discovered that all of us have a share of this magnetic fluid, and that almost any group of us can make a table turn round (if it is not screwed to its pedestal) by placing our hands on it. A "table-turning" mania spread over Europe; and it was particularly virulent in England in 1847 and 1848, Just before the arrival of the first spiritualist announcements from America.
How far this prepared the general public for a belief in occult powers will be seen from the following episode. In 1840, a little French peasant-girl, Angélique Cottin, began to attract the attention of her village by her remarkable experiences. When she rose from her chair, it was dashed backward to the ground. When she stood near a heavy table, it was overturned. As she was only thirteen years old, and a very quiet and Ignorant little creature, this was a clear case of "occult powers." Her fame spread to Paris, and she was sent there, and actually survived examination by men of science there. Chairs and tables went over, furniture moved about, in full daylight, under the noses of these men of science. The theory was that she was extraordinarily charged with the "electric fluid"; and electricity was too little understood in those days for anybody to see the absurdity of supposing that, even if a person were heavily chained with electricity, it could overturn a table. Even the Paris Academy of Sciences could not discover how she did these things. She was known all over France for a year or two as "the electric girl." In the end it was found that she
