they were
more varied; but, in strength and regularity, I have heard no
sounds which could approach those which came through Miss Kate
Fox. During several months I had the pleasure, on almost
innumerable occasions, of testing the varying phenomena which
took place in the presence of this lady, and it was the sounds
which I specially studied. It is usually necessary with other
mediums, in a regular seance, to sit awhile before anything is
heard; but with Miss Fox it seems to be merely necessary to
place her hand on something, no matter what, for the sounds to
manifest themselves like a triplicated echo, and sometimes loud
enough to be noticeable across several intervening rooms.

I have heard some of these noises produced in a living tree, in
a large pane of glass, on a stretched wire, on a tambourine, on
the roof of a cab, and in the box of a theatre. Moreover,
immediate contact is not always necessary. I have heard these
noises proceeding from the flooring and walls, when the medium's
hands and feet were tied, when he was standing on a chair, when
he was in a swing suspended from the ceiling, when he was
imprisoned in an iron cage, and when he lay in a swoon on a
sofa. I have heard them proceed from musical glasses. I have
felt them on my own shoulders, and under my own hands. I have
heard them on a piece of paper, fastened between the fingers by
a string through the corner of the sheet. With a full knowledge
of the numerous theories which have been brought forward to
explain these sounds, especially in America, I have tested them
in every way I could devise, until it was no longer possible to
escape the conviction that these sounds were real, and produced
neither by fraud nor by mechanical means.

An important question forces itself upon our attention: Are
these movements and noises governed by intelligence? From the
very beginning of my investigations I have satisfied myself that
the power producing these phenomena was not simply blind force,
but that some intelligence directed it, or at least was
associated with it. The noises, whereof I have spoken, were
repeated a determinate number of times. They became either
strong or feeble, at my request, and came from different places.
By a vocabulary of signals previously agreed upon, the power
answered questions, and ga