ME. CKOOKES’ NEW PSYCHIC FORCE. 
363 
Throughout the whole of these experiments we are left in 
the most glorious uncertainty as to time : we have not the 
faintest idea given us how long the experiments lasted, how 
long the accordion was playing its music, how long it contra- 
vened the laws of gravity, and floated about in the air of a cage 
placed under a dining-room table. The greatest obscurity is 
thrown over all, and yet we are gravely told this is a “ scien- 
tific and crucial experiment”! Supposing now for the mo- 
ment (and this is pure supposition only), that Mr. Home were 
capable of trickery, and that Mr. Crookes and Dr. Huggins 
were capable of being deceived ; and suppose that a thin wire 
or thread was hooked on to each end of the accordion, and 
that a concealed and prepared musical box or other instrument 
was played, what is there in these experiments unaccounted for? * 
But we immediately banish these base suppositions from our 
mind, for we are recalled to a sense of our errors by remem- 
bering that we are writing as if trickery and deception were 
possible in the presence of two Fellows of the Royal Society, 
gravely engaged in “ a scientific investigation of a new force.” 
Probably by this time our readers have had enough of expe- 
riment No. 1 ; let us now turn to experiment No. 2, which is 
of an entirely different kind, and one designed, as we are 
informed, to test Mr. Home’s powers of causing “ alteration in 
the weight of bodies,” a power which Mr. Crookes states is 
“ most striking, and most easily tested with scientific accuracy.” 
With him here we most cordially agree, so long as the proper 
apparatus is used; but not under the conditions which Mr. 
Crookes considered sufficient. The apparatus which he em- 
ployed was as follows : — “ It consisted of a mahogany board 
36 in. long by 9^ in. wide and 1 in. thick. At each end a strip 
of mahogany 1J in. wide was screwed on, forming feet. One 
end of the board rested on a firm table, whilst the other end 
was supported by a spring balance hanging from a substantial 
tripod stand. The balance was fitted with a self-registering 
index, in such a manner that it would record the maximum 
weight indicated by the pointer. The apparatus was adjusted 
so that the mahogany board was horizontal, its foot resting flat 
on the support ; and in this position its weight was 3 lbs., as 
marked by the pointer of the balance.” On Mr. Home placing 
his fingers lightly on the extreme end of this board, the pointer 
of the balance descended, and after a few seconds it rose again, 
and this movement was repeated several times, “as if by suc- 
cessive waves of the Psychic Force”! At the end of these 
experiments, the pointer had marked a maximum fall of 6 lbs. 
* We would note that it is always an accordion that is played at these 
seances, never a concertina or any other instrument. 
