1871.] Experimental Investigation of a New Force. 339 



potentially ; that in a climate like ours a savage population 

 must also be very sparse ; that so far as we know savages 

 either burn their dead or bury them, and that any not 

 recovered by their friends would probably have been 

 speedily disposed of by the hyaenas and other beasts of prey 

 which then abounded, we are by no means sanguine that 

 many bones of the men of the period under consideration 

 will ever be found, unless it be in an ancient cemetery, such 

 as that at Aurignac, already mentioned ; or that those who 

 wish to retain it will speedily be deprived of the privilege 

 of asking, " Why don't you find the bones of the men as well as 

 their implements ?" 



V. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF A 

 NEW FORCE. 



By William Crookes, F.R.S., &c. 



fWELVE months ago in this journal* I wrote an article, 

 in which, after expressing in the most emphatic 

 manner my belief in the occurrence, under certain 

 circumstances, of phenomena inexplicable by any known 

 natural laws, I indicated several tests which men of science 

 had a right to demand before giving credence to the 

 genuineness of these phenomena. Among the tests pointed 

 out were, that a " delicately poised balance should be moved 

 under test conditions ;" and that some exhibition of power 

 equivalent to so many "foot-pounds" should be "manifested 

 in his laboratory, where the experimentalist could weigh, 

 measure, and submit it to proper tests." I said, too, that 

 I could not promise to enter fully into this subject, owing 

 to the difficulties of obtaining opportunities, and the nume- 

 rous failures attending the enquiry; moreover, that "the 

 persons in whose presence these phenomena take place are 

 few in number, and opportunities for experimenting with 

 previously arranged apparatus are rarer still." 



Opportunities having since offered for pursuing the investi- 

 gation, I have gladly availed myself of them for applying to 

 these phenomena careful scientific testing experiments, and 

 I have thus arrived at certain definite results which I think it 

 right should be published. These experiments appear con- 

 clusively to establish the existence of a new force, in some 

 unknown manner connected with the human organisation, 

 which for convenience may be called the Psychic Force. 



* See Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. vii., p. 316, July, 1870. 



