_? pata ; « i a oa : 
ARY 3, 1923] 
_pasteurisation of the mass of publicly supplied milk 
and thus at once ensuring safety from the chief 
- dangers of our milk supply? Why also does it not 
insist on declaration of pasteurisation when this has 
n done commercially apart from any regulations 
“for certifying pasteurised milk? 








<2 
Physics and Psychics. 
a) (Psychical Research). The Goligher Circle, May to 
August 7921. Experiences of Dr. E. E. Fournier 
_d’Albe. With an Appendix containing Extracts 
from the Correspondence of the late Dr. W. J. 
Crawford, and others. Pp. 81+plates. (London: 
ej. M. Watkins, 21 Cecil Court, 1922.) 7s. 6d. net. 
(2) The Case against Spirit Photographs. 
Vincent Patrick and W. Whately Smith. Pp. 47. 
- (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 
(3) Cold Light on Spiritualistic ““ Phenomena”: An 
q Experiment with the Crewe Circle. By Harry Price. 
_ Pp.15. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 
| 
6d. net. ; 
(1) N this book Dr. Fournier d’Albe records his 
experiments with the Goligher medium and 
Circle, undertaken to corroborate, if possible, the re- 
cable results claimed by the late Dr. Crawford. In 
order to explain certain alleged occult phenomena 


















(“raps,”’ “‘levitations,” etc.) obtained with this 
medium, Dr. Crawford postulated as the agents in- ! 
fisible entities which he called “ operators,” and 
believed to be departed human beings (spirits). The 
n operandi of the ‘‘ operators” is as follows : 
From the medium’s body, metamorphosed from her 
“flesh,” a substance, indifferently called ‘“ plasm,” 
“ectoplasm,” “ psychic fluid,” etc., emanates as an 
ttensible rod, the proximal end of which retains 
connexion with the medium’s body, the distal free end 
ing provided with a “suction grip” to hold, and 
, objects. Dr. Crawford not only photographed 
“ psychic stuff,” but also in June 1920 saw it and 
felt it wriggling up the medium’s legs like a snake. 
Sho! after this experience he committed suicide, 
nd his researches ceased. Some ten months later 
Ir. Fournier d’Albe takes up the broken threads. 
the séance room he describes as feebly illuminated by 
candle-power gas-burner, enclosed in a box with 
red glass sides so arranged that the medium is in 
ative darkness, the floor, the legs of the members 
- of the Circle, and even some of their hands, being in 
otal darkness. Kathleen Goligher, the medium, is 
tated at one end, so to speak, of the circle of sitters, 
r father being almost invariably next her. 
_ Dr. Fournier d’Albe placed at the bottom of an 
‘empty decanter a glass button, a peg, and a cork, 
NO. 2779, VOL. 111] 
sae 
Imp 
NATURE 
By Cf 
139 
and asked the “ spirits ” to remove the cork by means 
of a “ psychic structure,” but leave the other objects 
in the decanter. The “ spirits,” apparently unable to 
discriminate between the objects, remove the button. 
Dr. Fournier d’Albe next placed with the button a 
drop of mercury in the decanter, and requested the 
“ spirits ’’ to remove the former only. After repeated 
attempts they gave it up, saying, through raps, that 
they would try again another day. They did—and 
succeeded. Lastly, to prevent both inversion of the 
decanter and substitution, Dr. Fournier d’Albe asks 
them to remove the button from a decanter containing 
water. After several trials the “ spirits ” rap out the 
message that they cannot do so, as the water dissolves 
the “ psychic structure.” 
By this time the experimenter is becoming dis- 
illusioned. Nor are his suspicions allayed by the 
chiffon-like appearance of the shadowgraph which he 
took of the “ ectoplasm.” Finally, when Dr. Fournier 
d’Albe unmistakably felt muscular movements of both 
father and daughter going on in unison with the move- 
ments of a “levitated” table, when, a little later, he 
saw a “levitated” stool balanced on the foot of the 
medium’s outstretched leg, he thought it time to 
conclude the experiments. He sent the medium a 
cheque, stating he desired no more sittings as, after 
three months’ experimenting, he had gathered no 
definite evidence in favour of the psychic origin of the 
phenomena. However, he was persuaded to attend 
one more sitting at which a great effort was to be 
made to produce evidential phenomena. Dr. Fournier 
d’Albe assented, stipulating that the medium’s feet be 
tied to the chair, and her arms held. This was agreed 
to, but, as is always the case at séances when trickery 
is precluded, there were no spiritualistic phenomena of 
any kind, no levitation could be obtained—not even 
the faintest rap. 
Dr. Fournier d’Albe is to be congratulated on his 
exposure of this notorious medium and Circle. But 
let the reader be under no misapprehension : although 
Dr. Fournier d’Albe says Dr. Crawford’s experiments 
are invalidated he yet sees nothing in his own dealings 
with the Golighers to make him doubt the genuineness 
of the “ spiritualistic phenomena ” of Madame Bisson 
and her medium Eva C. We wonder if he holds the 
same opinion now that the “phenomena” of this 
French medium have been dismissed as a “ clumsy 
hoax”? by a committee of professors who recently 
witnessed them. 
The book contains an appendix dealing with the 
correspondence of the late Dr. Crawford and others 
which the reader cannot afford to ignore, as it furnishes 
a good insight into the reasoning capacity and “ scien- 
tific method ” of spiritualists. 
