G2G Transactions of the American Institute. 



as trie discoverer of important chemical facts. Last July he gave an 

 account of experiments made by him, in conjunction with Mr. Home, 

 the " Spiritual medium," who surprised the Court of Napoleon and a 

 great many others by his feats. The account of those experiments 

 has been reprinted by the Scientific American, and they have thus 

 been brought to the notice of the people of this country. 



The first of these experiments consisted in making an accordeon 

 sound when held in one hand. It is said that the accordeon floated 

 in the air when Home withdrew his hand ; but this Prof. Crookes 

 did not himself see, but gives on the authority of his assistant who 

 saw it. There was a copper wire coiled around the ]egs of a table, 

 many times, connected with the poles of a galvanic battery. Mr. 

 Home held the accordeon beneath the table, and then the accordeon 

 played, swinging one way and the other. 



The other experiment consisted in resting one end of a mahogany 

 bar upon a table, and the other upon a spring balance, which then 

 indicated a strain of three pounds ; but when Mr. Home placed his 

 finger upon the end which rested on the table, the balance indicated 

 a weight of six pounds. 



These two experiments were all ; and from these Prof. Crookes 

 came to the conclusion that there must be some mysterious force, not 

 investigated by scientists, to account for it. 



It has long been asserted that there was such a force. One of the 

 earlier investigators who maintained it was Mesmer, who claimed that 

 he could not only move objects, but cure diseases by it, without con- 

 tact. Mesmer believed in his theory. He was honest about it, and 

 considered himself one of the greatest discoverers in modern science. 

 The delusion was fortified by the supposed cures he performed. He 

 employed a battery which was in imitation of a Leyden battery, only 

 the jars contained iron filings, had iron filings about them, and were 

 filled up with sand or water, and had the same substances around 

 them. The battery had points to be directed toward those parts of 

 the patients where they felt pain, and Mesmer, dressed like an astrolo- 

 gist of the olden time, with a magic baton in his hand, manipulated 

 them, and succeeded in making it fashionable in Paris, particularly 

 for rich people, to come to him, and they supposed they were bene- 

 fited by it. At the time he was in his full glory, he wrote a petition 

 to the King of France asking for compensation. He said such a dis- 

 covery as he had made could not be paid for in money ; and the only 

 thing he would accept was a chateau with plenty of land around it. 

 Failing to obtain this reward from the French 'government, he went 



