New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-02-08

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| as human as that of any person in tn,
| room. At the arm or wrist it became hazy
and passed off into a luminous cloud. TX
the touch the hand appeared sometimes
| lev cold and dead, at others warm, grasp
ing his own with the firm pressure of al
| old friend. In one instance he retained
one of these hands in his own, firmly re
solved not to let it escape. There was nc
| struggle, no effort to get loose, but II
| gradually seemed to resolve itsel
| into vapor, and faded in that manner
| from his grasp. The next or tenth class
of phenomena comprised those of direct
| writing, exhibited sometimes in darkness,
sometimes in light, sometimes without
any apparent agency, at others through
the medium of a hand. The eleventh
class embraces the rarest phenomena,
namely, those OF phantom forms and
faces, which he witnessed in very few
instances only. The twelfth class covers
phenomena that seem to point to the
agency of an exterior intelligence, other
than that of the medium or some person
in the room. Although the hypothesis
has been suggested that the medium is
the source of this intelligence, by those
who think they see in this an explanation
of many of the facts, yet Mr.. Crookes has
reason to believe that in certain instances,
at least, they result from the agency of an
outside intelligence, not belonging to any
human being present Under the thir
tenth head, Mr.. Crookes includes a vari-
ETY. of miscellaneous occurrences of COM
pick character, not easily grouped under
any of the preceding divisions, to which,
however, he refers only briefly, reserving
the details for the volume which he is
now preparing. He then proceeds to in
dictate the theories that have been brought
forward to account for the phenomena
observed.
The first theory. that the phenomena
are all the results of tricks, clever me-
chanical arrangements, or legerdemain-
the mediums inposters and the rest of the
company fools-he considers inadequate
to explain more than very small proper
ton of the facts. He has throughout
given truthful account of what he him
self observed, and has taken occasion to
prevent any collision or trickery. He
furthermore states that although profess
sional exhibitors frequently simulate many
of the phenomena referred to, it usually
requires an apartment specially prepared,
the lights properly arranged, and placed
in particular direction, with a variety of
machinery and confederates. In the most
striking of the cases mentioned by him,
the experiments took place in his own
house. and under circumstances pre-
Guiding the possibility of trickery.
A second theory is that the persons at
seance are the victims of a sort of mania
or deluson, and imagine phenomena to
occur which have no real objective exis-
tence, third that the whole is the result
OF conscious or unconscious cerebral &C
ton. These two theories Mr.. Crookes
considers incapable of embracing more
than few of the phenomena, and dis
misses them.
The spiritual theories are next presented
that the phenomena are the result of the
action of the spirit of the mediums per-
haps in association with the spirits of
some Or all of the people present; that
they are the actions of evil spirits or
devils personifying whom or what they
please in order to undermine Christianity
and ruin mems souls; or that they are the
actions of separate order OF beings,
living OH LIE eartH, anu Invisible,
but occasionally able to manifest
their presence. Another of the
spiritual theories is that they are the
action of departed human beings. This
IS the spiritual theory par excellence.
Mr.. Crookes comes to the psychic |
Force" theory, which is necessary ad-
unct of the others rather than theory of |
Itself. According to this, the medium Cor
he circle of people associated together as
! whole is supposed to possess a force,
power, influence, virtue or gift, by means
If which intelligent beings are enabled to |
produce the phenomena observed.
The view held by Mr.. Crookes himself |
n regard to this subject he proposes to
present in the volume to which reference |
las already been made, which will prob |
Ibly make its appearance at an early day, |
nd which will undoubtedly be the sub
ect of careful consideration on the part of |
PERSONS interested in the phenomena re-
erred to.
In conclusion, we will repeat that Mr..
'rookes is a gentleman well known in
cientific circles as chemist and physic-
st, and the editor Of two prominent Eng
ish scientific journals from the advanced
heets of which we are enabled to give
his summary of his paper.
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