Polytechnic Association. 629 



(Great laughter.) When you have such people to see, is it any 

 wonder that they are taken in ? 



When the Davenports are once loose they tie themselves. They 

 tie the two ends of the' rope to their feet, and pass a loop around 

 their wrists, behind them, so that pushing forward their feet, their 

 hands are instantly free, and they can do what they please. So all 

 their tricks, wonderful as they are when unexplained, are simple 

 enough themselves ; and so I have found it everywhere. 



In 1859, the Mechanics' Institute held meetings similar to our own. 

 The question of spiritualism came up for discussion. I was opposed 

 to it ; but when it was decided to have it, I proposed that we should 

 have the spirits there, and see for ourselves. The first night I was 

 on the committee, when several communications were received from 

 the spirit world. When I took my place at the table, I was favor- 

 ably received, the medium thinking, from a remark I had made, that 

 I was a believer. I wrote down two questions in German, thinking 

 I would take my chances. The first was whether spiritualism was 

 true, and the answer was " no." The second was whether spiritualism 

 was a humbug, and the answer was " yes." And I was willing to 

 accept it at its own valuation. 



It is very difficult to determine where a sound comes from, when 

 we do not know what produces it. It is therefore very easy to 

 deceive people about the raps. At first the sounds appeared to come 

 from the wooden partition behind the medium ; but I had my stetho- 

 scope with me, and by privately applying it to those boards I found 

 that the sound did not come from there. I tried it on the table ; and 

 still there was no indication of the sound. But when I tried it upon 

 the board on which " the medium " had her feet, I found that there 

 was where the sound came from. I requested that she should move 

 forward to the edge of the platform ; and then I found that the sound 

 had shifted from the third board to the front board, on which her feet 

 were now resting. 



It is said sometimes that we should not go to public circles, but to 

 private circles, where deception is out of the question. I have been 

 in private families ; and sometimes the raps delayed so long that I 

 thought I would produce them myself. I found they would swallow 

 anything. No matter how absurd the answer was, they would so 

 interpret it as to make it wonderfully wise. Now, what has science 

 taught about the existence of a force outside the body ? Modern 

 physiology has taught us a great deal, and the doctrine of the con- 

 servation of forces, and of the chemical and mechanical equivalents of 



