474 Further Experiments [October, 



more or less degree ; but its development in Mr. D. D. Home 

 is so powerful, that, having satisfied myself by careful experi- 

 ments that the phenomena observed were genuine, I have, 

 merely as a matter of convenience, carried on my experi- 

 ments with him, in preference to working with others in 

 whom the power existed in a less striking degree. Most of 

 the experiments I am about to describe, however, have been 

 tried with another person other than Mr. Home, and in his 

 absence. 



Before proceeding to relate my new experiments, I desire 

 to say a few words respecting those already described. The 

 objection has been raised that announcements of such mag- 

 nitude should not be made on the strength of one or two ex- 

 periments hastily performed. I reply that the conclusions 

 were not arrived at hastily, nor on the results of two or three 

 experiments only. In my former paper .(" Quarterly Journal of 

 Science," page 340), I remarked : — " Not until I had wit- 

 nessed these facts some half-dozen times, and scrutinised 

 them with all the critical acumen I possess, did I become con- 

 vinced of their objective reality." Before fitting up special 

 apparatus for these experiments, I had seen, on five separate 

 occasions, objects, varying in weight from 25 to 100 lbs., 

 temporarily influenced in such a manner, that I, and others 

 present, could with difficulty lift them from the floor. 

 Wishing to ascertain whether this was a physical fact, 

 or merely due to a variation in the power of our own 

 strength under the influence of imagination, I tested with 

 a weighing machine the phenomenon on two subse- 

 quent occasions when I had an opportunity of meeting 

 Mr. Home at the house of a friend. On the first 

 occasion, the increase of weight was from 8 lbs. nor- 

 mally, to 36 lbs., 48 lbs., and 46 lbs. in three successive 

 experiments tried under strict: scrutiny. On the second 

 occasion, tried about a fortnight after, in the presence of 

 other observers, I found the increase of weight to be from 

 8 lbs. to 23 lbs., 43 lbs., and 27 lbs., in three successive trials, 

 varying the conditions. As I had the entire manage- 

 ment of the above-mentioned experimental trials, em- 

 ployed an instrument of great accuracy, and took every 

 care to exclude the possibility of the results being in- 

 fluenced by trickery, I w T as not unprepared for a satisfac- 

 tory result when the fact was properly tested in my own 

 laboratory. The meeting on the occasion formerly described 

 was, therefore, for the purpose of confirming my previous 

 observations by the application of crucial tests, with care- 

 fully arranged apparatus of a still more delicate nature. 



