tious, or else grossly exaggerated. The writer's experience in collecting evidence in the United States for the society has been that from eighty-five to ninety per cent of all the stories received were not in accordance with fact. Some appear to be absolute inventions, but the vast majority arc made up of a halo thrown by vivid or excited imaginations around some very commonplace occurrence. In one case, General O. O. Howard was given as authority for a very remarkable case of apparition at the moment of death. Names and dates were given with great exactness, and the story was followed up with interest. The result proved that neither General O. O. Howard, nor any one of several others of the same name, who were applied to under the supposition that the initials were wrongly given, knew anything about the alleged occurrence.
This sifting process is in itself valuable, for it places in the realm of fiction much of the current spiritualistic literature, and the attention of the society is concentrated on the residual and duly substantiated phenomena. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that science demands an answer to its questions, and has no regard for the character of the answer. So an answer "No" to a scientific query is of quite as much scientific value as an answer "Yes" though it may fall far below the latter in interest. A fact gained counts one, no matter whether it is positive or negative.
The second method pursued in these investigations has yielded more exact and interesting conclusions than the one just mentioned. The society has directly experimented with persons supposed to possess the power of thought-reading, mesmerizing, and hypnotizing, and as a result has accumulated a great mass of very valuable information.
The committee charged with the investigation of thought-reading, or thought-transference, as the society prefers to call it, has undoubtedly made the most progress up to this time. Phenomena falling under this head were divided into four classes: (a) where some action is performed, the hands of the operator being in gentle contact with the subject of the experiment; (b) where a similar result is obtained with the hands not in contact; (c) where a number, name, word, or card has been guessed and expressed in speech or writing, without contact, and apparently without the possibility of the transmission of the idea by the ordinary channels of sensation; (d) when similar thoughts have simultaneously occurred, or impressions been made, in minds far apart. Of these classes, (a) and (b) are set aside entirely, for, as has been shown by Dr. Carpenter and others, unconscious muscular actions and unconscious and almost imperceptible indications of various kinds account for any results obtained in these ways. With (c) it is very different. Here, to be sure, collusion and risk of error are very difficult to guard against, and in a general company would almost certainly be present. But it is otherwise if repeated experiments be made by a limited number of scientific men well known to
