1871.] ( 47i ) 



III. SOME FURTHER EXPERIMENTS ON 

 PSYCHIC FORCE. 



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



" I am attacked by two very opposite sects, — the scientists and the know-nothings. Both 

 laugh at me — calling me ' the frogs' dancing master.' Yet I know that I have discovered 

 one of the greatest forces in nature." — Galvani. 



tT was my intention to have allowed a longer time to 

 elapse before again writing on the subject of "Psychic 

 Force" in this journal. My reason for this resolve was 

 not so much owing to want of new matter and fresh results, — 

 on the contrary, I have much that is new in the way of experi- 

 mental evidence in support of my previous conclusions, — 

 but I felt some reluctance to impose on the readers of the 

 " Quarterly Journal of Science " a subject which they might 

 view with little favour. When the editor of a scientific j ournal 

 is also an experimental investigator, or a student of any 

 special branch of knowledge, there is a natural tendency on 

 his part to unduly exalt the importance of that which is 

 occupying his thoughts at the time ; and thus the journal 

 which he conducts is in danger of losing breadth of basis, 

 of becoming the advocate of certain opinions, or of being 

 coloured by special modes of thought. 



The manner in which the experimental investigation 

 described in the last " Quarterly Journal " has been 

 received, removes any doubt I might entertain on this 

 score. The very numerous communications which have 

 been addressed to the office of this journal show that 

 another paper on the same subject will not be distasteful 

 to a large number of those who did me the honour to read my 

 former article ; whilst it appears to be generally assumed 

 that I should take an early opportunity to reply to some 

 of the criticisms provoked by the remarkable character of 

 the experimental results which I described. 



Many of the objections made to my former experiments 

 are answered by the series about to be related. Most of 

 the criticisms to which I have been subjected have been 

 perfectly fair and courteous, and these I shall endeavour to 

 meet in the fullest possible manner. Some critics, however, 

 have fallen into the error of regarding me as an advocate 

 for certain opinions, which they choose to ascribe to me, 

 though in truth my single purpose has been to state fairly 

 and to offer no opinion. Having evolved men of straw from 

 their own imagination, they proceed vigorously to slay them, 



