. It was then held 

 so that it should be entirely surrounded by the wire-work 

 of the cage, and the results were, as before, watched keenly 

 by Mr. Crookes, Dr. Huggins, and Serjeant Cox. After a 

 while the instrument began to wave about, then the bel- 

 lows 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 ex- 

 periments a proof was sent to both Dr. Huggins and Ser- 

 jeant 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 law- 

 yer, accustomed to sifting evidence, that of the most dis- 

 tinguished of experimental astronomers, the man whose 

 discoveries in celestial physics have justly excited the ad- 

 miration of the whole civilized world; and besides these, of 

 another Fellow of the Royal Society, who has been severely 

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

 the most subtle devices of the modern physical and chemi- 

 cal 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 uncon- 

 vinced. 



Though one of the unconvinced myself, I would not dare 

 to regard the investigations of these gentlemen with any 

 other than the profoundest respect. Still a suggestion oc- 

 curs to me which may appear very brutal, but I make it 

 nevertheless. It is this: That the testimony of another 



