Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-15

on another occasion it rose to great
height. and then plunged down, vanishing
into the earth in straight line. These ap-
pearanees to my mind were decisive. The
hypothesis OF Authorization, or even fllu-
sion, on my part is out of the question.
In photographlng these manifestations
by means of flashlight three separate pho
tographerS worked at the same tme-M.
Delanne, with a stereoscopfc camera; Nine.
a with a kodak and myself with Rich
ard stereoscope-verascope. Thus five plates
were taken simultaneously at one single
hashlight. This excludes all possibility OF
Photographic fraud. The negatives were
developed at Algiers by optical instrument
makers who knew absolutely nothing about
the subjects.
X
"A personal description of this Bien Boa
shows him to have d long face thick black
mustache. masking the chin: eyes. rath-
indistinct seeming open in some pho
tographs. closed in others. as If in sleep, or
death; the white drapery of the figure is
cloudy; the top of the head wears tur-
ban, or helmet-shaped object which shades
the eyes; the turban is put on over casque
with pendentive. or chin piece, detached
below. The figure is that of a tail, angular
man.
There is agreement between all the pho
tographs taken; and the most powerful rea-
sons initiate in favor of the reality OF these
phenomena. At the same time, it is hard
for me, a Observation-Disclosures all the evil
dence-to admit the reality of 'materializa-
ton The phenomenon Is so mysterious, so
mira culous that even after the fullest evil
Dental investigation | find 1t difficult to
yield to conviction. l cannot say In what
these materializations consist; l am only
ready 10 maintain that there Is something
profoundly mysterious. that will change
from top to bottom our ideas on nature
and life"
Sir oliver Lodge, commenting on the re-
markable photographs described above by
Prof Richet. points out the advantages of
the various photographs taken by Prof
Richet being ''ateroscopic"-that Is giving
three dimensions. He says: Comparing
the face with faces of the admittedly real
and human persons visible in some of the
photographs, 1t may be described less
fully and strongly marked than theirs. in
some IL may even be considered rather a
sketchy outline of a face; but a face, and
not any accidental arrangement of light
and shade, IL unquestionably Is. 1t looks
like a real face with rather a corpselike
or bloodless appearance.
**
~ am well aware" continues Sir Oliver
Lodge las is every one else, that phenom-
ena of much the same kind have been OBJ
served and vouched for genuine by emil
nent scientific men. These responsible au-
thorities have been forced by actual expert
ence to admit that such things can occur
Whatever may turn out to be the real ex-
PLANTATION of these photographs, they are
the best of the kind have recently seen;
and whereas the so-called spirit photo
graphs have hitherto left me under the i'm
preston of an artificial arrangement or
Photographic hoax of some kind-of which
so many are possibe-these impress me,
when taken In conjunction with the evil
dence as to their taking and development
as being OF quite a genuine Photographic
character. Moreover. the photographs taken
by different and independent observers are
confirmatory of each other.
Some violent supposition is necessitated
by the evidence, unless the evidence itself
be discredited."
These Algerian manifestations as investi-
gated by Prof. Richet, and Endorsed by
Sir Oliver Lodge produce beyond doubt one
OF the strongest cases ever made out in IA
vor of spiritism. But the Algerian
"spook' Bien Boa, however phenomenal,