1878.] 
A New Theory of Trance. 
87 
genius ! I’m a genius ! ” drew a crowd round him, so Dr. 
Carpenter, by reiterated assurance that he alone as a physi- 
ologist possesses, in a supreme degree, a “ trained and organ- 
ised common sense,” has led the public to yield to his views 
a certain degree of assent. But we would not for one moment 
underrate Dr. Carpenter’s abilities : he has undoubtedly done 
a considerable amount of meritorious work ; and if he does 
not hold any high rank as an original investigator, he dis- 
tinctly occupies a noteworthy scientific position as an expo- 
sitor and popular lecturer. He is, in faCt, the indispensable 
middle-man between the original investigator and the public. 
He has compiled some useful books on physiology and on the 
microscope, and were he not in the habit of viewing unwel- 
comeifaCts pseudoscopically, and describing them catachres- 
tically, he might be said to hold, with regard to this 
generation, the same position that Dr. Lardner held in the 
last, though Dr. Carpenter lacks the bright, clear, un- 
fatiguing style of his prototype. 
But in his investigation of the phenomena ascribed to 
spiritualism, Dr. Carpenter has stepped out of his proper 
sphere. Physiologists are not authorities on the physical 
side of the question, and it is a pity that when dealing with 
the subject from a physiological point of view they invariably 
either ignore the physical tests altogether or they mis- 
represent them, for the purpose, apparently, of securing a 
little cheap applause by showing that the experimentalist is 
a dishonest or untrustworthy observer. 
