setting aside, as beyond the present speculation, what the exact
origin and nature of the ectoplasm may be, it seems to me that there is
room for a very suggestive line of thought if we make Geley's
experiments the starting point, and lead it in the direction of other
manifestations of psychomaterial activity. First of all, let us take
Crookes' classic experiments with Katie King, a result which for a long
time stood alone and isolated but now can be approached by intermittent
but definite stages. Thus we can well suppose that during those long
periods when Florrie Cook lay in the laboratory in the dark, periods
which lasted an hour or more upon some occasions, the ectoplasm was
flowing from her as from Eva. Then it was gathering itself into a
viscous cloud or pillar close to her frame; then the form of Katie King
was evolved from this cloud, in the manner already described, and
finally the nexus was broken and the completed body advanced to present
itself at the door of communication, showing a person different in
every possible attribute save that of sex from the medium, and yet
composed wholly or in part from elements extracted from her senseless
body. So far, Geley's experiments throw a strong explanatory light
upon those of Crookes. And here the Spiritualist must, as it seems to
me, be prepared to meet an objection more formidable than the absurd
ones of fraud or optical delusion. It is this. If the body of Katie
King the spirit is derived from the body of Florrie Cook the psychic,
then what assurance have we that the life therein is not really one of
the personalities out of which the complex being named Florrie Cook is
constructed? It is a thesis which requires careful handling. It is
not enough to say that the nature is manifestly superior, for supposing
that Florrie Cook represented the average of a number of conflicting
personalities, then a single one of these personalities might be far
higher than the total effect. Without going deeply into this problem,
one can but say that the spirit's own account of its own personality
must count for something, and also that an isolated phenomenon must be
taken in conjunction with all other psychic phenomena when we are
seeking for a correct explanation.

But now let us take this idea of a human being who has the power of
emitting a visible substance in which are formed faces which appear to
represent distinct individualities, and in extreme cases develop into