i8yi.] on Psychic Force. 493 



limited library and finds that scientific men tell him that such a board should 

 weigh about 13 1 pounds. Did Mr. Crookes make this board himself? or did 

 Mr. Home furnish it as one of his pieces of apparatus ? .... It would 

 have been more satisfactory if Mr. Crookes had stated, in regard to this board, 

 who made it. . . . Let it be discovered that the 6 pound mahogany 

 board was furnished by Mr. Home and the experiments will not be so con- 

 vincing." 



My experiments must indeed be convincing if so accom- 

 plished a mechanician as Mr. Coleman Sellers can find no 

 worse fault with them than is expressed in the comments I 

 have quoted. He writes in so matter-of-fact a manner, and 

 deals so plausibly with dimensions and weights, that most 

 persons would take it for granted that I really had com- 

 mitted the egregious blunder he points out. 



Will it be believed, therefore, that my mahogany board does 

 weigh only 6 pounds } Four separate balances in my own 

 house tell me so, and my greengrocer confirms the fact. 



It is easy to perceive into what errors a "mechanic " may 

 fall when he relies for practical knowledge on his " limited 

 library " instead of appealing to actual experiment. 



I am sorry I cannot inform Mr. Sellers who made my 

 mahogany board. It has been in my possession about 

 sixteen years ; it was originally cut off a length in a wood- 

 yard ; it became the stand of a spectrum camera, and as 

 such is described with a cut in the "Journal of the Photo- 

 graphic Society" for January 21, 1856 (vol. ii., p. 293). It 

 has since done temporary duty in the arrangement of various 

 pieces of apparatus in my physical laboratory, and was 

 selected for these particular experiments owing to its shape 

 being more convenient than that of other available pieces 

 of wood. 



But is it seriously expected that I should answer such a 

 question as "Did Mr. Home furnish the board?" Will not 

 my critics give me credit for the possession of some amount 

 of common sense ? And can they not imagine that obvious 

 precautions, which occur to them as soon as they sit down 

 to pick holes in my experiments, are not unlikely to have 

 also occurred to me in the course of prolonged and patient 

 investigation ? 



The answer to this as to all other like objections is, 

 Prove it to be an error by showing where the error lies, 

 or, if a trick, by showing how the trick is performed. Try the 

 experiment fully and fairly. If then fraud be found, expose 

 it ; if it be a truth, proclaim it. This is the only scientific 

 procedure, and this it is that I purpose steadily to pursue. 



