40 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
to show the slightest tremor or agitation under the most violent 
tests — such as stamping on the floor, pressing heavily on the 
table, &c. — to which they were subjected. Everyone who has 
ever been engaged in physical research, making use of appa- 
ratus in buildings specially designed to secure stability, perhaps 
the one condition most difficult of attainment, must be sen- 
sible that even under such circumstances a moderate footfall 
across the floor will derange a comparatively rough adjustment. 
Therefore, comparing Mr. Crookes’ experiences in this depart- 
ment with our own, we can reach but one of two conclusions 
— either the intelligent tradesman who constructed Mr. Crookes’ 
private residence must have anticipated the great uses to 
which that dining-room would one day be put, and adapted it 
for them, or else the apparatus employed cannot have anything 
like the degree of sensibility that is ascribed to it. But we 
think that much of what Mr. Crookes has observed, and of 
what he has not observed, may be very easily accounted for. 
In the course of a correspondence on the subject of Psychic 
Force, which was carried on in the “ Echo ” and other papers, 
we find the following passage in one of his own letters in de- 
scribing a seance (the italics are ours): “In accordance ivith 
my usual habit of taking notes , I was writing almost the 
whole time.” If, then, a scientific inquirer delegate the duty 
of observation to his assistants and friends, and confines him- 
self to the useful but more modest function of reporting what 
they tell him, we certainly should not be surprised to find that 
nis narrative recorded much that did not happen, and omits to 
record much that did. Supposing the inquirer to be gifted in 
the very highest degree with the faculty of accurate and delicate 
observation ; if he is content to adopt as his own the assertions 
of other people, we cannot refrain from saying that he very 
seriously trifles with whatever reputation he may have earned. 
Nay, he does more than this, for he publishes as the results of 
his own observation, and with the impress of his own authority, 
statements which he may have only received on hearsay evi- 
dence. We must confess, however, that it was with much 
gratification that we read the paragraph which revealed to us 
this peculiar feature in Mr. Crookes’ method of inquiry. Of 
his perfect veracity and sincere belief in all that he had written 
on the subject, neither we nor anyone else, we are persuaded, 
ever entertained the slightest doubt. Much that puzzled us is 
now clear, the ambiguity of many of the statements, which we 
have repeatedly referred to, is now accounted for ; for it is impos- 
sible for anyone to record observations adequately unless they are 
his own. We looked in vain at the time for those minute details, 
those graphic touches of description, which mark the records of 
true personal experience, but now their absence ceases to be 
