34 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
We will now deal with the new experiments themselves, and 
we hope that the above digression will he pardoned us, but it 
was forced upon us by reading the vast amount of preliminary 
matter with which the account of them was prefaced. The 
changed condition of these experiments place us rather, we are 
afraid, behind the scenes. We hear no more of Dr. Huggins, 
no more of the 66 well-known serjeant-at-law,” Serjeant Cox. 
Mr. Crookes is apparently left to fight his battle alone, a soli- 
tary hero opposing the now fast-uprising world of science. No 
more, alas ! do we hear of accordions floating in mid-air, no 
more do dulcet sounds and plaintive airs proceed from them, 
alas ! the very wirework cage seems to he thrown on one side. 
But all is not gone, and we may rejoice to find that the con- 
genial employment of holding Mr. Home’s hands and hoots 
still seems to be deemed a necessary part of a scientific experi- 
ment ! These changed conditions raise curious questions in our 
mind. Has it at last been suggested to their author that these 
very accordion experiments, of musical airs proceeding from an 
instrument held in one hand, is a very common trick shown at 
country fairs and performed by most itinerant jugglers ? We ' 
have little doubt but that these conjurors could easily explain 
by what “ occult” power other than Psychic Force they perform 
such scientific (?) experiments. Here is a new field for inves- 
tigation at once opened, which we commend to any man of 
science ambitious of notoriety — “ The Psychics of Conjuring, 
or a scientific explanation of the delights of our boyhood, by 
an F.K.S.” Unfortunately for us, our education in the mysteries 
of conjuring was strangely neglected, or else we should have 
been proud to have answered Mr. Crookes, and, to quote his 
own words, “ prove it to be a trick by showing how the trick 
is performed.” But we congratulate ourselves that we have 
suggested a source whence this experience may be obtained, so 
that now in the future we shall hope to hear no more of the 
scientific wobblings of an accordion held in the hand of a 
Psychic Medium. 
The experiments with the balance and the mahogany board, 
however, are still continued. Their details, whilst they are 
far too long for direct quotation, cannot adequately be under- 
stood without a figure, but they may be summed up as follows. 
There is the old mahogany board, one end of which is con- 
nected with the self-registering spring balance, but the other 
end now rests, not on the table, as before, but on a knife edge,, 
placed some few inches from the extremity of the board, and 
this knife edge rests on a firm and heavy wooden table. On 
the board, exactly over the knife edge, is placed a large glass 
vessel filled with water, into which a hemispherical copper 
bowl, perforated with several holes in the bottom, is placed, 
