only be revealed after the packet had been opened in another room and the contents shown to a sympathetic bystander. Apart from the danger of collusion, it is obvious that this procedure offered opportunity for the prying eyes of M. Marcillet. On the whole, we are forced to the conclusion that Alexis' performances so closely resembled conjuring tricks, and took place under conditions so little favourable for exact experiment, that we should not be justified in citing them as evidence for clairvoyance.[1]
The case of Major Buckley's clairvoyants is much simpler. Major Buckley was an elderly gentleman, a retired officer of the Indian Army, who prided himself on his remarkable powers as a mesmerist. Amongst his pet subjects were several young women who developed remarkable powers of clairvoyance. Their specialty—and it is remarkable that this particular power, though exhibited by many of Major Buckley's subjects, has not, as faras I know, been claimed in any other case—consisted in reading the mottoes in nuts purchased at the confectioner's, hazel nuts or walnuts, the natural contents of which had been replaced by sweetmeats and a piece of paper bearing a motto. From reports given in the Zoist, by Ashburner and others, it is not difficult to see how the feat was accomplished. The young women had apparently brought with them nuts which they had previously opened and rescaled, and they contrived during the proceedings to sub-
- ↑ See my Modern Spiritualism, vol. i., pp. 143–7.
