Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/218

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198
Spiritualism

the circle; and it was conclusively shown that Eusapia was availing herself of the peculiar method of "holding" previously described by Professor Richet to get one hand free, and then execute the movements observed. Briefly, her method is to begin by allowing one hand to be firmly held by the sitter on one side (say the left), and to let the fingers of the other, the right hand, rest on the hand of the sitter on the other side. Then, in the course of the rapid spasmodic movements referred to by Professor Richet, she approximates the hands of the sitters on either side of her, until they are so near together that one of Eusapia's hands (the left) will do duty for two—being grasped by one of the sitters' hands and resting its fingers on the hand of the other sitter. The desired "phenomenon" is then brought about, and the right hand restored to its former position. Other devices of a similar kind were observed or inferred; and probably there are yet others which have escaped detection.

Dr. Hodgson's conclusion that all the physical phenomena produced in Eusapia's presence from first to last were due to fraud, was at the time shared by most of the leading investigators of the Society for Psychical Research. In 1898, however, there were held in Paris some strikingly successful'séances, at which Professor Richet and the late F. W. H. Myers were present, and subsequently these two gentlemen and Sir Oliver Lodge took occasion to reaffirm their belief in the genuineness of some