Qass. 
 Book 
 
/ 
 
 RESEARCHES ^b^'f 
 
 IN 
 
 THE PHENOMENA 
 
 OP 
 
 SPIRITUALISM 
 
 BY 
 
 ^ 
 
 WILLIAM CROOK ES, KR.S. 
 n 
 
 'S 
 
 [Reprinted from The Quarterly Journal of Science.] 
 
 LONDON: 
 J. BURNS, 15 SOUTHAMPTON ROW, HOLBORN, W.C. 
 
 1874. 
 

 ^A^ 
 
 <\' 
 
 \ 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 H. NISBET, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 
 
 219 GEORGE STREET. 
 
SPIRITUALISM 
 
 VIEWED BY THE 
 
 LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE 
 
 Some weeks ago the fact that I was engaged in investiga- 
 ting Spirituali"sm, so called, was announced in a contem- 
 porary:* and in consequence of the many communications 
 I have since received, I think it desirable to say a little 
 concerning the investigation which I have commenced. 
 Views or opinions I cannot be said to possess on a subject 
 which I do not pretend to understand. I consider it the 
 duty of scientific men who have learnt exact modes of work- 
 ing, to examine phenomena which attract the attention of 
 the public, in order to confirm their genuineness, or to 
 explain, if possible, the delusions of the honest and to 
 expose the tricks of deceivers. But I think it a pity that 
 any public announcement of a man's investigation should 
 be made until he has shown himself willing to speak but. 
 
 A man may be a true scientific man, and yet agree with 
 Professor De Morgan, when he says — "I have both seen 
 and heard, in a manner which would make unbelief impos- 
 sible, things called spiritual, which cannot be taken by a 
 rational being to be capable of explanation by imposture, 
 coincidence, or mistake. So far I feel the ground firm 
 under me ; but when it comes to what is the cause of these 
 phenomena, I find I cannot adopt any explanation which 
 has yet been suggested. . . . The physical explana- 
 tions which I have seen are easy, but miserably insufficient. 
 The spiritual hypothesis is sufficient, but ponderously diffi- 
 cult." 
 
 Regarding the sufficiency of the explanation, I am not 
 able to speak. That certain physical phenomena, such as 
 the movement of material substances, and the production 
 of sounds resembling electric discharges, occur under cir- 
 
 * The AthencBum. 
 
4 Spiritualism Viewed by the 
 
 cumstances in which they cannot be explained by any 
 physical law at present known, is a fact of which I am as 
 certain as I am of the most elementary fact in chemistry. 
 My whole scientific education has been one long lesson in- 
 exactness of observation, and I wish it to be distinctly 
 understood that this firm conviction is the result of most 
 careful investigation. But I cannot, at present, hazard even 
 the most vague hypothesis as to the cause of the pheno- 
 mena. Hitherto I have seen nothing to convince me of the 
 truth of the "spiritual" theory. In such an inquiry the 
 intellect demands that the spiritual proof must be abso- 
 lutely incapable of being explained away; it must be so 
 strikingly and convincingly true that we cannot, dare not 
 deny it. 
 
 Faraday says, " Before we proceed to consider any ques- 
 tion involving physical principles, we should set out with 
 clear ideas of the naturally possible and impossible." But 
 this appears like reasoning in a circle : we are to investigate 
 nothing till we know it to be possible, whilst we cannot say 
 what is impossible^ outside pure mathematics, till we know 
 everything. 
 
 In the present case I prefer to enter upon the enquiry 
 with no preconceived notions whatever as to what can or 
 cannot be, but with all my senses alert and ready to convey 
 information to the brain ; believing, as I do, that we have 
 by no means exhausted all human knowledge or fathomed 
 the depths of all the physical forces, and remembering that 
 the great philosopher already quoted said, in reference to 
 some speculations on the gravitating force, " Nothing is too 
 wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of 
 nature; and in such things as these, experiment is the best 
 test of such consistency." 
 
 The modes of reasoning of scientific men appear to be 
 generally misunderstood by spiritualists with whom I have 
 conversed, and the reluctance of the trained scientific mind 
 to investigate this subject is frequently ascribed to unworthy 
 motives. I think, therefore, it will be of service if I here 
 illustrate the modes of thought current amongst those who 
 investigate science, and say what kind of experimental 
 proof science has a right to demand before admitting a new 
 department of knowledge into her ranks. We must not 
 mix up the exact and the inexact. The supremacy of 
 accuracy must be absolute. 
 
 The first requisite is to be sure of facts ; then to ascertain 
 conditions ; next, laws. Accuracy and knowledge of detail 
 stand foremost amongst the great aims of modern scientific 
 
Light of Modern Science. 5 
 
 men. No observations are of much use to the student of 
 science unless they are truthful and made under test condi- 
 tions; and here I find the great mass of spiritualistic evi- 
 dence to fail. In a subject which, perhaps, more than any- 
 other lends itself to trickery and deception, the precautions 
 against fraud appear to have been, in most cases, totally 
 insufficient, owing, it would seem, to an erroneous idea that 
 to ask for such safeguards was to imply a suspicion of the 
 honesty of some one present. We may use our own unaided 
 senses, but when we ask for instrumental means to increase 
 their sharpness, certainty, and trustworthiness under cir- 
 cumstances of excitement and difficulty, and when one's 
 natural senses are liable to be thrown off their balance, 
 offence is taken. 
 
 In the countless number of recorded observations I have 
 read, there appear to be few instances of meetings held for 
 the express purpose of getting the phenomena under test 
 conditions, in the presence of persons properly qualified by 
 scientific training to weigh and adjust the value of the 
 evidence which might present itself The only good series 
 of test experiments I have met with were tried by the Count 
 de Gasparin, and he, whilst admitting the genuineness of 
 the phenomena, came to the conclusion that they were not 
 due to supernatural agency. 
 
 The pseudo-scientific spiritualist professes to know every- 
 thing: no calculations trouble his serenity, no hard experi- 
 ments, no long laborious readings; no weary attempts to 
 make clear in words that which has rejoiced the heart and 
 elevated the mind. He talks glibly of all sciences and arts, 
 overwhelming the enquirer with terms like " electro-biolo- 
 gize," "psychologize," "animal magnetism," &c. — a mere 
 play upon words, showing ignorance rather than under- 
 standing. 'Popular science such as this is little able to guide 
 discovery rushing onwards to an unknown future; and the 
 real workers of science must be extremely careful not to 
 allow the reins to get into unfit and incompetent hands. 
 
 In investigations which so completely baffle the ordinary 
 observer, the thorough scientific man has a great advantage. 
 He has followed science from the beginning through a long 
 line of learning, and he knows, therefore, in what direction 
 it is leading; he knows that there are dangers on one side, 
 uncertainties on another, and almost- absolute certainty on 
 a third : he sees to a certain extent in advance. But, where 
 every step is towards the marvellous and unexpected, pre- 
 cautions and tests should be multiplied rather than dimin- 
 ished. Investigators must work; although their work may 
 
6 Spiritualism Viewed by the 
 
 be very small in quantity if only compensation be made by 
 its intrinsic excellence. But, even in this realm of mar- 
 vels, — this wonder-land towards which scientific enquiry is 
 sending out its pioneers, — can anything be more astonish- 
 ing than the delicacy of the instrumental aids which the 
 workers bring with them to supplement the observations of 
 their natural senses? 
 
 The spiritualist tells of bodies weighing 50 or 100 lbs. 
 being lifted up into the air without the intervention of any 
 known force ; but the scientific chemist is accustomed to use 
 a balance which will render sensible a weight so small that 
 it would take ten thousand of them to weigh one grain ; he 
 is, therefore, justified in asking that a power, professing to 
 be guided by intelligence, which will toss a heavy body up 
 to the ceiling, shall also cause his delicately-poised balance 
 to move under test conditions. 
 
 The spiritualist tells of tapping sounds which are pro- 
 duced in different parts of a room when two or more per- 
 sons sit quietly round a table. The scientific experimenter 
 is entitled to ask that these taps shall be produced on the 
 stretched membrane of his phonautograph. 
 
 The spiritualist tells of rooms and houses being shaken, 
 even to injury, by superhuman power. The man of science 
 merely asks for a pendulum to be set vibrating when it is in 
 a glass case and supported on solid masonry. 
 
 The spiritualist tells of heavy articles of furniture moving 
 from one room to another without human agency. But the 
 man of science has made instruments which will divide an 
 inch into a million parts; and he is justified in doubting the 
 accuracy of the former observations, if the same force is 
 powerless to move the index of his instrument one poor 
 degree. 
 
 The spiritualist tells of flowers with the fresh dew on 
 them, of fruit, and living objects being carried through 
 closed windows, and even solid brick-walls. The scientific 
 investigator naturally asks that an additional weight (if it 
 be only the 1 000th part of a grain) be deposited on one pan 
 of his balance when the case is locked. And the chemist 
 asks for the 1 000th of a grain of arsenic to be carried through 
 the sides of a glass tube in which pure water is hermetically 
 sealed. 
 
 The spiritualist tells of manifestations of power, which 
 would be equivalent to many thousands of " foot-pounds," 
 taking place without known agency. The man of science, 
 believing firmly in the conservation of force, and that it is' 
 never produced without a corresponding exhaustion of 
 
Light of Modern Science. 7 
 
 something to replace it, asks for some such exhibitions of 
 power to be manifested in his laboratory, where, he can 
 weigh, measure, and submit it to proper tests.* 
 
 For these reasons and with these feelings I began an 
 inquiry suggested to me by eminent men exercising great 
 influence on the thought of the country. At first, like other 
 men who thought little of the matter and saw little, I 
 believed that the whole affair was a superstition, or at least 
 an unexplained trick. Even at this moment I meet with 
 cases which I cdxmot prove \.o be anything else; and in some 
 cases I am sure that it is a delusion of the senses. 
 
 I by no means promise to enter fully into this subject ; 
 it seems very difficult to obtain opportunities, and numerous 
 failures certainly may dishearten anyone. The persons in 
 whose presence these phenomena take place are few in num- 
 ber, and opportunities for experimenting with previously 
 arranged apparatus are rarer still. I should feel it to be a 
 great satisfaction if I could bring out light in any direction, 
 and I may safely say that I care not in what direction. 
 With this end in view, I appeal to any of my readers who 
 may possess a key to these strange phenomena, to further 
 the progress of the truth by assisting me in my investiga- 
 tions. That the subject has to do with strange physiological 
 conditions is clear, and these in a sense may be called 
 " spiritual " when they produce certain results in our minds. 
 At present the phenomena I have observed baffle explana^ 
 tion ; so do the phenomena of thought, which are also 
 spiritual, and which no philosopher has yet understood. No 
 man, however, denies them. 
 
 The explanations given to me, both orally and in most of 
 the books I have read, are shrouded in such an affected pon- 
 derosity of style, such an attempt at disguising poverty of 
 ideas in grandiloquent language, that I feel it impossible, 
 after driving off the frothy diluent, to discern a crystalline 
 residue of meaning. I confess that the reasoning of some 
 spiritualists would almost seem to justify Faraday's severe 
 statement — that many dogs have the power of coming to 
 much more logical conclusions. Their speculations utterly 
 ignore all theories of force being only a form of molecular 
 motion, and they speak of Force, Matter, and Spirit, as 
 
 * In justice to my subject, I must state that, on repeating these views to 
 some of the leading "spiritualists " and most trustworthy ** mediums " in Eng- 
 land, they express perfect confidence in the success of the enquiry, if honestly 
 carried out in the spirit here exemplified ; and they have offered to assist me to 
 the utmost of their ability, by placing their peculiar powers at my disposal. As 
 far as I have proceeded, I may as well add that the preliminary tests have been 
 satisfactory. 
 
8 Spiritualism Viewed by the Light of Modern Science. 
 
 three distinct entities, each capable of existing without the 
 others ; although they sometimes admit that they are mu- 
 tually convertible. 
 
 These spiritualists are certainly not much in advance of 
 an alchemical writer, who says — 
 
 " I asked Philosophy how I should 
 Have of her the thing I would. 
 She answered me when I was able 
 To make the water malliable, 
 Or else the way if I could finde, 
 To measure out a yard of winde ; 
 Theu shalt thou have thine own desire. 
 When thou canst weigh an ounce of Fire ; 
 Unless that thou canst do these three, 
 Content thyselfe, thou get'st not me. " 
 
 It has been my wish to show that science is gradually 
 making its followers the representatives of care and accuracy. 
 It is a fine quality that of uttering undeniable truth. Let, 
 then, that position not be lowered, but let words suit facts 
 with an accuracy equal to that with which the facts them- 
 selves can be ascertained ; and in a subject encrusted with 
 credulity and superstition, let it be shown that there is a 
 class of facts to be found upon which reliance can be placed, 
 so far, that we may be certain they will never change. In 
 common affairs a mistake may have but a short life, but in 
 the study of nature an imperfect observation may cause 
 infinite trouble to thousands. The increased employment 
 of scientific methods will promote exact observation and 
 greater love of truth among enquirers, and will produce a 
 race of observers who will drive the worthless residuum of 
 spiritualism hence into the unknown limbo of magic and 
 necromancy. 
 
 If spiritualists would but attend to the teachings of their 
 own prophets, they would no longer have to complain of 
 the hostile attitude of Science ; for hear what Thomas L. 
 Harris urges, in his " Lyric of a Golden Age !" 
 
 *' The nearer to the practical men keep — 
 The less they deal in vague and abstract things 
 The less they deal in huge mysterious words — 
 The mightier is their power. 
 
 The simplest peasant who observes a truth, 
 And from a fact deduces principle. 
 Adds solid treasure to the public wealth. 
 The theorist, who dreams a rainbow dream, 
 And calls hypothesis philosophy, 
 At best is but a paper financier, 
 Who palms his specious promises for gold. 
 Facts are the basis of philosophy j 
 Philosophy the harmony of facts 
 Seen in their right relation. 
 
[From the ''Quarterly Journal of Science," July i, 1871.] 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF A 
 NEW FORCE, 
 
 TWELVE months ago in this journal* I wrote an article, 
 in which, after expressing in the most emphatic 
 manner my belief in the occurrence, under certain circum- 
 stances, of phenomena inexplicable by any known natural 
 laws, I indicated several tests which men of science had a 
 right to demand before giving credence to the genuineness 
 of these phenomena. Among the tests pointed out were, 
 that a " delicately poised balance should be moved under 
 test conditions;" and that some exhibition of power equi- 
 valent to so many "foot-pounds" should be "manifested 
 in his laboratory, where the experimentalist could weigh, 
 measure, and submit it to proper tests." I said, too, that 
 I could not promise to enter fully into this subject, owing 
 to the difficulties of obtaining opportunities, and the nume- 
 rous failures attending the enquiry; moreover, that "the 
 persons in whose presence these phenomena take place are 
 few in number, and opportunities for experimenting with 
 previously arranged apparatus are rarer still." 
 
 Opportunities having since offered for pursuing the investi- 
 gation, I have gladly availed myself of them for applying to 
 these phenomena careful scientific testing experiments, and 
 I have thus arrived at certain definite results which I think 
 it right should be published. These experiments appear con- 
 clusively to establish the existence of a new force, in some 
 unknown manner connected with the human organisation, 
 which for convenience may be called the Psychic Force. 
 
 Of all the persons endowed with a powerful development of 
 this Psychic Force, and who have been termed " mediums " 
 upon quite another theory of its origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas 
 Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly owing to 
 
 * See Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. vii., p. 316, July, 1870. 
 
lO Experimental Investigation 
 
 the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my 
 investigation in his presence that I am enabled to affirm 
 so conclusively the existence of this Force. The experi- 
 ments I have tried have been very numerous, but owing to 
 our imperfect knowledge of the conditions which favour or 
 oppose the manifestations of this force, to the apparently 
 capricious manner in which it is exerted, and to the fact 
 that Mr. Home himself is subject to unaccountable ebbs 
 and flows of the force, it has but seldom happened that a 
 result obtained on one occasion could be subsequently con- 
 firmed and tested with apparatus specially contrived for the 
 purpose. 
 
 Among the remarkable phenomena which occur under 
 Mr. Home's influence, the most striking, as well as the 
 most easily tested with scientific accuracy, are — (i) the 
 alteration in the weight of bodies, and (2) the playing of 
 tunes upon musical instruments (generally an accordion, for 
 convenience of portability) without direct human intervention, 
 under conditions rendering contact or connection with the 
 keys impossible. Not until I had witnessed these facts some 
 half-dozen times, and scrutinised them with all the critical 
 acumen I possess, did I become convinced of their objective 
 reality. Still, desiring to place the matter beyond the shadow 
 of doubt, I invited Mr. Home on several occasions to come 
 to my own house, where, in the presence of a few scientific 
 enquirers, these phenomena could be submitted to crucial 
 experiments. 
 
 The meetings took place in the evening, in a large room 
 lighted by gas. The apparatus prepared for the purpose of 
 testing the movements of the accordion, consisted of a 
 cage, formed of two wooden hoops, respectively i foot 
 10 inches and 2 feet diameter, connected together by 12 
 narrow laths, each i foot 10 inches long, so as to form a 
 drum-shaped frame, open at the top and bottom ; round this 
 50 yards of insulated copper wire were wound in 24 rounds, 
 each being rather less than an inch from its neighbour. 
 These horizontal strands of wire were then netted together 
 firmly with string, so as to form meshes rather less than 
 2 inches long by i inch high. The height of this cage 
 was such that it would just slip under my dining table, but 
 be too close to the top to allow of the hand being introduced 
 into the interior, or to admit of a foot being pushed under- 
 neath it. In another room were two Grove's cells, wires 
 being led from them into the dining-room for connection, 
 if desirable, with the wire surrounding the cage. 
 
 The accordion was a new one, having been purchased by 
 
of a New Force. 1 1 
 
 myself for the purpose of these experiments at Wheatstone's, 
 in Conduit Street. Mr. Home had neither handled nor 
 seen the instrument before the commencement of the test 
 experiments. 
 
 In another part of the room an apparatus was fitted up 
 for experimenting on the alteration in the weight of a body. 
 It consisted of a mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9 J inches 
 wide and i inch thick. At each end a strip of mahogany 
 \\ inches 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. In this position its weight was 3 lbs., 
 as marked by the pointer of the balance. 
 
 Before Mr. Home entered the room, the apparatus had 
 been arranged in position, and he had not even the object 
 of some parts of it explained before sitting down. It may, 
 perhaps, be worth while to add, for the purpose of anticipa- 
 ting some critical remarks which are likely to be made, that 
 in the afternoon I called for Mr. Home at his apartments, 
 and when there he suggested that, as he had to change 
 his dress, perhaps I should not object to continue our con- 
 versation in his bedroom. I am, therefore, enabled to state 
 positively, that no machinery, apparatus, or contrivance of 
 any sort was secreted about his person. 
 
 The 'investigators present on the test occasion were an 
 eminent physicist, high in the ranks of the Royal Society, 
 whom I will call Dr. A. B. ; a well-known Serjeant-at-Law, 
 whom I will call Serjeant C. D.; my brother; and my 
 chemical assistant.* 
 
 Mr. Home sat in a low easy chair at the side of the table. 
 In front of him under the table was the aforesaid cage, one 
 of his legs being on each side of it. I sat close to him on 
 his left, and another observer sat close to him on his right, 
 the rest of the party being seated at convenient distances 
 round the table. 
 
 * It argues ill for the boasted freedom of opinion among scientific men, that 
 they have so long refused to institute a scientific investigation into the 
 existence and nature of facts asserted by so many competent and credible 
 witnesses, and which they are freely invited to examine when and where they 
 please. For my own part, I too much value the pursuit of truth, and the 
 discovery of any new fact in nature, to avoid enquiry because it appears to 
 clash with prevailing opinions. But as I have no right to assume that others 
 are equally willing to do this, I refrain from mentioning the names of my friends 
 without their permission. 
 
12 
 
 Experimental Investigation 
 
 For the greater part of the evening, particularly when any- 
 thing of importance was proceeding, the observers on each 
 side of Mr. Home kept their feet respectively on his feet, 
 so as to be able to detect his slightest movement. 
 
 The temperature of the room varied from 68° to 70° F. 
 
 Mr. Home took the accordion between the thumb and 
 middle finger of one hand at the opposite end to the 
 keys (see woodcut, Fig. i), (to save repetition this will 
 be subsequently called "in the usual manner.") Having 
 
 Fig. I. 
 
 previously opened the bass key myself, and the cage being 
 drawn from under the table so as just to allow the accordion 
 to be passed in with its keys downwards, it was pushed back 
 as close as Mr. Home's arm would permit, but without hiding 
 his hand from those next to him (see Fig. 2). Very soon 
 the accordion was seen by those on each side to be waving 
 about in a somewhat curious manner; then sounds came 
 from it, and finally several notes were played in succes- 
 sion. Whilst this was going on, my assistant went under 
 the table, and reported that the accordion was expanding 
 and contracting; at the same time it was seen that the 
 hand of Mr. Home by which it was held was quite still, his 
 other hand resting on the table. 
 
of a New Force. 
 
 13 
 
 Presently the accordion was seen by those on either side 
 of Mr. Home to move about, oscillating and going round 
 and round the cage, and playing at the same time. Dr. 
 A. B. now looked under the table, and said that Mr. Home's 
 hand appeared quite still whilst the accordion was rhoving 
 about emitting distinct sounds. 
 
 Mr. Home still holding the accordion in the usual 
 manner in the cage, his feet being held by those next him, 
 and his other hand resting on the table, we heard distinct and 
 separate notes sounded in succession, and then a simple air 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 was played. As such a result could only have been pro- 
 duced by the various keys of the instrument being acted 
 upon in harmonious succession, this was considered by 
 those present to be a crucial experiment. But the sequel 
 was still more striking, for Mr. Home then removed his 
 hand altogether from the accordion, taking it quite out of 
 the cage, and placed it in the hand of the person next to 
 him. The instrument then continued to play, no person 
 touching it and no hand being near it. 
 
 I was now desirous of trying what would be the effect of 
 passing the battery current round the insulated wire of the 
 
14 Experimental Investigation 
 
 cage, and my assistant accordingly made the connection 
 with the wires from the two Grove's cells. Mr. Home 
 again held the instrument inside the cage in the same 
 manner as before, when it immediately sounded and moved 
 about vigorously. But whether the electric current passing 
 round the cage assisted the manifestation of force inside, it 
 is impossible to say. 
 
 The accordion was now again taken without any visible 
 touch from Mr. Home's hand, which he removed from it 
 entirely and placed upon the table, where it was taken by 
 the person next to him, and seen, as now were both his 
 hands, by all present. I and two of the others present saw 
 the accordion distinctly floating about inside the cage with 
 no visible support. This was repeated a second time, after 
 a short interval. Mr. Home presently re-inserted his hand 
 in the cage and again took hold of the accordion. It then 
 commenced to play, at first chords and runs, and aftenvards 
 a well-known sweet and plaintive melody, which it executed 
 perfectly in a very beautiful manner. Whilst this tune was 
 being played, I grasped Mr. Home's arm, below the elbow, 
 and gently slid my hand down it until I touched the top of the 
 accordion. He was not moving a muscle. His other hand 
 was on the table, visible to all, and his feet were under the 
 feet of those next to him. 
 
 Having met with such striking results in the experiments 
 with the accordion in the cage, we turned to the balance 
 apparatus already described. Mr. Home placed the tips of 
 his fingers lightly on the extreme end of the mahogany 
 board which was resting on the support, whilst Dr. A. B. 
 and myself sat, one on each side of it, watching for any 
 effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the 
 pointer of the balance was seen to descend-. After a few 
 seconds it rose again. This movement was repeated 
 several times, as if by successive waves of the Psychic 
 Force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate 
 slowly up and down during the experiment. 
 
 Mr. Home now of his own accord took a small hand-bell 
 and a little card match-box, which happened to be near, and 
 placed one under each hand, to satisfy us, as he said, that 
 he was not producing the downward pressure (see Fig. 3). 
 The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more 
 marked, and Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw 
 it descend to 6|- lbs. The normal weight of the board as 
 so suspended being 3 lbs., the additional dow^nward pull 
 was therefore 3J lbs. On looking immediately afterwards 
 at the automatic register, we saw that the index had at 
 
of a New Force. 
 
 IS 
 
 one time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum 
 pull of 6 lbs. upon a board whose normal weight was 3 lbs. 
 
 In order to see whether it was possible to produce much 
 effect on the spring balance by pressure at the place where 
 Mr. Home's fingers had been, I stepped upon the table and 
 stood on one foot at the end of the board. Dr. A. B., who was 
 observing the index of the balance, said that the whole weight 
 of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index i\ lbs., 
 or 2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been 
 sitting in a low easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he 
 tried his utmost, have exerted any material influence on 
 these results. I need scarcely add that his feet as well as 
 his hands were closely guarded by all in the room. 
 
 This experiment appears to me more striking, if possible, 
 than the one with the accordion. As will be seen on 
 referring to the cut (Fig. 3), the board was arranged per- 
 fectly horizontally, and it was particularly noticed that Mr. 
 
 Fig. 7.. 
 
 H ome's fingers were not at any time advanced more than 
 \\ inches from the extreme end, as shown by a pencil-mark, 
 which, with Dr. A. B.'s acquiescence, I made at the time. 
 Now, the wooden foot being also \\ inches wide, and resting 
 flat on the table, it is evident that no amount of pressure 
 exerted within this space of ij inches could produce any 
 action on the balance. Again, it is also evident that when 
 the end furthest from Mr. Home sank, the board would turn on 
 the further edge of this foot as on a fulcrum. The arrange- 
 
f 
 
 1 6 Experimental Investigation 
 
 ment was consequently that of a see-saw, 36 inches in length, 
 the fulcrum being i J inches from one end; were he therefore 
 to have exerted a downward pressure, it would have been in 
 opposition to the force which was causing the other end of 
 the board to move down. 
 
 The slight downward pressure shown by the balance when 
 I stood on the board was owing probably to my foot extend- 
 ing beyond this fulcrum. 
 
 I have now given a plain unvarnished statement of the facts 
 from copious notes written at the time the occurrences were 
 taking place, and copied out in full immediately after. Indeed, 
 it would be fatal to the object I have in view — that of urging 
 the scientific investigation of these phenomena — were I to 
 exaggerate ever so little; for although to my readers Dr. 
 A. B. is at present represented by incorporeal initials, to 
 me the letters represent a power in the scientific world that 
 would certainly convict me if I were to prove an untrust- 
 worthy narrator. 
 
 I confess I am surprised and pained at the timidity or 
 apathy shown by scientific men in reference to this subject. 
 Some little time ago, when an opportunity for examination 
 was first presented to me, I invited the co-operation of 
 some scientific friends in a systematic investigation; but I 
 soon found that to obtain a scientific committee for the in- 
 vestigation of this class of facts was out of the question, and 
 that I must be content to rely on my own endeavours, aided 
 by the co-operation from time to time of a few scientific 
 and learned friends who were willing to join in the inquiry. 
 I still feel that it would be better were such a committee 
 of known men to be formed, who would meet Mr. 
 Home in a fair and unbiased manner, and I would gladly 
 assist in its formation ; but the difficulties in the way are 
 great. 
 
 A committee of scientific men met Mr. Home some 
 months ago at St. Petersburg. They had one meeting 
 only, which was attended with negative results ; and on the 
 strength of this they published a report highly unfavour- 
 able to Mr. Home. The explanation of this failure, which 
 is all they have accused him of, appears to me quite simple. 
 Whatever the nature of Mr. Home's power, it is very 
 variable, and at times entirely absent. It is obvious that 
 the Russian experiment was tried when the force was at a 
 minimum. The same thing has frequently happened within 
 my own experience. A party of scientific men met Mr. Home 
 at my house, and the results were as negative as those at 
 St. Petersburg. Instead, however, of throwing up the 
 
of a New Force. ly 
 
 inquiry we patiently repeated the trial a second and a third 
 time, when we met with results which were positive. 
 
 These conclusions have not been arrived at hastily or 
 on insufficient evidence. Although space will allow only 
 the publication of the details of one trial, it must be 
 clearly understood that for some time past I have been 
 making similar experiments and with like results. The 
 meeting on the occasion here described was for the purpose 
 of confirming previous observations by the application of 
 crucial tests, with carefully arranged apparatus, and in the 
 presence of irreproachable witnesses. 
 
 Respecting the cause of these phenomena, the nature 
 of the force to which, to avoid periphrasis, I have ventured 
 to give the name of Psychic^ and the correlation existing 
 between that and the other forces of nature, it would be 
 wrong to hazard the most vague hypothesis. Indeed, in 
 enquiries connected so intimately with rare physiological 
 and psychological conditions, it is the duty of the enquirer 
 to abstain altogether from framing theories until he has 
 accumulated a sufficient number of facts to form a substantial 
 basis upon which to reason. In the presence of strange 
 phenomena as yet unexplored and unexplained following 
 each other in such rapid succession, I confess it is difficult 
 to avoid clothing their record in language of a sensational 
 character. But, to be successful, an inquiry of this kind 
 must be undertaken by the philosopher without prejudice 
 and without sentiment. Romantic and superstitious ideas 
 should be entirely banished, and the steps of his investi- 
 gation should be guided by intellect as cold and passionless 
 as the instruments he uses. Having once satisfied himself 
 that he is on the track of a new truth, that single object 
 should animate him to pursue it, without regarding whether 
 the facts wich occur before his eyes are " naturally possible 
 or impossible." 
 
 Since this article was in type, the Author has been 
 favoured with the following letters from Dr. Huggins and 
 Mr. Sergeant Cox — the Dr. A. B. and Sergeant C. D. therein 
 referred to: — 
 
 Upper Tulse Hill, S.W., 
 
 June 9, 1 87 1. 
 
 Dear Mr. Crookes, — ^Your proof appears to me to con- 
 tain a correct statement of what took place in my presence 
 at your house. My position at the table did not permit me to 
 
 B 
 
1 8 Experimental Investigation 
 
 be a witness to the withdrawal of Mr. Home's hand from 
 the accordion, but such was stated to be the case at the 
 time by yourself and by the person sitting on the other side 
 of Mr. Home. 
 
 The experiments appear to me to show the importance of 
 further investigation, but I wish it to be understood that I 
 express no opinion as to the cause of the phenomena which 
 took place. Yours very truly, 
 
 William Huggins. 
 
 Wm. Crookes, Esq, F.R.S. 
 
 36, Russell Square, 
 
 June 8, 1 87 1. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Having been present, for the purpose of 
 scrutiny, at the trial of the experiments reported in this 
 paper, I readily bear my testimony to the perfect accuracy 
 of your description of them, and to the care and caution 
 with which the various crucial tests were applied. 
 
 The results appear to me conclusively to establish the 
 important fact, that there is a force proceeding from the 
 nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to 
 solid bodies within the sphere of its influence. 
 
 I noticed that the force was exhibited in tremulous 
 pulsations, and not in the form of steady continuous 
 pressure, the indicator rising and falling incessantly 
 throughout the experiment. This fact seems to me of great 
 significance, as tending to confirm the opinion that assigns 
 its source to the nerve organisation, and it goes far to 
 establish Dr. Richardson's important discovery of a nerve 
 atmosphere of various intensity enveloping the human 
 structure. 
 
 Your experiments completely confirm the conclusion at 
 which the Investigation Committee of the Dialectical 
 Society arrived, after more than forty meetings for trial and 
 test. 
 
 Allow me to add that I can find no evidence even tending 
 to prove that this force is other than a force proceeding 
 from, or directly dependent upon, the human organisation, 
 and therefore, like all other forces of nature, wholly within 
 the province of that strictly scientific investigation to which 
 you have been the first to subject it. 
 
 Psychology is a branch of science as yet almost entirely 
 unexplored, and to the neglect of it is probably to be attri- 
 buted the seemingly strange fact that the existence of this| 
 nerve-force should have remained so long untested, un- 
 examined, and almost unrecognised. 
 
of a New Force. 19 
 
 Now that it is proved by mechanical tests to be a fact in 
 nature (and if a fact, it is impossible to exaggerate its im- 
 portance to physiology and the Hght it must throw upon the 
 obscure laws of life, of mind and the science of medicine) 
 it cannot fail to command the immediate and most earnest 
 examination and discussion by physiologists and by all 
 who take an interest in that knowledge of "man," which 
 has been truly termed "the noblest study of mankind." 
 To avoid the appearance of any foregone conclusion, I would 
 recommend the adoption for it of some appropriate name, 
 and I venture to suggest that the force be termed the Psychic 
 Force; the persons in whom it is manifested in extraordinary 
 power Psychics; and the science relating to it Psychism as, 
 being a branch of Psychology. 
 
 Permit me, also, to propose the early formation of a 
 Psychological Society^ purposely for the promotion, by means 
 of experiment, papers, and discussion, of the study of that 
 hitherto neglected Science. — I am, &c., 
 
 Edwd. Wm. Cox. 
 To W. Crookes, Esq., F.R.S. 
 
[From the "Quarterly Journal of Science," October i, 187 1. 
 
 SOME FURTHER EXPERIMENTS ON 
 PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 " I am attacked by two very opposite sects — the scientists and the know-nothings. Both 
 laugh at me— calling me ' the frogs' dancing master.' Yet I know that I have discovered 
 one of the greatest forces in nature."— Galvani. 
 
 IT was my intention to have allowed a longer time to 
 elapse before again writing on the subject of " Psychic 
 Force" in this journal. My reason for this resolve was not 
 so much owing to want of new matter and fresh results, — 
 on the contrary, I have much that is new in the way of ex- 
 perimental evidence in support of my previous conclusions, — 
 but I felt some reluctance to impose on the readers of the 
 " Quarterly Journal of Science" a subject which they might 
 view with little favour. When the editor of a scientific jour- 
 nal is also an experimental investigator, or a student of any 
 special branch of knowledge, there is a natural tendency on 
 his part to unduly exalt the importance of that which is 
 occupying his thoughts at the time; and thus the journal 
 which he conducts is in danger of losing breadth of basis, 
 of becoming the advocate of certain opinions, or of being 
 coloured by special modes of thought. 
 
 The manner in which the experimental investigation 
 described in the last "Quarterly Journal" has been 
 received, removes any doubt I might entertain on this 
 score. The very numerous communications which have 
 been addressed to the office of this journal show that 
 another paper on the same subject will not be distasteful 
 to a large number of those who did me the honour to read 
 my former article ; whilst it appears to be generally assumed 
 that I should take an early opportunity to reply to some 
 of the criticisms provoked by the remarkable character of 
 the experimental results which I described. 
 
 Many of the objections made to my former experiments 
 are answered by the series about to be related. Most of 
 the criticisms to which I have been subjected have been 
 perfectly fair and courteous, and these I shall endeavour to 
 meet in the fullest possible manner. Some critics, however, 
 have fallen into the error of regarding me as an advocate 
 for certain opiftions, which they choose to ascribe to me, 
 though in truth my single purpose has been to state fairly 
 and to offer no opinion. Having evolved men of straw from 
 their own imagination, they proceed vigorously to slay them. 
 
22 Further Experiments 
 
 under the impression that they are annihilating me. Others, 
 — and I am glad to say they are very few, — have gone 
 so far as to question my veracity: — "Mr. Crookes must 
 get better witnesses before he can be believed ! " Accustomed 
 as I am to have my word believed without witnesses, this is 
 an argument which I cannot condescend to answer. All 
 who know me and read my articles will, I hope, take it 
 for granted that ^^ facts I lay before them are correct, and 
 that the experiments were honestly performed, with the 
 single object of eliciting the truth. 
 
 It is edifying to compare some of the present criticisms 
 with those that were written twelve months ago. When I 
 first stated in this journal that I was about to investigate 
 the phenomena of so-called spiritualism, the announcement 
 called forth universal expressions of approval. One said 
 that my "statements deserved respectful consideration;" 
 another, expressed "profound satisfaction that the subject 
 was about to be investigated by a man so thoroughly quali- 
 fied as," &c.; a third was "gratified to learn that the 
 matter is now receiving the attention of cool and clear- 
 headed men of recognised position in science;" a fourth as- 
 serted that no one could doubt Mr. Crookes's ability to 
 conduct the investigation with rigid philosophical imparti- 
 ality ;" and a fifth was good enough to tell its readers that 
 " if men like Mr. Crookes grapple with the subject, taking 
 nothing for granted until it is proved, we shall soon know 
 how much to believe." 
 
 These remarks, however, were written too hastily. It was 
 taken for granted by the writers that the results of my ex- 
 periments would be in accordance with their preconceptions. 
 What they really desired was not the truth, but an additional 
 witness in favour of their own foregone conclusion. When 
 they found that the facts which that investigation established 
 could ■ not be made to fit those opinions, why, — " so much 
 the worse for the facts." They try to creep out of their 
 own confident recommendations of the enquiry by declaring 
 that " Mr. Home is a clever conjurer, who has duped us all." 
 " Mr. Crookes might, with equal propriety, examine the per- 
 formances of an Indian juggler." " Mr. Crookes must get 
 better witnesses before he can be believed," " The thing is 
 too absurd to be treated seriously." " It is impossible, and 
 therefore can't be."* " The observers have all been biolo- 
 gised (!) and fancy they saw things occur which really never 
 took place," &c., &c. 
 
 * The quotation occurs to me — "I never said it was possible, I only said it 
 was true." 
 
on Psychic Force. 23 
 
 These remarks imply a curious oblivion of the very func- 
 tions which the scientific enquirer has to fulfil. I am 
 scarcely surprised when the objectors say that I have been 
 deceived merely because they are unconvinced without per- 
 sonal investigation, since the same unscientific course of 
 a priori argument has been opposed to all great discoveries. 
 When I am told that what I describe cannot be explained in 
 accordance with preconceived ideas of the laws of nature, 
 the objector really begs the very question at issue and resorts 
 to a mode of reasoning which brings science to a standstill. 
 The argument runs in a vicious circle: we must not assert 
 a fact till we know that it is in accordance with the laws of 
 nature, while our only knowledge of the laws of nature must 
 be based on an extensive observation of facts. If a new fact 
 seems to oppose what is called a law of nature, it does not 
 prove the asserted fact to be false, but only that we have 
 not yet ascertained all the laws of nature, or not learned 
 them correctly. 
 
 In his opening address before the British Association at 
 Edinburgh this year. Sir William Thomson said, " Science 
 is bound by the everlasting law of honour to face fearlessly 
 every problem which can fairly be presented to it." My 
 object in thus placing on record the results of a very 
 remarkable series of experiments is to present such a prob- 
 lem, which, according to Sir William Thomson, " Science is 
 bound by the everlasting law of honour to face fearlessly." 
 It will not do merely to deny its existence, or try to 
 sneer it down. Remember, I hazard no hypothesis or 
 theory whatever ; I merely vouch for certain facts, my only 
 object being; — the truth. Doubt, but do not deny ; point 
 out, by the severest criticism, what are considered falla- 
 cies in my experimental tests, and suggest more conclusive 
 trials ; but do not let us hastily call our senses lying wit- 
 nesses merely because they testify against preconceptions. 
 I say to my critics, Try the experiments ; investigate with 
 care and patience as I have done. If, having examined, 
 you discover imposture or delusion, proclaim it and say 
 how it was done. But, if you find it be a fact, avow it fear- 
 lessly, as " by the everlasting law of honour" you are bound 
 to do. 
 
 I may at once answer one objection which has been made 
 in several quarters, viz., that my results would carry more 
 weight had they been tried a greater number of times, and 
 with other persons besides Mr. Home. The fact is, I have 
 been working at the subject for two years, and have found 
 nine or ten different persons who possess psychic power in 
 
24 Further Experiments 
 
 more or less degree ; but its development in Mr. D. D. Home 
 is so powerful, that, having satisfied myself by careful experi- 
 ments that the phenomena observed were genuine, I have, 
 merely as a matter of convenience, carried on my experi- 
 ments with him, in preference to working with others in 
 whom the power existed in a less striking degree. Most of 
 the experiments I am about to describe, however, have been 
 tried with another person other than Mr. Home, and in his 
 absence. 
 
 Before proceeding to relate my new experiments, I desire 
 to say a few words respecting those already described. The 
 objection has been raised that announcements of such mag- 
 nitude should not be made on the strength of one or two ex- 
 periments hastily performed. I reply that the conclusions 
 were not arrived at hastily, nor on the results of two or three 
 experiments only. In my former paper (" Quarterly Journal 
 of Science," page 340), I remarked : — " Not until I had wit- 
 nessed these facts some half-dozen times, and scrutinised 
 them with all the critical acumen I possess, did I become con- 
 vinced of their objective reality." Before fitting up special 
 apparatus for these experiments, I had seen on five separate 
 occasions, objects varying in weight from 25 to 100 lbs., 
 temporarily influenced in such a manner, that I, and others 
 present could with difficulty lift them from the floor 
 Wishing to ascertain whether this was a physical fact, 
 or merely due to a variation in the power of our own 
 strength under the influence of imagination, I tested with 
 a weighing machine the phenomenon on two subsequent 
 occasions when I had an opportunity of meeting Mr. Home 
 at the house of a friend. On the first occasion, the increase 
 of weight was from 8 lbs. normally, to 36 lbs., 48 lbs., 
 and 46 lbs., in three successive experiments tried under 
 strict scrutiny. On the second occasion, tried about a 
 fortnight after, in the presence of other observers, I found 
 the increase of weight to be from 8 lbs. to 23 lbs., 43 lbs., 
 and 27 lbs., in three successive trials, varying the condi- 
 tions. As I had the entire management of the above- 
 mentioned experimental trials, employed an instrument of 
 great accuracy, and took every care to exclude the possi- 
 bility of the results being influenced by trickery, I was not 
 unprepared for a satisfactory result when the fact was pro- 
 perly tested in my own laboratory. The meeting on the 
 occasion formerly described was, therefore, for the purpose 
 of confirming my previous observations by the application 
 of crucial tests, with carefully arranged apparatus of a still 
 more delicate nature. 
 
on Psychic Force. 25 
 
 That this is a legitimate subject for scientific inquiry 
 scarcely needs assertion. Faraday himself did not consider 
 it beneath his dignity to examine similar phenomena; 
 and, in a letter to Sir Emerson Tennent, written in 
 1 86 1 on the occasion of a proposed experimental inquiry all 
 into the phenomena occurring in Mr. Home's presence, he 
 wrote : — " Is he (Mr. Home) willing to investigate as a 
 philosopher, and, as such, to have no concealments, no 
 darkness, to be open in communication, and to aid inquiry 
 all that he can .? . . . Does he consider the effects natural 
 or supernatural.'* If they be the glimpses of natural action 
 not yet reduced to law, ought it not to be the duty of every- 
 one who has the least influence in such actions personally 
 to develope them, and to aid others in their development, 
 by the utmost openness and assistance, and by the applica- 
 tion of every critical method, either mental or experimental, 
 which the mind of man can devise.?" 
 
 If circumstances had not prevented Faraday from meeting 
 Mr. Home, I have no doubt he would have witnessed pheno- 
 mena similar to those I am about to describe, and he could 
 not have failed to see that they offered "glimpses of natural 
 action not yet reduced to law." 
 
 I have already alluded to the publication of the ill-success 
 encountered by the members of the St. Petersburg Com- 
 mittee. Had the results been satisfactory, it must be fairly 
 assumed that the members would have been equally ready 
 to publish a report of their success. 
 
 I am informed by my friend Professor Boutlerow,* that 
 during the last winter, he tried almost the same experiments 
 as those here detailed, and with still moie striking results. 
 The normal tension on the dynamometer being 100 lbs., it 
 was increased to about 150 lbs., Mr. Home's hands being 
 placed in contact with the apparatus in such a manner that 
 any exertion of power on his part would diminish, instead 
 of increase, the tension. 
 
 In 1854, Count Agenor de Gasparin published a book,*!* 
 giving full details of a large series of physical experiments 
 which he had tried with some private friends in whom 
 this force was found to be strongly developed. His experi 
 ments were very numerous and were carried on under the 
 strictest test conditions. The fact of motion of heavy bodies 
 without mechanical contact was demonstrated over and over 
 
 * Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg ; author of a 
 work on Chemistry, entitled "Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie ;" Leipzig 
 1868. 
 
 t Science z/^-jwj Spiritualism. Paris, 1854. New York, 1857. 
 
26 Further Experiments 
 
 again. Careful experiments were made to measure the 
 force both of gravitation and of levitation thus communi- 
 cated to the substances under trial, and an ingenious plan 
 was adopted by which Count de Gasparin was enabled to 
 obtain a rough numerical estimate of the power of the 
 psychic force in each individual. The author finally arrived 
 at the conclusion that all these phenomena are to be 
 accounted for by the action of natural causes, and do not 
 require the supposition of miracles nor the intervention of 
 spirits or diabolical influences. He considers it as a fact 
 fully established by his experiments, that the will, in certain 
 states of the organism, can act at a distance on inert matter, 
 and most of his work is devoted to ascertaining the laws and 
 conditions under which this action manifests itself 
 
 In 1855, M. Thury, a Professor at the Academy of 
 Geneva, published a work,* in which he passed in review 
 Count de Gasparin's experiments, and entered into full 
 details of researches he had been simultaneously carrying 
 on. Here, also, the trials were made with private friends, 
 and were conducted with all the care which a scientific man 
 could bring to bear on the subject. Space will not allow me 
 to quote the valuable numerical results obtained by 
 M. Thury, but from the following headings of some of his 
 chapters, it will be seen that the enquiry was not conducted 
 superficially: — Facts which Establish the Reality of the 
 New Phenomenon ; Mechanical Action rendered Impossible; 
 Movements effected without Contact; The Causes ; Condi- 
 tions requisite for the Production and Action of the Force; 
 Conditions for the Action with Respect to the Operators; 
 The Will; Is a Plurality of Operators Necessary.? Pre- 
 liminary Requisites; Mental Condition of the Operators; 
 Meteorological Conditions; Conditions with Respect to the 
 Instruments Operated upon; Conditions relative to the 
 Mode of Action of the Operators on the Instruments; 
 Action of Substances interposed; Production and Trans- 
 mission of the Force; Examination of the Assigned 
 Causes ; Fraud ; Unconscious Muscular Action produced in 
 a particular Nervous State; Electricity; Nervo-magnetism; 
 M. de Gasparin's Theory of a Special Fluid ; General Ques- 
 tion as to the Action of Mind on Matter, ist Proposition ; In 
 the ordinary conditions of the body the will only acts directly 
 within the sphere of the organism. 2nd Proposition ; 
 Within the organism itself there are a series of mediate 
 acts. 3rd Proposition : The substance on which the mind 
 
 * Geneva; Librairie Allemande de J. Kessmann, 1855. 
 
on Psychic Force. 27 
 
 acts directly — ihcpsychodc — is onlysusceptible of very simple 
 modification under the influence of the mind; Explanations 
 which are based on the Intervention of Spirits. M. Thury 
 refutes all these explanations, and considers the effects due 
 to a peculiar substance, fluid, or agent, pervading, in a 
 manner similar to the luminiferous ether of the scientist, 
 all matter, nervous, organic, or inorganic — which he terms 
 psychode. He enters into full discussion as to the properties 
 of this state or form of matter, and proposes the term 
 ectenic force (iKTevLa^ extension), for the power exerted when 
 the mind acts at a distance through the influence of the 
 psychode.* 
 
 There is likewise another case on record in which similar 
 test experiments were tried, with like results, by a tho- 
 roughly competent observer. The late Dr. Robert Hare, in 
 one of his works,*]* gives an engraving of an apparatus very 
 similar to my own, by which the young man with whom 
 he was experimenting was prevented from having any other 
 communication with the apparatus except through water; 
 yet, under these circumstances, the spring balance indicated 
 the exertion of a force equal to 18 lbs. The details of this 
 experiment were communicated by Dr. Hare, to the Ameri- 
 can Association for the Advancement of Science, at the 
 meeting in August, 1855. 
 
 The references I now give afford an answer to the state- 
 ment that these results must be verified by others. They 
 have been verified over and over again. Indeed, my own 
 experiments may be regarded merely as verifications of 
 results already obtained and published by eminent scientific 
 men in this and other countries. J 
 
 But I was not content with this. I felt that having the 
 opportunity of showing these phenomena to others, I might 
 
 * Professor Thury's ect.enic and my psychic foice are evidently equivalent 
 terms. Had I seen his vi^ork three months ago I shoiild have adopted his 
 term. The suggestion of a similar hypothetical nervous fluid has now reached 
 us from another and totally different source, expounded with distinct views, 
 and couched in the language of one of the most important professions — I allude 
 to the theory of a nervous atmosphere advanced by Dr. Benjamin W. Richard- 
 son, M.D., F.R.S., in the "Medical Times," No. 1088, May 6, 1871. 
 
 t "Experimental Investigation;" By Robert Hare, M.D., Emeritus Pro- 
 fessor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, &c. New York: 
 Partridge and Britton, 1858. 
 
 t The Report of the Dialectical Society on Spiritualism will appear in a 
 few days, and it will be seen that the Investigation Committee, though com- 
 mencing their experiments with the entire conviction that they should expose 
 an imposture, have ended by affirming that they are convinced of the existence 
 of a force emanating from the human organisation, by which motion may be 
 imparted to heavy substances, and audible sounds made on solid bodies without 
 muscular contact ; they also state that this force is often directed by some iu- 
 telligence. 
 
28 Further Experiments. , 
 
 at a future time be blamed did I not, once for all, take 
 the very best means of bringing them before the notice of 
 the scientific world. Accordingly I forwarded an account of 
 my experiments to the Royal Society on June 15, 1871, and 
 addressed myself to the two secretaries of the Royal Society, 
 Professor Sharpey and Professor Stokes, inviting them to 
 my house to meet Mr. Home, at the same time asking them 
 to be prepared for negative results, and to come a second, 
 or, if necessary, a third time, before forming a judgment. 
 V Dr. Sharpey politely declined the invitation. 
 
 Professor Stokes replied that he thought there was a 
 fallacy in my apparatus, and concluded by saying — 
 
 "The facts you mentioned in the paper were certainly at first sight very 
 strange, but still possible modes of explanation occurred to me which weie 
 not precluded by what I read in the paper. If I have time when I go to 
 London I will endeavour to call at your house. I don't want to meet anyone ; 
 my object being to scrutinise the apparatus, not to witness the effects." 
 
 To this I replied on June 20th ; the following extracts 
 are taken from my answer: — 
 
 ' ' I am now fitting up apparatus in which contact is made through water 
 only, in such a way that transmission of mechanical movement to the board 
 is impossible ; and I am also arranging an experiment in which Mr. Home 
 will not touch the apparatus at all. This will only work when the power is 
 very strong ; but last night I tried an experiment of this kind, and obtained a 
 considerable increase of tension on the spring balance when Mr. Home's 
 hands were three inches off. With him the power is so great that I can work 
 with large and crude materials, and measure the force in pounds. But I 
 propose to make a delicate apparatus, with a mirror and reflected ray of light, 
 to show fractions of grains. Then I hope to find this force is not confined to 
 a few, but is, like the magnetic state, universal. The subject shall have a 
 'most scrupulously searching physical scrutiny,' and whatever results I obtain 
 shall be published. I consider it my duty to send first to the Royal Society, 
 for by so doing I deliberately stake my reputation on the truth of what I send. 
 But will the Society (or the Committee*) accept my facts as facts, or will they 
 require vouchers for my integrity? If my statements of fact are taken as 
 correct, and only my interpretation or arrangements of apparatus objected to, 
 then it would seem to be right to give me an opportunity of answering these 
 objections before finally deciding. The other supposition — that my facts are 
 incorrect — I cannot admit the discussion of till I am definitely assured that 
 such is entertained. 
 
 "Mr. Home is coming here on Wednesday and Friday evenings : if you can 
 come on either or both occasions at 8 p.m., I shall be glad to see you, or if you 
 only wish to scrutinise the apparatus, I will be here at any time you like to 
 name." 
 
 On the 28th of June another paper was sent to the Royal 
 Society. Two days after, Professor Stokes wrote a letter, 
 from which I quote: — 
 
 "As I was otherwise engaged so as not to be able conveniently to goto 
 your house, I may as well mention the possible sources of error which occurred 
 to me with reference to your first apparatus. I don't suppose they all exist; 
 
 * Alluding to a rumoured rejection of my paper by the Committee of the 
 Royal Society. 
 
on Psychic Force. 
 
 29 
 
 but it is evidently, as you yourself would freely admit, for the assertor of a 
 new force to remove all sources of reasonable objection. 
 
 "The breadth of the foot of the board was, I think, i\ox 1 inches, and the 
 bell placed on it was, perhaps, 2 or 3 inches broad. (1 can't carry the exact 
 figures in my head. ) Join the left edge* of the top of the bell, a, with the right 
 hand edge, b, of the base of the bell, and let ^/ be the joining line. Then we 
 may suppose the fingers to have pressed in any direction short of the limiting 
 line ef. Also as the board was rigid, the fulcrum for aught we know may 
 have been at c. From c let fall a perpendicular c m oxi the line ef. Then the 
 pressure of the finger may have acted at the distance, c m, from the fulcrum. 
 Also, as the base lay flat on the table and both were rigid, for aught we know, 
 an infinitesimal, and therefore imperceptible, tilt communicated to the table 
 at the time of trying the experiment may have shifted the fulcrum from the 
 edge d to the edge c, so that the weight of the hand may have acted by an 
 arm longer than before by c d, which would have contributed to the result. 
 
 **In your second paper the uncertainty as to the broad bearing is removed. 
 But when the hand was dipped into the water the pressure on the base of the 
 glass vessel (after a little time if the connecting hole be narrow) is increased 
 by the weight of the water displaced, and that would of course depress the 
 balance. 
 
 "I don't think much of mere tremors, for it would require very elaborate 
 appliances to prove that they were not due to a passing train or omnibus 
 
 or to a tremor in the body of one of the company 
 
 What do you wish to be done with the papers !" 
 
 To this I replied as follows, on July ist: — 
 
 "In your letter of the 30th ult., just received, you are quite right in saying 
 that I would freely admit that 'the assertor of a new force should remove all 
 sources of reasonable objection.' In your previous letter of the 19th of June, 
 you write with equal fairness, that 'your opinion is that you (the R. S.) ought 
 not to refuse to admit evidence of the existence of a hitherto unsuspected 
 
 Fig. I (half scale). 
 
 force; but that before printing anything on such a subject, you ought to 
 require a most scrupulously searching physical scrutiny of the evidence adduced 
 in favour of the existence of such a force.' 
 
 * The diagram referred to here is shown, drawn to scale, in my answer 
 further on. The experiment under discussion is the one figured and described 
 in the last number of the "Quarterly Journal of Science," page 345. 
 
30 Further Experiments 
 
 ' ' You have now been good enough to explain to me in detail what the 
 fallacy is which you think exists in my first experiments, and what you con- 
 sider to be the possible sources of error in my subsequent trials. 
 
 " On re-drawing the diagram you give in your letter, Fig. I, to the full size, 
 supplying the deficient data, viz., the position of the shoulder, a, and the 
 point, b, your line c m appears to be about 2 "9 inches long ; and, as' you assume 
 that the fulcrum shall be at c, the lever becomes one of the third order, the 
 two forces acting respectively at p — 2.'^ inches, and at f =36 inches from c. 
 What power, P, must be exerted at / to overcome a resistance or weight, Q, 
 of 6 lbs. at the end of the lever, q ? 
 
 Hence, P + 2-9 = Q + 36. 
 .-. P = 74-5lbs. 
 
 therefore, it would have required a force of 74*5 lbs. to have been exerted by 
 Mr. Home to have produced the results, even if all your suppositions are 
 granted ; and, considering that he was sitting in a low easy chair, and four 
 pairs of sharp, suspicious eyes were watching to see that he exerted no force 
 at all, but kept the tips of his fingers lightly on the instrument, it is sufficiently 
 evident that an exertion of this pressure was impossible. A few poimds 
 vertical pressure was all he could have effected. 
 
 " Again, you are not justified in assuming that the fiilcrum was at c. 
 Granting that ' an infinitesimal and therefore imperceptible tilt ' might, at the 
 very first movement, have thrown it from d to c, it is evident that the move- 
 ment would at once throw it forward again from c to d. To have failed to 
 have done so, the tilt must have been so obvious as to have been detected at 
 once. 
 
 " But, as I said in my last paper, I prefer to appeal to new experiments 
 rather than argue about old ones, and hence my employment of the water for 
 transmitting the force. The depth of water in the copper hemisphere was 
 only i\ inches, whilst the glass vessel was 9 inches in diameter.* I have just 
 tried the experiment of immersing my hand to the very utmost in the copper 
 vessel (Mr. Home only dipped in the tips of his fingers) and the rise of 
 the level of the water is not sufficient to produce any movement whatever on 
 the index of the balance, the friction of the apparatus being enough to absorb 
 the ounce or two thus added to the weight. In my more delicate apparatus, 
 this increase of hydrostatic pressure produces a decided movement of the spot 
 of light, but this difficulty I shall overcome by placing the water vessel over 
 the fulcrum, or on the short side of it. 
 
 " You say 'you don't think much of mere tremors,' as if in the other experi- 
 ments described in my second paper the movements of the apparatus were 
 only of this kind. This is not the case ; the quivering of the apparatus always 
 took place before the index moved, and the upward and downward motion of 
 the board and index was of a very slow and deUberate character, occupying 
 several seconds for each rise and fall ; a tremor produced by passing vehicles 
 is a very different thing from a steady vertical puU of from 4 to 8 lbs., lasting 
 for several seconds. 
 
 '' You say the session is now over, and ask what I wish to be done with the 
 papers. 
 
 *' Three years ago (June 27th, 1868), I sent a paper to the Society, * On the 
 Measurement of the Luminous Intensity of Light,' just after the session 
 closed. It was not read till December 17th. My wish would be for a similar 
 course to be adopted in the present instance, although I am scarcely sanguine 
 enough to expect that so much notice will be taken of these communications. 
 So many scientific men are now examining into these strange phenomena 
 (including many Fellows of the Society), that it cannot be many years before 
 the subject will be brought before the scientific world in a way that will 
 enforce attention. I confess that, in sending in these papers to the Society, I 
 have been actuated more by the desire of being the first scientific experimenter 
 
 * For a description of this apparatus, see p. 484. 
 
on Psychic Force. 31 
 
 who has ventured to take such a course, than by any particular desire that they 
 should meet with immediate attention. I owe to the Society the first intima- 
 tion of important scientific results, and these I shall continue to send, ^ pour 
 prendre date, ' if for no other reason. " 
 
 "The Spectator" of July 22nd contained an editorial 
 note, in which it is asserted that my paper was declined by 
 the committee: — 
 
 "The Royal Society, they say, was quite open to communications advo- 
 cating the existence of a force in nature as yet unknown, if such commu- 
 nications contained scientific evidence adequate to establish its probability; 
 but that, looking to the inherent improbability of the case as stated by Mr. 
 Crookes, and the entire want of scientific precision in the evidence adduced by 
 him, the paper was not regarded as one deserving the attention of the Royal 
 Society." 
 
 This paragraph not only states that my papers were 
 declined, but proceeds to state the grounds of their rejec- 
 tion. The fact is, that a quorum of the committee of papers 
 not having been present, the question was deferred to the next 
 session in November, and on inquiry at Burlington House, 
 I am informed by the Assistant-Secretary of the Royal 
 Society that my papers, with others, are still awaiting the 
 decision of the committee. Consequently the statement of 
 a rejection was not only premature, but purely imaginary. 
 
 It appears, however, that there were some grounds for 
 this statement, for in "The Spectator" of July 29th, 1871, 
 the editor replies as follows : — 
 
 ' ' Our note was not founded on any mere rumour. The words we used con- 
 tained an exact copy of the words conveyed to us as used, not, as we 
 inadvertently stated by the committee, but by one of the secretaries, Professor 
 Stokes, who in the absence of a quorum, exercised pro tempore the usual dis- 
 cretionaiy authority in regard to papers offered." 
 
 I am unable to explain how it is that Professor Stokes's 
 statements to me and to the editor of "The Spectator" 
 bear so different an interpretation, or why a weekly news- 
 paper was chosen for first conveying to me a decision of the 
 committee of papers of the Royal Society. 
 
 At the urgent request of gentlemen on the committee of 
 section A, I communicated a paper consisting of about 
 sixteen closely-written pages to the British Association, 
 in which I recounted some of the experiments described 
 in the present paper. Section A referred the paper to a 
 committee to decide whether it should be read. Professor 
 Stokes afterwards handed to me the following document : — 
 
 ^^ Report on Mr. Crookes' s Paper. 
 
 August 7,- 1 87 1. 
 
 "The paper having been placed in my hands about ten o'clock, and a 
 decision wanted in writing by a quarter to eleven, I have been obliged to be 
 hasty. 
 
 "The subject seems to be investigated in a philosophical spirit, and I do not 
 
32 Further Experiments 
 
 see the explanation of the result of the first class of experiments, while at 
 the same time I am not prepared to give in my adhesion without a thorough 
 sifting by more individuals than one. I don't see much use discussing the 
 thing in the sections, crowded as we already are; but if a small number of 
 persons in whom the public would feel confidence choose to volunteer to act 
 as members of a committee for investigating the subject, I don't see any 
 objection to appointing such committee. I have heard too much of the tricks 
 of Spiritualists to make me willmg to give my time to such a committee 
 myself. 
 
 "G. G. Stokes.'' 
 
 Whilst I cannot but regret that a physicist of such 
 eminence as Professor Stokes should "be hasty," in 
 deciding on the merits of a paper which it is physically 
 impossible he could have even once read through, I am 
 glad to find that he no longer continues to speak of the 
 " entire want of scientific precision in the evidence adduced" 
 by me, but rather admits that "the subject seems to be in- 
 vestigated in a philosophical spirit." 
 
 In submitting these experiments, it will not seem strange 
 that I should consider them final until rebutted by arguments 
 also drawn from facts, and that I should seek to know on 
 what grounds contra-statements are founded. Professor 
 Allen Thomson, at the recent meeting of the British Associa- 
 tion, remarked that no course of inquiry into the matter before 
 us " can deserve the name of study or investigation." And 
 why not ? On the other hand. Professor Challis, of Cam- 
 bridge, writes, "In short, the testimony has been so 
 abundant and consentaneous, that either the facts must be 
 admitted to be such as are reported, or the possibility of cer- 
 tifying facts by human testimony must be given up." It is 
 certainly not too much to suppose that Dr. Thomson had 
 some grounds for his statement; and, indeed, "I have," he 
 owns, " been fully convinced of this (the fallacies of spiritual- 
 istic demonstration) by repeated examinations;" but where 
 are the results of his investigations to be found } They must 
 be very conclusive to warrant him in the use of such expres- 
 sions as " a few men of acknowledged reputation in some 
 departments of science have surrendered their judgments to 
 these foolish dreams, otherwise appearing to be within the 
 bounds of sanity." If Dr. Thomson's dogmatic denial arises 
 from the mere strangeness of the facts I have set forth, what 
 can he think of the address of the President for this year. 
 Surely the conception of a nerve-force is no more difficult than 
 that " of the inner mechanism of the atom;" and again, any 
 investigation, be it worthy the name or not, bearing on a 
 matter in which eminent men have avowed their belief, which 
 takes a leading rank among the social questions of the day, 
 
071 Psychic Force. 33 
 
 and which numbers its adherents by millions, is surely as 
 full of merit, and as instructive to all, as hypothetical 
 inquiries into "interatomic atmospheres" and "gyrating 
 interatomic atoms." Professor Huxley has observed, " If 
 there is one thing clear about the progress of modern 
 science, it is the tendency to reduce all scientific prob- 
 lems, except those that are purely mathematical, to 
 problems in molecular physics — that is to say, to attrac- 
 tions, repulsions, motions, and co-ordination of the ulti- 
 mate particles of matter! Yet these ultimate particles, 
 molecules, or atoms, are creatures of the imagination, and 
 as pure assumptions as the spirits of the spiritualist." But 
 perhaps Dr. Allen Thomson's respect for mathematics is so 
 great that he is blind to actuality. It does not speak well 
 for modern scientific philosophy that, after the startling 
 revelations of the spectroscope during the last decade, inves- 
 tigations should be scouted because they pertain to an 
 ulterior state of things of which at present we have little idea. 
 That I have furnished no dynamic equivalent of psychic force, 
 or given no formulae for the variable intensity of Mr. Home's 
 power, is certainly no argument whatever against the exis- 
 tence of such a force. Men thought before the syllogism was 
 invented, and, strange as it may seem to some minds, force 
 existed before its demonstration in mathematical formulae. 
 
 As an answer to Professor Balfour Stewart's rather bold 
 conjecture, that Mr. Home possesses great electro-biological 
 power (whatever that may mean), by which he influences 
 those present, I point to the curves illustrating this paper ; 
 however susceptible ih.Q persons in the room might have been 
 to that assumed influence, it will hardly be contended that 
 Mr. Home biologised the recording instruments. 
 
 I will not occupy more time with personal matters, or 
 with explanations forced from me in self-defence against 
 uncourteous commentaries based on unjust misrepresenta- 
 tions ; but I will proceed to describe the experiments, most 
 of which, I may remark, might have been witnessed by 
 Professor Stokes and Professor Sharpey, had they accepted 
 the invitations I gave them. 
 
 On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought 
 that actual contact between Mr. Home's hands and the 
 suspended body whose weight was to be altered was essen- 
 tial to the exhibition of the force ; but I found afterwards 
 that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore 
 arranged my apparatus in the following manner : — 
 
 The accompanying cuts (Figs. 2, 3, 4) explain the 
 arrangement. Fig. 2 is a general view, and Figs. 3 and 4 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 Further Experiments 
 
 show the essential parts more in detail. The reference 
 letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a ma- 
 hogany board, 36 inches long by 9^ inches wide, and i inch 
 thick. It is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 furnished with an automatic register, D. The balance is 
 suspended from a very firm tripod support, E. 
 
 The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the 
 figures. To the moving index, o, of the spring balance, a 
 
 Fig. 3 
 
 fine steel point is soldered, projecting horizontally outwards. 
 In front of the balance, and firmly fastened to it, is a 
 
071 Psychic Force. 
 
 35 
 
 grooved frame carrying a flat box similar to the dark box of 
 a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by 
 clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and 
 it contains a sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked 
 over a flame. The projecting steel point impresses a mark 
 on this smoked surface. If the balance is at rest, and the 
 clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight horizontal 
 line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 \^'\> 
 
 end B of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose 
 length depends on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock 
 draws the plate along, the weight of the board (or the ten- 
 sion on the balance) varies, the result is a curved line, from 
 which the tension in grains at any moment during the con- 
 tinuance of the experiments can be calculated. 
 
 The instrument was capable of registering a diminution 
 of the force of gravitation as well as an increase ; registra- 
 tions of such a diminution were frequently obtained. To 
 avoid complication, however, I will only here refer to results 
 in which an increase of gravitation was experienced. 
 
 The end B of the board being supported by the spring 
 balance, the end A is supported on a wooden strip, F, 
 screwed across its lower side and cut to a knife edge (see 
 Fig. 4). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy wooden 
 
36 Further Experiments 
 
 stand, G H. On the board, exactly over* the fulcrum, is 
 placed a large glass vessel filled with water, I. L is a 
 massive iron stand, furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, 
 in which rests a hemispherical copper vessel perforated with 
 several holes at the bottom. 
 
 The iron stand is 2 inches from the board A B, and the 
 arm and copper vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the 
 latter dips into the water i\ inches, being 5 J inches from 
 the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its circumference. 
 Shaking or striking the arm M, or the vessel N, produces 
 no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable 
 of affecting the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest 
 extent into the water in N does not produce the least appre- 
 ciable action on the balance. 
 
 As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means 
 entirely cut off between the copper vessel and the board A B, 
 the power of muscular control is thereby completely 
 eliminated. 
 
 For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups 
 I, 2, 3, &c., and I have selected one special instance in 
 each to describe in detail. Nothing, however, is mentioned 
 which has not been repeated more than once, and in some 
 cases verified, in Mr. Home's absence, with another person 
 possessing similar powers. 
 
 There was always ample light in the room where the 
 experiments were conducted (my own dining-room) to see 
 all that took place. 
 
 Experiment I. — The apparatus having been properly ad- 
 justed before Mr. Home entered the room, he was brought 
 in, and asked to place his fingers in the water in the copper 
 vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of the fingers 
 of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his 
 feet being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or 
 influence, proceeding from his hand, I set the clock going, 
 and almost immediately the end B of the board was seen to 
 descend slowly and remain down for about 10 seconds ; it 
 then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its 
 normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, 
 gradually sunk for 17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal 
 height, where it remained till the experiment was concluded. 
 The lowest point marked on the glass was equivalent to a 
 direct pull of about 5000 grains. The accompanying figure 
 (5) is a copy of the curve traced on the glass. 
 
 * In my first experiments with this apparatus, referred to in Professor 
 Stokes's letter and my answer (page 479), the glass vessel was not quite over 
 the fulcrum, but was nearer B. 
 
 I 
 
on Psychic Force. 
 
 37 
 
 Experhnent II. — Contact through water having proved to 
 be as effectual as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see 
 if the power or force coulJ affect the weight, either through 
 other portions of the apparatus or through the air. The 
 glass vessel and iron stand, &c., were therefore removed, 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 Scale of Seconds. 
 
 s 10 
 II I f 1 1 1 
 
 TJie horizontal scale of seconds shows the time occupied in the movements, 
 the experiment lasting one minute. The vertical scale shows the tension in 
 grains exerted on the balance at any moment. 
 
 as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home's hands 
 were placed on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 2). 
 A gentleman present put his hand on Mr. Home's hands, and 
 his foot on both Mr. Home's feet, and I also watched him 
 closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was 
 
 Fig. 6. • 
 
 In this and the two following figures the scales, both vertical and horizontal, 
 are the same as in Fig. 5. 
 
 again set going ; the board descended and rose in an irregular 
 manner, the result being a curved tracing on the glass, of 
 which Fig. 6 is a copy. 
 
 Experiment III. — Mr. Home was now placed one foot 
 from the board A B, on one side of it. His hands and feet 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 \J17 
 
 were firmly grasped by a bystander, and another tracing, of 
 which Fig. 7 is a copy, was taken on the moving glass plate. 
 
38 
 
 Further Experiments 
 
 Experimeiit IV. — (Tried on an occasion when the power 
 was stronger than on the previous occasions). Mr. Home 
 was now placed 3 feet from the apparatus, his hands and 
 feet being tightly held. The clock was set going when he 
 gave the word, and the end B of the board soon descended, 
 and again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 8. 
 
 The following series of experiments were tried with more 
 delicate apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. 
 Home being absent. As the lady is non-professional, I do 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 not mention her name. She has, however, consented to 
 meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes 
 of investigation. 
 
 A piece of thin parchment, A, Figs. 9 and 10, is stretched 
 tightly across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever 
 turning on D. At the end B is a vertical needle point touching 
 the membrane A, and at c is another needle point, projecting 
 
 Fig. 9. (Plan.) 
 
 wiki 
 
 1 1.1 1.1 -7- 
 
 ^ 
 
 horizontally and touching a smoked glass plate, E F. This 
 glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by clock- 
 work, K. The end B of the lever is weighted so that it 
 shall quickly follow the movements of the centre of the 
 disc, A. These movements are transmitted and recorded 
 on the glass plate E F, by means of the lever and needle 
 
I 
 
 on Psychic Force. 
 
 39 
 
 point C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to allow a 
 free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The 
 apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, 
 to see that no shaking or jar on the table or support would 
 interfere with the results : the line traced by the point c 
 
 Fig. 10. (Section.) 
 
 on the smoked glass was perfectly straight in spite of all 
 our attempts to influence the lever by shaking the stand or 
 stamping on the floor. 
 
 Experiment V. — Without having the object of the instru- 
 ment explained to her, the lady was brought into the room 
 and asked to place her fingers on the wooden stand at the 
 points L M, Fig. 9. I then placed my hands over hers to 
 enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious movement 
 on her part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the 
 parchment resembling the dropping of grains of sand on its 
 surface. At each percussion a fragment of graphite which 
 I had placed on the membrane was seen to be projected up- 
 wards about I -50th of an inch, and the end c of the lever 
 moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were 
 as rapid as those from an induction-coil, whilst at others 
 they were more than a second apart. Five or six tracings 
 were taken, and in all cases a movement of the end c of the 
 lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the 
 membrane. 
 
 In some cases the lady's hands were not so near the 
 membrane as L M, but were at N o, Fig. 10. 
 
 The accompanying Fig. II gives tracings taken from the 
 plates used on these occasions. 
 
40 
 
 Further Experiments 
 
 Experiments — Having met with these results in Mr. 
 Home's absence, I was anxious to see what action would be 
 produced on the instrument in his presence. 
 
 Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining 
 the instrument to him. 
 
 0.5 
 
 » » I I I I 
 
 Fig. II. 
 Scale of Seconds. 
 
 I 
 
 I grasped Mr. Home's right arm above the wrist and held 
 his hand over the membrane, about lo inches from its sur- 
 face, in the position shown at p. Fig. lo. His other hand was 
 held by a friend. " After remaining in this position for about 
 half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence passing. 
 I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, c, 
 moving up and down. The movements were much slower 
 than in the former case, and were almost entirely unaccom- 
 panied by the percussive vibrations then noticed. 
 
 Figs. 12 and 13 show the curves produced on the glass on 
 two of these occasions. 
 
 Figs. II, 12, 13 are magnified. 
 
 These experiments confirm beyond doubt the conclusions 
 at which I arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence 
 of a force associated, in some manner not yet explained, 
 with the human organisation, by which force, increased 
 weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies without 
 physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the develop- 
 ment of this force varies enormously, not only from week to 
 week, but from hour to hour ; on some occasions the force 
 is inappreciable by my tests for an hour or more, and then 
 suddenly reappears in great strength. It is capable of 
 acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as far 
 as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him. 
 
 Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifesta- 
 tion of one form of force without the corresponding expen- 
 diture of some other form of force, I for a long time searched 
 
on Psychic Force. 
 
 41 
 
 in vain for evidence of any force or power being used up in 
 the production of these results. 
 
 Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think 
 I perceive what it is that this psychic force uses up for its 
 development. In employing the terms vital force, or nervous 
 etiergy, I am aware that I am employing words which 
 convey very different significations to many investigators ; 
 but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily 
 prostration in which some of these experiments have left 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 Mr. Home — after seeing him lying in an almost fainting 
 condition on the floor, pale and speechless — I could scarcely 
 doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by 
 a corresponding drain on vital force. 
 
 I have ventured to give this new force the name of 
 Psychic Force, because of its manifest relationship to certain 
 psychological conditions, and because I was most desirous 
 to avoid the foregone conclusions implied in the title under 
 
 Fig. 13, 
 
 which it has hitherto been claimed as belonging to a pro- 
 vince beyond the range of experiment and argument. But 
 having found that it is within the province of purely scien- 
 tific research, it is entitled to be known by a scientific name, 
 and I do not think a more appropriate one could have been 
 selected. 
 
 To witness exhibitions of this force it is not necessary to 
 have access to known psychics. The force itself is probably 
 possessed by all human beings, although the individuals 
 endowed with an extraordinary amount of it are doubtless 
 
42 Further Experiments 
 
 few. Within the last twelve months I have met in private 
 families five or six persons possessing a sufficiently vigorous 
 development to make me feel confident that similar results 
 might be produced through their means to those here 
 recorded, provided the experimentalist worked with more 
 delicate apparatus, capable of indicating a fraction of a 
 grain instead of recording pounds and ounces only. 
 
 As far as my other occupations will permit, I purpose to 
 continue the experiments in various forms, and I will report 
 from time to time their results. In the meanwhile I trust 
 that others will be induced to pursue the investigation in 
 its scientific form. It should, however, be understood that, 
 equally with all other scientific experiments, these researches 
 must be conducted in strict compliance with the conditions 
 under which the force is developed. As it is an indispens- 
 able condition of experiments with frictional electricity that 
 the atmosphere should be free from excess of moisture, and 
 that no conducting medium should touch the instrument 
 while the force is being generated, so certain conditions are 
 found to be essential to the production and operation of the 
 Psychic force, and unless these precautions are observed the 
 experiments will fail. I am emphatic on this point, because 
 unreasonable objections have sometimes been made to 
 the Psychic Force that it is not developed under ad- 
 verse conditions dictated by the experimentalist, who, 
 nevertheless, would object to conditions being imposed 
 upon himself in the exhibition of any of his own scientific 
 results. But I may add, that the conditions required are 
 very few, very reasonable, and in no way obstruct the most 
 perfect observation and the application of the most rigid 
 and accurate tests. 
 
 Just before going to press I have received from my friend 
 Professor Morton an advance sheet of the " Journal of the 
 Franklin Institute," containing some remarks on my last 
 paper by Mr. Coleman Sellers, a leading scientific engineer 
 of the United States. The essence of his criticism is con- 
 tained in the following quotation : — 
 
 **0n page 341" (of the Quarterly Journal of Science) *' we have given a. 
 mahogany board '36 inches long by 94 inches wide, and I inch thick,' with 
 ' at each end a strip of mahogany \\ inches wide screwed on, forming feet.' 
 This board was so placed as to rest with one end on the table, the other 
 suspended by a spring balance, and, so suspended, it _ recorded a weight_ of 
 3 pounds ; i.e., a ??iahogany board of the above dimensions is shown to weigh 
 6 pounds — 3 pounds on the balance and 3 pounds on the table. A mechanic 
 used to handling wood wonders how this may be. He looks through his 
 
 { 
 
on Psychic Force. 43 
 
 limited library and finds that scientific men tell him that such a board should 
 weigh about 13^ pounds. Did Mr. Crookes make this board himself? or did 
 Mr. Home furnish it as one of his pieces of apparatus ? .... It would 
 have been more satisfactory if Mr, Crookeshad stated, in regard to this board, 
 who made it. . . . Let it be discovered that the 6 pound mahogany 
 board was furnished by Mr. Home and the experiments v/ill not be so con- 
 vincing." 
 
 My experiments must indeed be convincing if so accom- 
 plished a mechanician as Mr. Coleman Sellers can find no 
 worse fault with them than is expressed in the comments I 
 have quoted. He writes in so matter-of-fact a manner, and 
 deals so plausibly with dimensions and weights, that most 
 persons would take it for granted that I really had com- 
 mitted the egregious blunder he points out. 
 
 Will it be believed, therefore, that my mahogany board does 
 tueigh only 6 pounds? Four separate balances in my own 
 house tell me so, and my greengrocer confirms the fact. 
 
 It is easy to perceive into what errors a " mechanic" may 
 fall when he relies for practical knowledge on his " limited 
 library" instead of appealing to actual experiment. 
 
 I am sorry I cannot inform Mr. Sellers who made my 
 mahogany board. It has been in my possession about 
 sixteen years ; it was originally cut off a length in a wood- 
 yard ; it became the stand of a spectrum camera, and as 
 such is described with a cut in the " Journal of the Photo- 
 graphic Society" for January 21, 1856 (vol. ii., p. 293). It 
 has since done temporary duty in the arrangement of vari- 
 ous pieces of apparatus in my physical laboratory, and was 
 selected for these particular experiments owing to its shape 
 being more convenient than that of other available pieces 
 of wood. 
 
 But is it seriously expected that I should answer such a 
 question as "Did Mr. Home furnish the board .''" Will not 
 my critics give me credit for the possession of some amount 
 of common sense } And can they not imagine that obvious 
 precautions, which occur to them as soon as they sit down 
 to pick holes in my experiments, are not unlikely to have 
 also occurred to me in the course of prolonged and patient 
 investigation .? 
 
 The answer to this as to all other like objections is, 
 Prove it to be an error by showing where the error lies, 
 or, if a trick, by showing hoiv the trick is performed. Try the 
 experiment fully and fairly. If then fraud be found, expose 
 it ; if it be a truth, proclaim it. This is the only scientific 
 procedure, and this it is that I purpose steadily to pursue. 
 
I 
 
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