534 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. ISo. 172. 



Wm. R. Brooks, 

 Director of Smith Observatory, Geneva, N. Y. 



E. E. Barnard, 



Astronomer, Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, 

 Wis. 

 G. W. Meyers, 



Director of Observatory, University of Illinois, 

 TJrbana, III. 

 Henry M. Paul, 



Astronomer, United States Naval Observatory, 

 Washington, D. C. 

 Wm. W. Payne, 



Director of Carleton College Observatory, North- 

 field, Minn. 

 J. K. ReES, 

 Director of Columbia College Observatory, New 

 York City. 

 S. W. BURNHAM, 



Astronomer, Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, 

 Wis. 



C. L. DOOLITTLE, 



Director of the Flower Observatory, University 

 of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 



F. L. O. Wadsworth, 



Astrophysicist, Yerkes Observatory, Williams 

 Bay, Wis. 

 David P. Todd, 



Director of the Observatory, Amherst College. 



MRS. PIPER, THE MEDIUM. 



The last number of the Proceedings of the 

 Society for Psychical Research contains a state- 

 ment to the effect that the present writer does 

 not pay ' the slightest attention to psychical 

 research d, la English Society;' he 'taboos it 

 throughout, but has never even read the reports 

 and their experiments in telepathy.' If this 

 information were obtained by telepathy it does 

 not increase my confidence in that method of 

 communication. It is exactly the thirteen vol- 

 umes issued by the Society for Psychical Re- 

 search that seem to me to prove the trivial 

 character of the evidence for the heterogeneous 

 mass of material taken under the wing of the 

 Society. 



The present number of the Proceedings seems 

 to me, however, of some interest in that it con- 

 cludes or continues an account of the stances 



of Mrs. Piper, under the title, 'A Further Rec- 

 ord of Observations of Certain Phenomena of 

 Trance,' on which subject Dr. Richard Hodgson 

 has now contributed over 600 pages. The case 

 of Mrs. Piper is of interest, because Professor 

 James has said : 



" If you wish to upset the law that all crows are 

 black, you musn't seek to show that no crows are ; 

 it is enough if you prove one single crow to he white. 

 My own white crow is Mrs. Piper. In the trances of 

 this medium, I cannot resist the conviction that knowl- 

 edge appears which she has never gained by the or- 

 dinary waking use of her eyes and ears and wits. ' ' 

 (Science, N. S., III., 884.) 



It is Professor James who gives dignity and 

 authority to psychical research in America, and 

 if he has selected a crucial case it deserves 

 consideration. The difiioulty has been that 

 proving innumerable mediums to be frauds does 

 not disprove the possibility (though it greatly re- 

 duces the likelihood) of one medium being gen- 

 uine. But here we have the ' white crow ' 

 selected by Professor James from all the pie- 

 bald crows exhibited by the Society. 



I find, among the great number of names and 

 initials whose stances with Mrs. Piper are re- 

 ported, iive and only five well-known men of 

 science. The following are the concluding sen- 

 tences of their reports : 



These elements of truth were, however, so buried in 

 masses of incoherent matter and positive errors as to 

 matters in which she tried to give information that 

 the sense of her failure on the whole is far stronger 

 with me. 



Even as to the fact of her being in a trance at all my 

 impression is not strong, despite the tact that I came 

 fully expecting to he convinced on that point. 



My state of mind, therefore, is almost the same 

 that it was before the sitting, i. e., a condition of will- 

 ing approach to any evidence on either side of the 

 question at issue ; I am only disappointed that she 

 did not give me more data for forming a positive 

 opinion. I am fully aware, however, that one such 

 sitting has very little negative weight, considering the 

 variations which this sort of phenomena are subject to. 

 J. Mark Baldwin. 



I was struck by a sort of insane cunning in the 

 groping of the woman after something intangible. 



It did not seem to me that she simulated a trance 

 state. She was apparently, as far as I could judge, in 

 some abnormal condition. 



