Observations placeholder

SCIENCE AND THE "SPIRITS”

During the conversation a low knocking was heard from time to time under the table. These, I was told, were the spirits' knocks. I was informed that one knock, in answer to a question, meant "No"; that two knocks meant "Not yet,” and that three knocks meant “Yes”.

In answer to a question whether I was a medium, the response was three brisk and vigorous knocks. I noticed that the knocks issued from a particular locality, and therefore requested the spirits to be good enough to answer from another corner of the table. They did not comply; but I was assured that they would do it, and much more, by and by. The knocks continuing, I turned a wine-glass upside down, and placed my ear upon it, as upon a stethoscope.

The spirits seemed disconcerted by the act; they lost their playfulness, and did not recover it for a considerable time.

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Spiritualism:  A Narrative with a Discussion – Patrick Proctor Alexander
APPENDIX.  Professor Tyndall 'on science and spirits: ‘

….. some of the main facts made use of by the Professor, as disposing of the Spiritual phenomena, being meantime on the physical ground unintelligible to me, I must for the present decline to assign any weight to them.

 ‘The knocks continuing, I turned a wine-glass upside down, and placed my ear upon it, as upon a stethoscope. The Spirits seemed disconcerted by the act ; they lost their playfulness, and did not quite recover it for a considerable time.'

 As the glass thus used as a stethoscope  could merely a little, by vibration from the wood, intensify the sound of the knocks, and could by no possibility avail to give hint of their true cause or origin, I do not quite see how the Spirits, unless very stupid indeed, should have been seriously disconcerted by an act so entirely unmeaning on the Professor's part.