in an easy-chair."

"I have had an alphabetic communication given by luminous flashes
occurring before me in the air while my hand was moving about among
them. I was sitting next to the medium, Miss Fox, the only other persons
present being my wife and a lady relative, and I was holding the
medium's two hands in one of mine, while her feet were resting on my
feet. Paper was on the table before us, and my disengaged hand was
holding a pencil. A luminous hand came down from the upper part of the
room, and, after hovering near me for a few seconds, took the pencil
from my hand, rapidly wrote on a sheet of paper, threw the pencil down,
and then rose up above our heads, gradually fading into darkness."

"In the night I have seen a luminous cloud hover over a heliotrope on a
side-table, break a sprig off, and carry the sprig to a lady; and on
some occasions I have seen a similar luminous cloud visibly condense to
the form of a hand and carry small objects about."

These hands he claims to have frequently seen, sometimes in darkness,
sometimes in light. On one occasion "a beautifully-formed small hand
rose up from an opening in a dining-table and gave me a flower; it
appeared and then disappeared three times at intervals: this occurred in
the light, in my own room, while I was holding the medium's hands and
feet."

The hand often seemed to form from a luminous cloud. "It is not always a
mere form, but sometimes appears perfectly life-like and graceful, the
fingers moving, the flesh appearing as human as that of any in the room.
At the wrist or arm it becomes hazy and fades off into a luminous
cloud.... I have retained one of these hands in my own, firmly resolved
not to let it escape. There was no struggle or effort made to get loose,
but it gradually seemed to resolve itself into vapor, and faded in that
manner from my grasp."

We should not venture to quote these most remarkable statements but for
the fact that they are made by a gentleman of such high standing for
accuracy of observation, who knew perfectly well that he was imperilling
his position in the scientific world and exposing himself to the
contumely and accusation of loss of sanity that followed. In regard to
this point it need only be said that his most valuable scientific work
has been done since that period, and that his statements on scientific
subjects are received everywhere to-day as unquestionably accurate and
important. That he saw what he believed t