to be accepted as witnesses in
such a critical case. Others, again, who are well known and highly
respected, have invalidated their testimony by clearly letting
themselves be deceived. Such was the case with Robert Dale Owen, one of
the main historians of spiritual phenomena, who permitted himself to be
pitifully humbugged in Philadelphia by the somewhat famous spirit of
Katie King, whose spirit face was afterward discovered on the sturdy
shoulders of a very decidedly incarnate young lady. This was one of the
first instances of that throng of materialized frauds with which this
country has ever since been well supplied.

But there have been numerous investigators of spiritualism who cannot be
placed in any such category, many of them men of high standing in the
scientific world, whose word is still taken as positive evidence in
support of very surprising scientific statements, since they are known
to examine and test phenomena with the closest and most accurate
scrutiny. This class of observers is particularly abundant in the London
scientific world, and includes in its list such noted names as Alfred
Russel Wallace, the celebrated naturalist, Dr. William Crooks, whose
discoveries in chemistry and physics have been of a remarkable
character, and Dr. Huggins, the equally celebrated astronomer. In
America the most noted scientific observer was the late Dr. Hare, of
Philadelphia, a chemist of world-wide fame. Of those who, if not
professed scientists, have been otherwise of high standing, Professor
Wallace names, in a recent communication to the "Times," Dr. Robert
Chambers, Dr. Elliotson, and Professor William Gregory, of Edinburgh,
Dr. Gully, a scientific physician of Malvern, and Judge Edmonds, one of
the best known American lawyers. Names of similar reputation in the
scientific and professional world might be adduced from Germany and
France, prominent among them the late Professor Zoellner, of Leipsic, a
well-known astronomer; but the above-given will suffice as evidence that
the investigation of spiritualism has not been confined to the unknown,
unlearned, and credulous, but has been pursued by men of the very
highest standing for probity, learning, sound judgment, and critical
discrimination.

The results reached by these men are therefore of great weight, and go
far to fix the status of the phenomena examined. We may say here that
several of them have become acknowledged converts to the spiritual
theory. More gene