338 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



Medium. " I should be rendered instantly ill." 



/. " How do you feel to-day? " 



Medium. " Particularly well; I have not been so well 

 for months." 



/. " Then, may I ask you whether there is, at the pres- 

 ent moment, a magnet in my possession?" 



The young lady looked at me, blushed, and stammered: 



" No; I am not en rapport with you." 



I sat at her right hand, and a left-hand pocket, within 

 six inches of her person, contained a magnet. 



Our host here deprecated discussion, as it "exhausted 

 the medium." The wonderful narratives were resumed; 

 but I had narratives of my own quite as wonderful. These 

 spirits, indeed, seemed clumsy creations, compared with 

 those with which my own work had made me familiar. I 

 therefore began to match the wonders related to me by 

 other wonders. A lady present discoursed on spiritual 

 atmospheres, which she could see as beautiful colors when 

 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. Stand- 

 ing 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 acknowl- 

 edged 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, I was told, 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 

 a question whether I was a medium, the response was three 



