SCIENCE AND SPIRITS. 405 



she closed her eyes. I professed myself able to see similar 

 colors, and more than that, to be able to see the interior of 

 my own eyes. The medium affirmed that she could see 

 actual waves of light coming from the sun. I retorted that 

 men of science could tell the exact number of waves 

 emitted in a second, and also their exact length. The 

 medium spoke of the performances of the spirits on musical 

 instruments. I said that such performance was gross, in 

 comparison with a kind of music which had been discovered 

 some time previously by a scientific man. Standing at a 

 distance of twenty feet from a jet of gas, he could command 

 the flame to emit a melodious note ; it would obey, and 

 continue its song for hours. So loud was the music emitted 

 by the gas-flame, that it might be heard by an assembly of 

 a thousand people. These were acknowledged to be as 

 great marvels as any of those of spiritdom. The spirits 

 were then consulted, and I was pronounced to be a first- 

 class medium. 



During this conversation a low knocking was heard 

 from time to time under the table. These were the spirits' 

 knocks. I was informed that one knock, in answer to a 

 question, meant " No ; " that two knocks meant " Not 

 yet ; " and that three knocks meant " Yes." In answer to 

 the question whether I was a medium, the response was 

 three brisk and vigorous knocks. I noticed that the knocks 

 issued from a particular locality, and therefore requested 

 the spirits to be good enough to answer from another 

 corner of the table. They did not comply ; but I was 

 assured that they would do it, and much more, by-and-by. 

 The knocks continuing, I turned a Avine-glass upside down, 

 and placed my ear upon it, as upon a stethoscope. The 

 spirits seemed disconcerted by the act ; they lost their 

 playfulness, and did not quite recover it for a considerable 

 time. 



Somewhat weary of the proceedings, I once threw my- 



