336 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



degree implicated. It is an abrupt stoppage of sensation, 

 unaccompanied by a pang. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



SCIENCE AND THE " SPII 



THEIR refusal to investigate "spiritual phenomena" is 

 often urged as a reproach against scientific men. I here 

 propose to give a sketch of an attempt to apply to the 

 "phenomena" those methods of inquiry which are found 

 available in dealing with natural truth. 



Some years ago, when the spirits were particularly active 

 in this country, Faraday was invited, or rather entreated, 

 by one of his friends to meet and question them. He had, 

 however, already made their acquaintance, and did not 

 wish to renew it. I had not been so privileged, and he 

 therefore kindly arranged a transfer of the invitation to 

 me. The spirits themselves named the time of meeting, 

 and I was conducted to the place at the day and hour 

 appointed. 



Absolute unbelief in the facts was by no means my con- 

 dition of mind. On the contrary, I thought it probable 

 that some physical principle, not evident to the spirit- 

 ualists themselves, might underlie their manifestations. 

 Extraordinary effects are produced by the accumulation of 

 small impulses. Galileo set a heavy pendulum in motion 

 by the well-timed puffs of his breath. Ellicot set one clock 

 going by the ticks of another, even when the two clocks 

 were separated by a wall. Preconceived notions can, more- 

 over, vitiate, to an extraordinary degree, the testimony of 

 even veracious persons. Hence my desire to witness those 

 extraordinary phenomena, the existence of which seemed 

 placed beyond a doubt by the known veracity of those who 

 had witnessed and described them. The meeting took 

 place at a private residence in the neighborhood of London. 

 My host, his intelligent wife, and a gentleman who may be 

 called X., were in the house when I arrived. I was 

 informed that the " medium " had not yet made her appear- 

 ance; that she was sensitive, and might resent suspicion. 

 It was therefore requested that the tables and chairs should 

 be examined before her arrival, in order to be assured that 



