

1871-] on Psychic Force. 475 



That this is a legitimate subject for scientific inquiry 

 scarcely needs assertion. Faraday himself did not consider 

 it beneath his dignity to examine similar phenomena ; 

 and, in a letter to Sir Emerson Tennent, written in 

 1861 on the occasion of a proposed experimental inquiry 

 into the phenomena occurring in Mr. Home's presence, he 

 wrote : — " Is he (Mr. Home) willing to investigate as a 

 philosopher, and, as such, to have no concealments, no 

 darkness, to be open in communication, and to aid inquiry all 

 that he can ? . . . . Does he consider the effects natural 

 or supernatural ? If they be the glimpses of natural action 

 not yet reduced to law, ought it not to be the duty of every- 

 one who has the least influence in such actions personally 

 to develope them, and to aid others in their development, 

 by the utmost openness and assistance, and by the applica- 

 tion of every critical method, either mental or experimental, 

 which the mind of man can devise ?" 



If circumstances had not prevented Faraday from meeting 

 Mr. Home, I have no doubt he would have witnessed pheno- 

 mena similar to those I am about to describe, and he could 

 not have failed to see that they offered "glimpses of natural 

 action not yet reduced to law." 



I have already alluded to the publication of the ill-success 

 encountered by the members of the St. Petersburg Com- 

 mittee. Had the results been satisfactory, it must be fairly 

 assumed that the members would have been equally ready 

 to publish a report of their success. 



I am informed by my friend Professor Boutlerow,* that 

 during the last winter, he tried almost the same experiments 

 as those here detailed, and with still more striking results. 

 The normal tension on the dynamometer being 100 lbs., it 

 was increased to about 150 lbs., Mr. Home's hands being 

 placed in contact with the apparatus in such a manner that 

 any exertion of power on his part would diminish, instead of 

 increase, the tension. 



In 1854, Count Agenor de Gasparin published a book,f 

 giving full details of a large series of physical experiments 

 which he had tried with some private friends in whom 

 this force was found to be strongly developed. His experi- 

 ments were very numerous and were carried on under the 

 strictest test conditions. The fact of motion of heavy bodies 

 without mechanical contact was demonstrated over and over 



* Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg; author of a 

 work on Chemistry, entitled " Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie ; " Leipzig, 

 1868. 



f Science versus Spiritualism. Paris, 1854. New York, 1857. 



VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) 3 Q 



