348 Experimental Investigation of^a New Force. [July, 



be a witness to the withdrawal of Mr. Home's hand from 

 the accordion, but such was stated to be the case at the 

 time by yourself and by the person sitting on the other side 

 of Mr. Home. 



The experiments appear to me to show the importance of 

 further investigation, but I wish it to be understood that I 

 express no opinion as to the cause of the phenomena which 

 took place. Yours very truly, 



William Huggins. 



Wm. Crookes, Esq., F.R.S. 



36, Russell Square, 



June 8, 1871. 



My Dear Sir, — Having been present, for the purpose of 

 scrutiny, at the trial of the experiments reported in this 

 paper, I readily bear my testimony to the perfect accuracy 

 of your description of them, and to the care and caution 

 with which the various crucial tests were applied. 



The results appear to me conclusively to establish the 

 important fact, that there is a force proceeding from the 

 nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to 

 solid bodies within the sphere of its influence. 



I noticed that the force was exhibited in tremulous 

 pulsations, and not in the form of steady continuous 

 pressure, the indicator moving and falling incessantly 

 throughout the experiment. This fact seems to me of great 

 significance as tending to confirm the opinion that assigns 

 its source to the nerve organisation, and it goes far to 

 establish Dr. Richardson's important discovery of a nerve 

 atmosphere of various intensity enveloping the human 

 structure. 



Your experiments completely confirm the conclusion at 

 which the Investigation Committee of the Dialectical 

 Society arrived, after more than forty meetings for trial and 

 test. 



Allow me to add that I can find no evidence even tending 

 to prove that this force is other than a force proceeding 

 from, or directly dependent upon, the human organisation, 

 and therefore, like all other forces of nature, wholly within 

 the province of that strictly scientific investigation to which 

 you have been the first to subject it. 



Psychology is a branch of science as yet almost entirely 

 unexplored, and to the neglect of it is probably to be attri- 

 buted the seemingly strange fact that the existence of this 

 nerve-force should have so long remained untested, un- 

 examined, and almost unrecognised. 



