Eusapia Palladino and Scientific Investigation
Professor Hislop declares that the exposé, as it is called, of Eusapia Palladino is unworthy of consideration; that the case ought to be dealt with as one of abnormal psychology or hysteria, whereas it was dealt with from the viewpoint of the trickster. He admits that Eusapia Palladino performs so-called "tricks," but he declares that these tricks are not one tenth as clever as the most ordinary conjurer can perform. They are very simple in comparison, but the correct position to investigate the case of the Palladino woman is not from the viewpoint of the prestidigitator but from the basis of an abnormal mind. Instead of making a truly scientific investigation of it, it was made a vaudeville show. He further tells us that "popular magazine articles on psychic research are not generally worthy of the slightest attention on the part of scientific men except to correct the illusions which they produce," further, that unfortunately people in this country do their thinking through the papers and popular periodicals, the worst possible source of information on any subject whatever; and there is a great deal of truth in what the professor says.