Science and Spiritualism.
By J. H. W.
MR. WILLIAM CROOKES is editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science and the Chemical News, the two leading scientific publications of Great Britain. In the January number of the Journal of Science he published a lengthy article giving account of his investigations of spiritualism with the mediums D. D. Home, and Kate Fox, now Mrs. Jencken. His investigations cover a period of over four years. He ranges the phenomena coming under his observation under thirteen classes, and the evidence of the reality of spiritualism is to him of such a nature as to cause him to think it would be moral cowardice to withhold his testimony because of the ridicule heaped upon him by a class of critics who have not examined the evidence for themselves. Mr. Crookes speaks of three theories of spiritualism held by some persons, to wit, that the phenomena are the results of tricks or legerdemain, that the mediums are the victims of delusion, and that it is the result of unconscious cerebral action. But his experiments have fully satisfied him that these theories are not true, but that “in certain instances at least they result from the agency of an outside intelligence, not belonging to any human being present.” The ninth class of phenomena relates to appearances of hands, &c. Of these, the account from which I copy, says:— “Of these phenomena he gives numerous instances. In one case, a small hand rose up from an opening in the dining-table and gave him a flower; it appeared and then disappeared three times at intervals, affording Mr. Crookes ample opportunity of satisfying himself of its reality, as it occurred in the light in his own room, while he was holding the medium’s hands and feet. The hands and fingers do not always appear solid and life-like, sometimes, indeed, seeming like a nebulous cloud, partly condensed in the form of a hand. He has more than once seen first an object move, then a luminous cloud appear to form about it, and, lastly, the cloud condense into shape and become a perfectly formed hand. At this stage it was visible to all present. Sometimes it was life-like and graceful, the fingers moving, and the flesh apparently as human as that of any person in the room. At the arm, or wrist, it became hazy and passed off into a luminous cloud. To the touch, the hand appeared sometimes icy cold and dead, at others, warm, grasping his own with the firm pressure of an old friend. In one instance, he retained one of these hands in his own, firmly resolved not to let it escape. There was no struggle, no effort to get loose, but it gradually seemed to resolve itself into vapor, and faded in that manner from his grasp.” Mr. Crookes is preparing a volume in which he promises to give more full particulars and evidences, and invites the attention of the scientific world to the subject. From the high position occupied by Mr. Crookes, and from the well-known fact that scientific men in general do not admit the statements of the Bible as evidence in their investigations, but place more reliance upon their own deductions than upon the word of God, it is reasonable to conclude that his writings will give a new impetus to this delusion, and go far to prepare the world for the final deception of the “unclean spirits.” J. H. W.