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usually supposed to be necessary. This paper was submitted to the Council of the Royal Society, and has been officially and unanimously rejected. History will surely record with regret that a Society which has done such eminent service in the advancement of knowledge, should in this instance, by its own act have brought upon itself deserved discredit in refusing to entertain the consideration of phenomena which for nearly a quarter of a century have arrested public attention throughout the world, and which certainly are deeply significant, whatever view we take of their nature and origin. It cannot be pleaded on behalf of the Royal Society that Mr. Crookes comes before it unaccredited by scientific position and attainments, for we may fairly presume that it was from their sense of his eminent fitness in these respects that they did him the unusual honour of electing him a Fellow at his first nomination, when there were only fifteen Fellows to be elected out of fifty candidates. The rejection of a paper on a subject of such grave importance, by one so well qualified to deal with it,—a paper so carefully prepared, detailing a series of experiments conducted with the utmost caution, and verified by witnesses whose competence is above suspicion, is a humiliation of science by a body which is its most conspicuous representative. But this act of the Royal Society is only the latest of a long list of illustrations that might be cited to show that it is not to learned bodies, and men of great reputation that we must look for the advancement of new and unpopular truths, which have to win public acceptance not only without their aid, and in the face of their neglect, but too often in spite of their opposition.

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AN AMERICAN JOURNAL ON PSYCHIC FORCE.'

It is possible, if not probable, that Professor Crookes and his associates may have contributed to science a permanent discovery in his recent experiments with Mr. Home as a medium. It certainly has never been clearly demonstrated what is the force or element used by the will when the hand is controlled to write or strike by an individual. Voluntary actions are merely registered as one class of motions, and involuntary as another, and the moving element used as an instrnment in the former has never been clearly defined. Experiments have fully proved that it is not electricity nor magnetism, which in their natural and abstract condition are not subject to the will. That there is an element or force which is subject to the human will is also quite certain, and it may be properly termed psychic force, as the will pertains to the soul, and this element may be used by the soul while in the body to regulate its motions, and,

for aught we know, in some instances by souls when free from their bodies to control the bodies of susceptible persons whom we call mediums. There is often evidence of partial control by a foreign intelligence, and sometimes a blending of this with the mind of the medium, in which there is a mixture and comparison of ideas and actions. The element is evidently not intelligent, but is wholly or partially controlled by intelligence from some source. The professor evidently does not wait to admit the control of any foreign intelligence, while we have the best evidence of such control; but we are not certain that he has not hit upon the very element that the soul of each person uses to control its own body, as well as that of others in the case of mediumship. Science is surely feeling her way along toward spiritual ground, and will ere long fairly plant her standard on the spiritual shore, and take observations from that point; and the Psychic Force may be the chain that will enable her to measure over the gulf of death, which has heretofore been her barrier to further discoveries.-Banner of Light.

MANIFESTATIONS IN HYDE PARK HOTEL.

Mrs. Berry has a suite of apartments in the above hotel, and has had a cabinet constructed for the purpose of obtaining spirit manifestations in her own rooms. This cabinet is just sufficiently large for two persons to be seated in, and is enclosed by two gates, secured by a slip bolt, and a stout iron bar fastened by a padlock, of which at these séances Mrs. Berry keeps the key. Between these gates and a pair of outer doors is a space of seventeen inches, and in each of these doors is an aperture six inches in diameter, with a curtain inside to shut out the light. Candles are placed for the light to fall full upon these apertures, through which, when the spirits have drawn aside the curtain, hands are shown; in the evening to which we are about to refer not only full-formed hands but baby hands were thus shown. Articles placed in the cabinet, or taken by the occult agency from the rooms, or from outside the house, whence is sometimes wholly unknown, are thrown out or handed to those present. But a manifestation of a still more remarkable kind occurred on the evening of Wednesday, January 24th. The mediums, Messrs. Herne and Williams, were in the cabinet, which was bolted, barred, and padlocked, as described. After other manifestations had occurred of the kind indicated, the mediums were thrown through the doors, or, as Mrs. Berry expressed it to us, came rolling out; the gates, it was found on examination, remaining fastened and the iron bar undisturbed, the key of the padlock still in Mrs. Berry's pocket. On entering the adjoining room,

the heavy couch, with other articles of furniture were found turned over on the floor, without injury to them, and so noiselessly that the movements had not been heard. On the following Wednesday evening the spirits showed their power by smashing the cabinet. The seat was torn down, the gates knocked to pieces, the iron bar was bent nearly double, and the hinge which fastened it to the gate broken across. How these things were done, like many other things, is a mystery. We give the account as we had it from the lips of Mrs. Berry, and from the Rev. G. C. D., a clergyman of the Church of England, who witnessed these things. We have seen the wreck of the cabinet and the bent iron bar and broken hinge. We think it would have been impossible for the mediums to have bent the bar as we saw it, even had they been free and outside the cabinet, instead of prisoners locked up within it.

A LADY CARRIED AWAY BY SPIRITS.-WRITING ON THE SKIN. Dr. H. Clifford Smith writes:

On Saturday, 17th February, I went to the rooms of Messrs. Herne and Williams, 61, Lamb's Conduit-street. Eight persons were present. Having taken our seats, Mr. Williams closed the folding doors, leaving the gas burning brightly in the front room. He locked the doors, and handed the key to a lady who was present, and took his seat.

Two minutes could not have elapsed before I felt the passage of some drapery overhead, and directly afterwards all exclaimed that some person was on the table, and various conjectures were made as to who it could be. A light was obtained, when I, who was nearest to her face, recognised her as Miss Lottie Fowler. She was in a deep trance. The pulse, however, which I felt immediately, was full, but rapid and fluttering, as a person's under the influence of great excitement. Afterward this subsided, and became gradually weak and feeble, but rapid, as in a person in an extreme state of exhaustion.

During her trance, she was frequently influenced by a spirit, "Anne," who spoke distinctly in her own characteristic way, and endeavoured to describe the manner in which she was brought. She stated that her medium would sleep and remain in the trance condition until half-past eight, but that we were to continue sitting and wait for further manifestations. It would take me too long to enter into all the interesting particulars of the séance, or of the conversation held with "Anne." Suffice it to say that Miss Fowler with some difficulty recovered consciousness at half-past eight precisely. The time, which I carefully noted, when she was so suddenly brought into our midst was a quarterpast seven.

Miss Fowler when she awoke from her trance became greatly excitedwould not credit what had happened. When she was come sufficiently to herself she gave the same account which the spirit "Annie" had previously given to the effect that she had left her home in Keppel Street, Russell Square, at seven o'clock, proceeded to the corner of Tottenham Court Road, and there entered an omnibus going up Oxford Street, as she was on her way to Mrs. Gregory's. She felt sick, but that was all she could call to memory; she knew nothing more after that until her return to consciousness in our midst.

During her entrancement the spirit stated that Messrs. Herne and Williams were about to have a new development of mediumship, and that they would each have a name written on their hands during the evening. When a

light was obtained, each had a name written on the skin of the hand and arm in blood-red letters. The next morning Mr. Williams called to see me, and whilst we were conversing about the matter, the name of a dear friend of mine in spirit-land gradually appeared on the back of his hand.

SPIRITUALISM AT THE EAST END OF LONDON.

On Wednesday, February 21st, a company of about 200 persons sat down to tea at the Assembly Rooms, New Road, Commercial Road East, when a purse and some books were presented to Mr. Cogman, in acknowledgment of his services as a medium, who has laboured more especially at this end of London, and has thrown his house open for séances for the last seven years. The chair was taken by Mr. Burns, and addresses were delivered by Messrs. Shorter, Powell, Goss, and other speakers; and there was some talk of a Society of Spiritualists being formed in this part of the metropolis, where a wide field of useful work would be open to it.

SPIRITUALISM IN CHELSEA.

Modern Spiritualism has lately been the subject of discussion before the Chelsea Literary and Scientific Association. It was introduced by an Address from Mr. J. W. Jackson, who said he had lately seen a great deal of the phenomena of Spiritualism, and who gave details of many private séances he had attended, when heavy objects had been moved without contact, spirit-voices had been heard, direct spirit-writings had been obtained, and other phenomena had been witnessed. Mr. Coleman also related many of the remarkable incidents of his experience, and counselled the Association to appoint a committee of its members to investigate the phenomena of Spiritualism, and report thereon to the Association. Dr. Carpenter has also recently lectured on Spiritualism to the Association, but his lecture had little to do with the subject, and the only novelty in it was a gross misrepresentation of one of the experiments made by Mr. Crookes, and described by him in the Quarterly Journal of Science. This misrepresentation was exposed and corrected by Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, which had reported Dr. Carpenter's lecture, but as is too commonly the case with the newspaper press, that journal has not been so ready to give currency to the truth as to the falsehood, and it has not published Mr. Wallace's letter. Dr. Carpenter declined all discussion; he would not deign to notice a written question put before him by the chairman, and when at the close of his lecture Mr. Coleman rose to speak, Dr. Carpenter hastily decamped.

Notices of Books.

CROOKES VERSUS CARPENTER.*

MR. CROOKES has issued a temperate, dignified, and able reply to the calumnious falsehoods of the Quarterly Review and the smaller critics and detractors who have followed its injurious lead. The public may now learn from the pamphlet under notice how their misplaced confidence in the veracity of the Quarterly Review has been abused; and if Dr. Carpenter has any sense of honour or of shame, he must wince under this scathing exposure of his heedless or wilful misrepresentations. Mr. Crookes shews that in ten distinct instances the Review has deliberately calumniated him. We need not follow Mr. Crookes, for the superficial character of the Quarterly Review article and the spiteful nature of the attack on Mr. Crookes and other eminent men of science is too obvious to dwell upon. It is only the scientific position of the writer, and the literary reputation of the Quarterly Review which has given to it an ephemeral and factitious importance. An eminent chemist, a disbeliever in Spiritualism, in a critique on the article by Dr. Carpenter, remarks:

My object is not to discuss the personal question whether book-making and dredging afford better or worse training for experimental inquiry than the marvellously exact and exquisitely delicate manipulations of the modern observatory and laboratory, but to protest against this attempt to stop the progress of investigation, to damage the true interests of science and the cause of truth, by thus throwing low libellous mud upon any and every body who steps at all aside from the beaten paths of ordinary investigation. The true business of science is the discovery of truth, to seek it wherever it may be found, to follow the pursuit through bye-ways and highways, and having found it, to proclaim it plainly and fearlessly, without regard to authority, fashion, or prejudice. If, however, such influential magazines as the Quarterly Review are to be converted into the vehicles of artful and elaborate efforts to undermine the scientific reputation of any man who thus does his scientific duty, the time for plain speaking and vigorous protest has arrived. My readers will be glad to learn that this is the general feeling of the leading scientific men of the metropolis; whatever they may think of the particular investigations of Mr. Crookes, they are unanimous in expressing their denunciations of this article in the Quarterly.

We hope that what has befallen Dr. Carpenter will operate as a salutary warning against that spirit of rash and reckless assertion so common among journalists in writing on Spiritualism and of those who certify to the genuineness of its phenomena, and that it will also be a lesson to Dr. Carpenter himself, bringing home to his mind the wholesome conviction that even he may not with impunity violate the commandment-" Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."

Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism: A Reply to the "Quarterly Review, " and other Critics. By WM. CROOKES, F.R.S., &c. London: LONGMANS, GREEN & Co.

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