February 6, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



charge. There was no darkening of rooms, 

 no concealing hands under tables, no fear that 

 spirits would refuse to come at the bidding of 

 a sceptic, no trickery of an} T sort. The oppor- 

 tunities for observation were entirely unre- 

 stricted. 



Miss Lulu was a ros} T country girl, some- 

 what above the average height, but did not 

 give the impression of muscular training ; still, 

 when she was presented to those present, the 

 first thing which struck the writer was the 

 weight of her arm. Shaking hands with her 

 felt like moving the arm of a giant, and led to 

 the impression that she had a much better 

 muscular development than would have been 

 supposed. 



Before proceeding to the tests which had 

 been pre-arranged, it was thought best to try 

 what she could do under ordinary circum- 

 stances. Among the first performances to be 

 tried was that of the hat. A spectator held a 

 light straw hat in his hands, the opening up- 

 wards. Miss Hurst extended her hands over 

 it so that the balls of her thumbs just touched 

 the inner face of the rim. At first there was 

 no result, but after a few trials the hat was 

 gently attracted upwards as if by electricity. 

 Had those in charge been professionals, I can- 

 not doubt that the}' would have stopped right 

 there, and declined to repeat the performance. 

 Not being such, they yielded to the invitation 

 to go on, so that the holder could see how it 

 was done. This was soon effected without 

 difficult}'. Whenever the apparent attraction 

 was exerted, it was through the inner edge of 

 the brim being caught in the fold of the ball of 

 the extended hand. After a few moments the 

 observer was enabled to say, " She cannot lift 

 it now, because her hand is not rightly ar- 

 ranged," and he learned to adjust her hand so 

 that the lifting could be executed. Of course, 

 the force was not very strong. The idea that 

 the hat would have been in any clanger had a 

 weight been in it was simply a mistake. 



Next the jumping-staff was tried. The 

 writer took the latter in his hands, and Miss 

 Lulu placed the palm of her hand and her ex- 

 tended thumb against the staff near its two 

 ends, while the holder firmly grasped it near 

 the middle. He was then warned to resist 

 with all his force, with the added assurance that 

 the resistance would be vain. Sure enough, 

 the staff began to be affected with a jerking 

 motion, producing the disastrous effects which 

 had been described upon the holder's equilib- 

 rium. An unwise repetition of the perform- 

 ance, however, did away with all its nrystery ; 

 for, although the performer began with a 



delicate touch of the staff, the holder soon per- 

 ceived that she changed the position of her 

 hands every moment, sometimes seizing the 

 staff with a firm grip, and that it never moved 

 in any direction unless her hands were in such 

 a position that she could move it in that direc- 

 tion by ordinary pressure. An estimate of the 

 force which she exerted on the staff could be 

 roughly made. It might have been as high as 

 fort} r pounds. A very little calculation will 

 show that this would be sufficient to upset the 

 equilibrium of a very heav}' man. It is im- 

 possible for the latter so to place his feet that 

 he will be supported on a rectangle of more 

 than one foot in breadth. He m^y indeed 

 change at pleasure the direction of the longer 

 side of this rectangle by extending his feet in 

 different directions ; but, arrange them as he 

 will, his base will under any circumstances be 

 a rectangle whose length is equal to the dis- 

 tance between his feet, and whose breadth is 

 at the very maximum equal to the length of his 

 feet. A pressure of one-fifth his weight would, 

 under the most favorable circumstances, throw 

 him off his balance, and make a new adjust- 

 ment necessary. The motion given b} T the 

 performer to the rod was not a regular one, 

 which could be anticipated and guarded against, 

 but a series of jerks, first in one direction, and 

 then in another ; so that it was impossible for 

 the holder to brace himself against them : con- 

 sequently, b} x a force which might not have 

 exceeded forty pounds, he was put through a 

 series of most undignified contortions, and 

 finally compelled to retire in total defeat. 



The holder of the rod then asked that it 

 might be made to whirl in his hands in the 

 manner which had been described to him. No 

 attempt was made to do it, and no satisfaction 

 on the subject could be obtained. It was evi- 

 dently a simple mistake in memory or narration, 

 for not even* Miss Lulu seemed to have any 

 idea of producing such an effect. The lifting 

 of the chair with the sitter's own hands under 

 it, and Miss Lulu's hands under his, was then 

 tried. The simplicit} 7 of the blunder was most 

 striking. It was quite true that the fingers of 

 the performer were under those of the sitter. 

 But the chair refused to budge until the ball of 

 her hand came firmly in contact with it ; and 

 then it proceeded, not indeed to lift the sitter, 

 but to incline itself in such a way that he felt 

 compelled to get out of it. The chair was made 

 to repeat its performance a great number of 

 times. The writer watched most carefully, 

 and, in every instance in which he was able to 

 see the performer's hands at the time of the 

 motion , the ball was pressed firmly against the 



