Alfred Russel Wallace 



To Prop. Barrett 



Bosehill, Dorking. December 9, 1877. 



My dear Barrett, — I am always glad when a man I like 

 and respect treats me as a friend. I am adyised by other 

 friends also not to waste more time on Dr. C. [Carpenter], 

 and I do not think I shall answer him again, except perhaps 

 to keep him to certain points, as in my letter in the last 

 Nature. In a proof of his new edition of " Lectures " I 

 see he challenges me to produce a person who can detect 

 by light or sensation when an electro -magnet is made and 

 unmade. The Association of Spiritualists are going to ex- 

 periment, as Dr. C. offers to pay £30 if it succeeds. Should 

 you have an opportunity of trying with any persons, and 

 can find one who sees or feels the influence strongly, it might 

 be worth while to send him to London, as nothing would tend 

 to lower Dr. C. in public estimation on this subject more than 

 his being forced to acknowledge that what he has for more 

 than thirty years declared to be purely subjective is after 

 all an objective phenomenon. 



I never had anything to do with showing or sending a 

 medium to Huxley. He must refer to his seance a few 

 months ago with Mrs. Kane and Mrs. Jencken (along with 

 Carpenter and Tyndall), when . . . nothing but raps occurred. 

 ... —Yours very faitlifuUy, Alfred E. Wallace. 



The British Association met in Dublin in 1878, and Prof. 

 Barrett asked Wallace to stay with him at Kingstown, or, 

 if he preferred being nearer the meetings, with a friend in 

 Dublin. Earlier in the year Mr. Huggins, afterwards Sir 

 W. Huggins, CM. and President of the Koyal Society, had 

 sent Prof. Barrett a very beautifully executed drawing of 

 the knots tied in an endless cord during the remarkable 

 sittings Prof. Zollner had with the medium Slade. Sir 

 W. Huggins invited Prof. Barrett to come and see him at 



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