re conducted was on every occasion its accustomed
furniture. The tables were in all cases heavy dining-tables, and
required a strong effort to move them. The smallest of them was five
feet nine inches long and four feet wide, and the largest nine feet
three inches long and four and a half feet wide, and of proportionate
weight. The rooms, tables, and furniture generally were repeatedly
subjected to careful examination, before, during, and after the
experiments, to ascertain that no concealed machinery, instrument, or
other contrivance existed, by means of which the sounds or movements
hereinafter mentioned could be caused. The experiments were conducted in
the light of gas, except on the few occasions specially noted in the
minutes.

"Of the members of your sub-committee about four-fifths entered upon the
investigation wholly sceptical as to the reality of the alleged
phenomena, firmly believing them to be the result either of _imposture_,
or of _delusion_, or of _involuntary muscular action_. It was only by
irresistible evidence, under conditions that precluded the possibility
of either of these solutions, and after trials and tests many times
repeated, that the most sceptical of your sub-committee were slowly and
reluctantly convinced that the phenomena exhibited in the course of
their protracted inquiry were _veritable facts_. The result of their
long-continued and carefully-conducted experiments, after trial by every
delicate test they could devise, has been to establish _conclusively_,--

"First. That under certain _bodily_ and _mental_ conditions of one or
more of the persons present a force is exhibited sufficient to set in
motion heavy substances, without the employment of any muscular force,
and without contact or material connection of any kind between such
substances and the body of any person present.

"Second. That this force can cause sounds to proceed, distinctly audible
to all present, from solid substances not in contact with nor having any
visible or material connection with the body of any person present, and
which sounds are proved to proceed from such substances by the
vibrations which are distinctly felt when they are touched.

"Third. That this force is frequently directed by intelligence."

Of the many experiments described in this report we will quote here but
one:

"On one occasion, when eleven members of your sub-committee had been
sitting around one of the dining-tables above described