J. MALCOLM BIRD 273 



In the seance-room, of course, the situation is met 

 by a series of compromises and approximations. 

 When the communicator talks on a certain subject, 

 most of what he says is known to the sitter or at least 

 subject to check. No attempt Is or can be made to 

 exhaust his mental content, to get him to tell every- 

 thing he knows. The skillful communicator seeks 

 only to recall to the sitter isolated trivialities, a com- 

 paratively small number of which would be sufficient 

 to Indicate that only the person he claims to be could 

 within any reasonable probability know them all. 

 Practically, of course, there is extreme difficulty In 

 establishing a really compelling presumption that the 

 particular items which he adduces are not just those 

 particular ones which the medium, by extensive dig- 

 ging and delving, has been able to learn. Practically 

 the controlling element here Is usually the approxi- 

 mate proof that the sitter was a complete stranger 

 who could not have been anticipated. Practically, 

 too, these details are for the researcher to worry 

 about and deal with. 



I may construct two fictitious but thoroughly typical 

 examples to show how It all works. Suppose I receive 

 a long communication In the name of Sir Arthur Conan 

 Doyle. He reminds me of small details In our joint 

 seances of 1923, our passage on the Olympic, our con- 

 tacts In New York and Chicago and Toledo and Loon 

 Lake. He speaks of a certain snapshot taken at Crow- 

 borough, showing him and his sons and myself engaged 

 in the highly un-English pastime of one-old-cat. He 

 mentions details of letters exchanged between himself 

 and me, and both of us and Dr. Crandon (who like 

 Sir Arthur enjoys the vice of exhibiting, to third 



