Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-29
Scientific Discussions
by Garrett P. Serviss

Is there a new. /. e., hitherto un-
known, form of matter? The assertion
that there is seems no more improb-
able, no more contrary to human ex-
perience than the other extraordinary
assertion, frequently ventured nova
days, viz, that there is fourth dimen-
sion of space, which is not subject to
any of our familiar means of measure
r1ent. Both propositions are difficult
for a 'layman" to understand, and
perhaps both are equally likely, or un-
likely. to be true. 1t may be that
the phenomena and the reasons on
which they are based are so associated
that if one of the two propositions is
found on fact that other must also be
fl nded on fact.
Some very surprising things have
been coming out lately about the al
legged new form OF matter. Its
most startling popularity - if we a.
cert the claim that IL Exists at all -
ID that 1t seems to pe formed out OF
the visible and weighable SUBSTANCE OF
the human body, and yet is itself gen
cIally invisible and perhaps unweigh-
able, although capable of exercising
astonishing force upon ordinary ma
terial objects.
In one case, that of the Golighers in
Belfast, Ireland, a young woman sit
ting on a chair supported by the plat
form of a weighing scales, and not
in direct contact with the floor or with
any object around her, creates, accord
ing to the testimony of an accredited
physicist, DR.. Crawford, connected with
the Belfast University, some wonder
full kind of matter, which appears to
issue from her in the shape of a bean,
"a cantilever," DR.. Crawford calls
it,, and which passes under table
placed in front of her chair, forms
an elbow beneath the table, turns up
ward until it comes into contact with
the under surface of the table, and
then eXerts an upward force sufficient
to lift the table several feet into the
air, and maintain it there for con-
siderable period of time.
Now, mark a very strange circum-
stance AS the table starts to rise
the balance arm of the scales, on
whose platform Miss Goligher sits in
her chair, strikes the top with sharp
rap, as il weight had suddenly been
thrown Non, and when the indicator is
adjusted it shows that a number of
pounds, corresponding with the actual
weight of the table suspended in the
air, have been added to the pressure
on the platform In other words, the
young woman appears to have gained
in weight just as many pounds as cor
respond with the weight of the upheld
table, exactly as she would have done
if she had stretched out her arm and
with it lifted the table.
DR.. Crawford, in the course of many
experiments. claims to have traced the
mysterious "cantilever," not by seeing
or by feeling, but by means of pres
sure scales and spring balances, so
placed along its course, between the
medium and the under surface of the
table, that he is able to infer from
their indications the shape, and the
general dimensions, of this beam of
psychic matter" While he cannot
feel it as a continuous body, yet he
does experience, he says, a curious,
cold clammy sensation, and something
resembling a breeze or current of air,
when his hand crosses the space where
the invisible mystery exists.
In another case, in many respects
much more extraordinary, that Of a
Partisan woman named Marthe
Beraud, the new matter" is alleged
to issue from the mediums mouth, and
little of it is said to have been col
lected and analyzed, the final residium
consisting only of a few watery drops,
consisting mainly of cell detritus.
highly bacterial, with vesuges of other
organic compounds" This medium,
it is declared by persons who are ac-
cepted by what seems on the surface
good authority, as trustworthy, can
not only create out OF the strange mat
ter human faces figures, hands, fin
gers, etc, which float about in the air,
but can, on occasion, impart to them
so much reality that a lock of hair
from one of the mysterious heads was
cut off, and examined under a micro
scope, besides being submitted IL
chemical tests, which do not appear to
have shown any decided difference be-
tween it and genuine hair from a liv-
ing human head.
There are, however, so many sus-
picious circumstances about these pa
risian experiments that, notwithstand-
ing the fact that they have been seri-
ously set forth in responsible publica-
tions, no cautious investigator can, II
seems to me, ascribe any scientific
weight to them: but the Belfast ex-
periments, perhaps stand on a little
better ground. If we take DR.. Craw-
ford at his word, every precaution ap-
pears to have been used to exclude
deception, and If he were not so de.
termined to insist upon his entirely un.
proved hypothesis that "disembodied
spirits" are at the bottom of the
strange phenomena, 1 should feel little
doubt that eh had disclosed something
worth very careful study.
1t will be observed that the whole
question turns upon the fundamental
nature of matter. a subject of the pro
| foundest scientific thought at the
present time. There are good auth
critics who assert that matter anC
force, or energy, are simply differen
manifestations of the same entity, ol
thing. If the so-called spiritual ele
ment in man approaches closer thar
| ordinary matter to the Fundamental
basis of things, then 1t is at least con
ceivable that in man the two worlds"
] which are really only different phase!
of one world. possess point of inter
| change.