250 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



advisedly when we say that this distinction was conferred on 

 him with considerable hesitation;" and further that "Wo 

 are assured, on the highest authority, that he is regarded 

 among chemists as a specialist of specialists, being totally 

 destitute of any knoivledge of chemical philosophy, and ut- 

 terly untrustworthy as to any inquiry which requires more 

 than technical knowledge for its successful conduct." 



The italics in these quotations are my own, placed there 

 to mark certain statements to which no milder term than 

 that of falsehood is applicable. The history of Mr. Crookes's 

 admission to the Eoyal Society will shortly be published, 

 when the impudence of the above statement respecting it 

 will be unmasked; and the other quotations I have em- 

 phasized are sufficiently and abundantly refuted by Mr. 

 Crookes's published works, and his long and able conduct 

 of the Chemical News, which is the only and the recognized 

 British periodical representative of chemical science. 



If space permitted, I could go on quoting a long series 

 of misstatements of matters of fact from this singularly un- 

 veracious essay. The writer seems conscious of its general 

 character, for, in the midst of one of his narratives, he breaks 

 out into a foot-note, stating that " This is not an invention 

 of our own, but a fact communicated to us by a highly in- 

 telligent witness, who was admitted to one of Mr. Orookes's 

 seances." I have taken the liberty to emphasize the proper 

 word in this very explanatory note. 



The full measure of the injustice of prominently thrust- 

 ing forward Dr. Huggius and Mr. Crookes as "recent con- 

 verts" to Spiritualism will be seen by comparing the re- 

 viewer's own definition of Spiritualism with Mr. Crookes's 

 remarks above quoted. The reviewer says that " The funda- 

 mental tenet of the Spiritualist is the old doctrine of com- 

 munication between the spirits of the departed and souls of 

 the living." 



- This is the definition of the reviewer, and his logical con- 

 clusion is that Mr. Crookes is a Spiritualist because he ex- 

 plicitly denies the fundamental tenet of Spiritualism, and 

 Dr. Huggins is a Spiritualist because he says nothing what- 

 ever about it. 



If examining the phenomena upon which the Spiritualist 



