SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM. 245 



repeatedly deceived by the mechanical action of experi- 

 mental test apparatus carefully constructed and used by 

 themselves. 



As the interest in the subject is rapidly growing, my 

 readers will probably welcome a somewhat longer gossip 

 on this than I usually devote to a single subject. 



Such an extension is the more demanded as the news- 

 paper and magazine articles which have hitherto ap- 

 peared have, for. the most part, by following the lead of 

 the " Quarterly Review," strangely muddled the whole 

 subject, and misstated the position of Mr. Crookes and 

 others. In the first place, all the writers who follow the 

 " Quarterly " omit any mention or allusion to Mr. Crookes's 

 preliminary paper published in July, 1870, which has a 

 most important bearing on the whole subject, as it ex- 

 pounds the object of all the subsequent researches. 



Mr. Crookes there states that " Some weeks ago the fact 

 that I was engaged in investigating Spiritualism, so-called, 

 was announced in a contemporary (the " Athenasum"), and 

 in consequence of the many communications I have since 

 received, I think it desirable to say a little concerning the 

 investigations which I have commenced. Views or opinions 

 I cannot be said to possess on a subject which I do not pro- 

 fess to understand. I consider it the duty of scientific men, 

 who have learned exact modes of working, to examine phe- 

 nomena which attract the attention of the public, in order 

 to confirm their genuineness, or to explain, if possible, the 

 delusions of the honest, and to expose the tricks of the de- 

 ceivers/'' 



He then proceeds to state the case of Science versus Spir- 

 itualism thus : " The Spiritualist tells of bodies weighing 

 50 or 100 Ibs. being lifted up into the air without the in- 

 tervention of any known force ; but the scientific chemist 

 is accustomed to use a balance which will render sensible a 

 weight so small that it would take ten thousand of them to 

 weigh one grain ; he is, therefore, justified in asking that a 

 power, professing to be guided by intelligence, which will 

 toss a heavy body to the ceiling, shall also cause his deli- 

 cately-poised balance to move under test conditions." " The 

 Spiritualist tells of rooms and houses being shaken, even to 



