William Barrett on Poltergeists

The physicist William Barrett  was one of the driving forces behind the founding of the Society for Psychical Research. In this quite lengthy paper he describes five poltergeist cases, one of which he investigated himself (Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 377-412).

Summary from the SPR Catalogue: Five poltergeist cases are briefly described. 1) Enniscorthy, N. Ireland, 1910.  Two young male lodgers hear unexplained raps in their room. An interested journalist spends a night in the room and sees one of the youths, together with bedclothes, being lifted off the bed, apparently by an unseen force. 2) Derrygonnelly, N. Ireland, 1877. The author is eyewitness to disturbances in a farmer's cottage: raps, scratchings, falling stones, candles and boots repeatedly thrown out of the house. The raps respond intelligently to unspoken requests. 3) Atlantic Monthly, 1868. Powerful disturbances around an Irish servant in Massachussetts, USA. Bells ring in her presence, no wires attached; raps are heard; furniture and household objects are violently moved. The girl shows evidence of clairvoyance. 4) Portland, Oregon, USA, 1909. Unnatural movements of furniture and objects are repeatedly witnessed. A boy who appears to be the centre of the disturbances is later discovered faking movements. 5) Dale Towers, Georgia, USA, 1911. Violent disturbances in an isolated railway tower. Objects are hurled about the room by an unseen force, in good light and in front of three witnesses. 6) Vienna, 1907. Two apprentices in a blacksmith's shop are the centre of disturbances: tools and materials are violently hurled around, sometimes causing damage and injury.



POLTERGEISTS, OLD AND NEW.
by PROFESSOR W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S.

The term "Poltergeist" is translated Hobgoblin in our German dictionaries, but that is not the equivalent, nor have we any English equivalent to the German word. It is derived from palter, a rumbling noise, or pattern, to make a row, to rattle; a polterer is a boisterous fellow, a poltergeist therefore a boisterous ghost. It is a convenient term to describe those apparently meaningless noises, disturbances and movements of objects, for which we can discover no assignable cause.

The phenomena are especially sporadic, breaking out suddenly and unexpectedly, and disappearing as suddenly after a few days, or weeks, or months of annoyance to those concerned. They differ from hauntings, inasmuch as they appear to be attached to an individual, usually a young person, more than to a place, or rather to a person in a particular place. Moreover, ghostly forms (except, if we may trust one or two witnesses, a hand and arm) are not seen. They appear to have some intelligence behind them, for they frequently respond to requests made for a given number of raps; the intelligence is therefore in some way related to our intelligence, and moreover is occasionally .in telepathic rapport with our minds. For in one case, which I submitted to a long and searching enquiry, I found that when I mentally asked for a given number of raps, no word being spoken, the response was given promptly and correctly, and this four times in succession, a different number being silently asked for in each case.

There are other characteristics which bring the subject of poltergeists into close connection with the physical phenomena of spiritualism. The movement of objects is usually quite unlike that due to gravitational or other attraction. They slide about, rise in the air, move in eccentric paths, sometimes in a leisurely manner, often turn round in their career, and usually descend quietly without hurting the observers. At other times an immense weight is lifted, often in daylight, no one being near, crockery is thrown about and broken, bedclothes are dragged off, the occupants sometimes lifted gently to the ground, and the bedstead tilted up or dragged about the room.

The phenomena occur both in broad daylight and at night. Sometimes bells are continuously rung, even if all the bell wires are removed. Stones are frequently thrown, but no one is hurt; I myself have seen a large pebble drop apparently from space in a room where the only culprit could have been myself, and certainly I did not throw it. Loud scratchings on the bedclothes, walls and furniture are a frequent characteristic; sometimes a sound like whispering or panting is heard, and footsteps are often heard without any visible cause. More frequently than otherwise the disturbances are associated with the presence of children or young people, and cease when they are taken from the place where the disturbance originated, only to be renewed on their return, and then abruptly the annoyance ends.

If upon the cessation of the disturbances, investigators appear on the scene and ask for something to occur in their presence, and are sufficiently persistent and incredulous, they may possibly see a clumsy attempt to reproduce some of the phenomena, and will thereupon catch the culprit child in the act. Then we hear the customary " I told you so," and forthwith the clever investigator will not fail to let the world know of his acumen, and how credulous and stupid everybody is but himself. I will return later on to the psychological cause of this .not infrequent simulation of mysterious phenomena, especially by children.

The point to which I am anxious to draw attention is the essentially temporary and fugitive nature of the phenomena, and that if we are fortunate enough to hear of them at once, and are able to visit the place whilst the disturbances are going on, the presence of the most skilful and incredulous observer will not affect the result-and under such circumstances I challenge the scornful to produce a single adverse witness. In fact, to any one who has made a serious and prolonged study of the subject of poltergeists, it is simple waste of time to reply to the arguments of those who assert that fraud and hallucination are adequate explanations of the whole phenomena.

In the Journal of our Society for 1884, the late Mr. Podmore published the report of his investigation of a famous case of poltergeist occurring in a house at Worksop. {1} The enquiry was made five weeks after the disturbances had ceased, and unfortunately he did not quote, as Mr. A. Lang points out, the contemporaneous and more striking account of the phenomena attested by an excellent witness, which Mr. Lang gives in full. Nevertheless Mr. Podmore came to the conclusion that the evidence of the eye-witnesses he examined was unimpeachable, and that the phenomena were supernormal; and he adds at the conclusion of his report: "To suppose that these various objects were all moved by mechanical contrivances argues incredible stupidity, amounting almost to imbecility, on the part of all the persons present who were not in the plot."

Twelve years later, in 1896, without further personal investigation of this particular case, Mr. Podmore changed his views. For in a lengthy report on poltergeists, printed in Vol. XII. of our Proceedings, he suggests that fraud arising from love of notoriety among young people, and hallucination on the part of the observers, are the true explanation of the majority of poltergeist phenomena, including the above case. This, of course, is the popular view.

In a review of one of Mr. Podmore's books dealing with poltergeists, published in Vol. XIII. of our Proceedings - and also in his great work on the "Making of Religion " - our new President has taken the other side, and so cogently shown the unscientific character of the popular view, that I need not discuss the matter further. But more than two centuries ago, one of the earliest Fellows of the Royal Society, whom Mr. Lecky describes as a man of "incomparable ability," Joseph Glanvil, the author of Saducismus Triumphatm, dealt with every objection raised by modern critics, and demonstrated that neither fraud nor hallucination was adequate to explain the poltergeist phenomena which were abundant in his day. Like all other inexplicable supernormal phenomena, it is, as Glanvil says, simply a question of adequate and trustworthy evidence. With all deference, I venture to commend sceptics who dogmatize on this question to Glanvil's work on the Vanity of Dogmatizing, a book of which Mr. Lecky remarks: "Certainly it would be difficult to find a work displaying less of credulity and superstition than this treatise."

I will now pass on to give some of the evidence that exists on behalf of the genuineness of poltergeist phenomena, beginning with recent cases that have come under my own notice, and then briefly reviewing some of the other abundant evidence that exists in different places, and which stretches back to remote periods of time.

THE ENNISCORTHY CASE

The first case I will relate has recently occurred at Enniscorthy, a town in Co. Wexford. My attention was drawn to the matter through a letter from the representative of a local newspaper, Mr. Murphy. After some correspondence, and in answer to my request, Mr. Murphy kindly drew up the accompanying admirable report:

Statement by Mr. N. J. Murphy.

The strange manifestations which took place at Enniscorthy last July, 1910, may perhaps interest some students of Psychology, and  more particularly the members of the Dublin Section of the Society for Psychical Research.

At the outset let me say that I am a journalist by profession and in pursuit of "copy" for the paper I represent, "The Enniscorthy Guardian," I was brought into touch with those concerned in the manifestations, and introduced to the room where these manifestations occurred.

The "haunted" house was one in which a labouring man named Nicholas Bedmond and his wife resided in Court Street, Ennis-corthy. Redmond's earnings were supplemented by his wife keeping boarders. On the ground floor of the house are two rooms-a shop and a kitchen. Both are lofty and spacious, and the latter is situated under the room in which the manifestations occurred. The upstairs portion of the premises consists of three bedrooms. The floors of these bedrooms are of wood, and are all intact, the house being a comparatively new one. Two of the bedrooms look out on the street, and the third, in which the occurrences took place, is situate at the back of these. All three are entered from the same landing and are on the same level. Redmond and his wife slept in the front room immediately adjoining the room in which the occurrences described below took place. The rear bedroom was occupied by two young men who were boarders. They had separate beds. Their names are John Randall, a native of Killurin, in this County, and George Sinnott, of Ballyhogue, in this County. Both these men are carpenters by trade.

I can bear personal testimony to the occurrences which I am about to describe. I accepted nothing on hearsay evidence, and I place my experiences before your Society exactly as the circumstances occurred to me. Many of the details have already been published in the daily papers, and are quite true, much of what appeared having been written by myself. Hearing strange rumours about the house, I proceeded to make enquiries. The owner of the house replied to my questions that the rumours I had heard of the house were quite true, and in response to my application for permission to remain all night in the " haunted " room, he replied: " I will make you as comfortable as I can, and you can remain as long as you want to, and bring a friend with you, too, because you will feel more comfortable."

My next move was to procure a volunteer to accompany me, who was found in the person of Mr. Owen Devereux, of the " Devereux " Cycle Works, Enniscorthy. Together we went to the house on the night of the 29th July, 1910, and immediately proceeded to make a tour of inspection. Sinnott, Randall and the owner of the house having gone out of the room for a few moments, we made a closeinspection of the apartment. The beds were pulled out from the walls and examined, the clothing being searched; the flooring was minutely inspected, and the walls and fireplace examined. Everything was found quite normal. Sinnott's bed was placed with the head at the window. The window faced the door as one entered the room. Randall's bed was placed at the opposite end of the room at right angles to Sinnott's, and with the foot to the door.

The two boys prepared to retire, Mrs. Eedmond having placed two chairs in their bedroom for the use of the narrator and his companion. The occupants of the room having been comfortably disposed of-each in his own bed and chair respectively-the light was extinguished. This was about 11.20 p.m.

The night was a clear, starlight night. No blind obstructed the view from outside, and one could see the outlines of the beds and their occupants clearly. At about 11.30 a tapping was heard close at the foot of Randall's bed. My companion remarked that it appeared to be like the noise of a rat eating at timber. Sinnott replied, " You'll soon see the rat it is." The tapping went on slowly at first, say at about the rate of fifty taps to the minute. Then the speed gradually increased to about 100 or 120 per minute, the noise growing louder. This continued for about five minutes, when it stopped suddenly. Randall then spoke. He said: " The clothes are slipping off my bed: look at them sliding off. Good God ! they are going off me." Mr. Devereux immediately struck a match which he had ready in his hand. The bedclothes had partly left the boy's bed, having gone diagonally towards the foot, going out at the left corner, and not alone did they seem to be drawn off the bed, but they appeared to be actually going back under the bed much in the same position one would expect bedclothes to be if a strong breeze were blowing through the room at the time. But then everything was perfectly calm.

Mr. Devereux lighted the candle and a thorough search was made under the bed for strings or wires, but nothing could be found. Randall, who stated that this sort of thing had occurred to him on previous nights, appeared very much frightened. I adjusted the clothing again properly on the bed and Randall lay down. The candle was again extinguished. After about ten minutes the rapping recommenced. First slowly, as before. It again increased in speed and volume, and after about the same interval of time it again stopped. When the clothes were going in under the bed on the first occasion, Sinnott sat up in bed and said: " Oh, God ! look at the clothes going in under the bed." He also appeared very nervous. The rapping having stopped on the second occasion, Randall's voice again broke the silence. "They are going again," he cried; "the clothes are leaving me again." I said, "Hold them and do not let them go: you only imagine they are going." He said: "I cannot hold them; they are going, and I am going with them; there is something pushing me from inside: I am going, I am going, I'm gone." My companion struck a light just in time to see Randall slide from the bed, the sheet under him, and the sheets, blanket and coverlet over him. He lay on his back on the floor. The movement of his coming out of bed was gentle and regular. There did not appear to be any jerking motion. Whilst he lay on the floor, Randall's face was bathed in perspiration, which rolled off him in great drops. He was much agitated and trembled in every limb. His terribly frightened condition, especially the beads of perspiration on his face, precludes any supposition that he was privy to any human agency being employed to effect the manifestations. Sinnett again sat up in bed, and appeared terrified also. Mr. Redmond, hearing the commotion, came into the room at this time. Randall said: " Oh, isn't this dreadful ? I can't stand it; I can't stay any longer here." We took him from the floor and persuaded him to re-enter the bed again. He did so, and we adjusted the bedclothes.

It was now about midnight. The owner of the house returned to his own room, and we remained watching until about 1.45, and during that time nothing further occurred. Redmond returned then to see how we were getting on, and took a seat by my side in Randall's bedroom. The three of us having sat there for about five minutes, the rapping again commenced, this time in a different part of the room. Instead of being near the foot of Randall's bed as heretofore, I located it about the middle of the room at a place about equally distant from each bed. It went on for about fifteen minutes, and then ceased. It was at this time fairly bright, the dawn having appeared in the eastern sky. Randall was not interfered with any further that night, and we remained watching till close on three o'clock, and nothing further having occurred we left the house.

On the following night I remained in that room from eleven o'clock till long past midnight. Neither Randall nor Sinnett were there, having gone home to the country for the usual week-end. I heard or saw nothing unusual.

Randall could not reach that part of the floor from which the rapping came on any occasion without attracting my attention and that of my comrade. I give up the attempt to explain away the strange manifestations. I hope some member of the Society may be able to do so.
NICHOLAS J. MURPHY.
1 George Street, Enniscorthy,

August [?], 1910.
I have read the foregoing, and I corroborate the statements therein.
OWEN DEVEREUX.
August [?], 1910.
In reply to my enquiry whether any further disturbances had since occurred, and that in any case I should wish to make a personal investigation of the matter, I received the following letter from Mr. Murphy:

ENNISCORTHY, November 11, 1910.
Dear Sir,-In reply to yours, I beg to say that the house in which the phenomena occurred is now vacant. The tenant, Mr. Redmond, and his wife, left Enniscorthy about the middle of August. Randall left the house on the Monday evening after the occurrence described took place. Nothing unusual was ever seen or heard in the house until Randall went to lodge there. However, I should be very glad to see you in Enniscorthy. Randall and Sinnett are in the town, and you can question them. Mr. Devereux and myself are always at your service, and we have no objection to our names and addresses being published.
Yours faithfully,
N. J. MURPHY.

I was not able to visit Enniscorthy until a few weeks later, when I spent a day examining the witnesses and the house where the disturbances occurred. The following notes written at the time give the result of my enquiry:

On Tuesday, December 6th, 1910, I visited Enniscorthy, and saw and closely questioned the eye-witnesses mentioned in Mr. Murphy's paper, with the exception of Sinnott and Redmond, who were away. I also saw the servant who slept in a small room adjoining the one in which the disturbances occurred. She scouted the idea of the boys playing tricks, and added an important fact, viz. that the large iron bed in which Sinnott slept along with another lodger had lost one of its castors; nevertheless, it was dragged across the room with the two young men in it, leaving a mark along the floor where the iron leg had scraped along. The bed, she told me, was so heavy that, even with no one in it, she had to get assistance when moving it. She was terribly scared by the disturbances, and left the place as soon as she could. I begged her to write down what she had observed, and Mr. Murphy sent me her statement which follows.

I then visited the house where the disturbances took place. It was empty and unfurnished, and in the hands of the painters. The descriptions given by Mr. Murphy and by Eandall are quite correct.

I had a long interview with Randall, and he impressed me very favourably; an intelligent, straightforward youth about eighteen years old. He undertook to write down a detailed account of what had occurred during the time he lodged with Redmond. This he did, and his statement is annexed. Randall is a Protestant, and I saw the rector of his parish, who knew the young man well and testified to his good character and trustworthiness. His letter to me is given later on.

I saw Mr. Devereux, the companion whom Mr. Murphy took with him. He owns a cycle shop in Enniscorthy, and is a skilled mechanic, an excellent witness. He corroborated Mr. Murphy's statement, and said he went to the house feeling sure he would be able to discover that one or other of the lads was playing a practical joke. But he was unable to unravel the mystery. He said that what occurred in his presence could not possibly have been done by Randall or his companion. I also had an interview with the previous occupant of the house. Nothing had occurred in his time.

Statement of Bridget Thorpe,
I was a servant in the house of Mr. Nicholas Redmond, 8 Court Street, Enniscorthy. I remember John Randall coming to lodge there. It was on a Monday night he first came. On the following Friday morning I heard John Randall and George Sinnett, another lodger, talking about the clothes being pulled off the bed. On Friday night I heard the bed running about the floor in Randall's room. I was then in my own room. On the next morning I heard John Randall say that he would not sleep in the house any more. I remember going into Randall's room one night with Mr. Redmond as we heard noises; and when we went in Richard Roche, another lodger, who was there that night, was in one bed and John Randall in another. The bedclothes were all pulled through the bars at the foot of Roche's bed. Roche was very much frightened. I frequently  heard rapping in Randall's room. I always thought it came from the corner of Randall's room nearest to Mr. Redmond's room. On the night that Mr. Murphy and Mr. Devereux were there I heard footsteps walking about the lobby outside the door where they were. I often heard these footsteps. The night I heard the bed running about the floor, the floor shook as if a very strong man was pulling the bed around.
(Signed) B. THORPE.
Witnessed by N. J. MURPHY.

It will be noticed that Randall mentions two companions in the bedroom with him. This was for a short time the case, but one of them had left when Mr. Murphy visited the house.

Statement written by J. W. Randall.
On Saturday, the 2nd of July, 1910, I came to work in Enniscorthy as an improver in the carpentry trade. Monday, I went to lodge in a house in Court Street. There were two other men stopping in the same house as lodgers. They slept in the same room also, but shared a different bed at the other side of the room. My bed was in a recess in the wall at the opposite side. There was one large window in the room, which opened both top and bottom. The room was about 14 feet square and 10 feet high. There was one door opening into it. The window already described was in the back wall of the house nearly opposite the door opening into the room from the top landing. There were two other doors on the same landing opening into different rooms. There was also a fireplace in the room.

On Monday night, July 4th, we went to bed, and my first night in the strange house I think I slept pretty soundly. We got up at six o'clock the next morning and went to work. We left off work at six in the evening, and went to bed the same time as the night before, between 10 and 10.30 o'clock, slept soundly, and all went well, also on Wednesday.

Went to bed on Thursday night at 10.45, the three of us going as before. We blew out the light, but the room was then fairly lightsome. We had been only about ten minutes in bed when I felt the clothes being gently drawn from my bed. I first thought it was the others that were playing a joke, so I called out, " Stop, George, it's too old." (George being one of their names and the other Richard.) Then I heard them say, "It's Nick" (that is the name of the man of the house). It wasn't any of them that had pulled the clothes off me, so they thought it was Nick that was in the room, and did not mind. At this time the clothes had gone off my bed completely, and I shouted to them to strike a match. When they struck a match I found my bedclothes were at the window. The most curious part was that the same time when the clothes were leaving my bed, their bed was moving. I brought back the clothes and got into bed again. The light was then put out, and it wasn't long until we heard some hammering in the room-tap-tap-tap-like. This lasted for a few minutes, getting quicker and quicker. When it got very quick their bed started to move out across the floor, and that made us very frightened, and what made us more frightened was the door being shut, and nobody could open it without making a great noise. They then struck a match and got the lamp. We searched the room thoroughly, and could find nobody. Nobody had come in the door. W"e called the man of the house (Eedmond); he came into the room, saw the bed, and told us to push it back and get into bed (he thought all the time one of us was playing the trick on the other). I said I wouldn't stay in the other bed by myself, so I got in with the others; we put out the light again, and it had been only a couple of minutes out when the bed ran out on the floor with the three of us. Richard struck a match again, and this time we all got up and put on our clothes; we had got a terrible fright and couldn't stick it any longer. We told the man of the house we would sit up in the room until daylight. During the time we were sitting in the room we could hear footsteps leaving the kitchen and coming up the stairs; it would stop on the landing outside the door and wouldn't come into the room. The footsteps and noises continued through the house until daybreak. We got up at nine o'clock and went to work for a three-quarter day.

That night (Friday) when we went to bed about eleven o'clock we felt a bit nervous in going, We put out the light, and in a few minutes the footsteps started again, and noises. There were also noises like chips getting chopped in the kitchen. This night passed over not near so bad as the night before, but yet we were afraid to go to sleep.

Saturday we all went home for the Sunday, but returned Sunday evening. We went to bed Sunday night as before, and it passed over with very slight noises. On Monday night the noises started again after going to bed, and about a quarter of an hour their bed ran again. They then struck a light, and I got into the  bed with them. There were terrible noises everywhere; on the walls, out on the landing, and downstairs. We left the light lighted for some time, and whilst it was lighted, what added more to our fright was a chair dancing out to the middle of the floor without a thing near it. We put out the light again after moving back the bed. Immediately the light was put out the bed ran again out on the floor. Eichard had the matches always ready to strike. Every time we would hear the noise and feel the bed moving, we would shout: "Strike, Richard, strike; we're going again! " We were trembling from head to feet with fear. We left the light lighted till morning after that.

Tuesday night passed over about the same, and on Wednesday night there wasn't a stir. After hearing nothing on Wednesday night we thought it had stopped, but still we felt nervous. On Thursday night it started as bad as the first night, and several people remarked it being so bad on the night exactly a week after it had started. The bed ran out several times, and what never happened to any one of us before, George was lifted out of bed without a hand near him. He went home next day, arid stopped at home for two days. So while he was away, Eichard and I stopped in the room. The same noise still continued, and the bed ran also. We went home on Saturday as on the week before.

George came back again on Sunday night, and slept in the same bed with us again, and it wasn't extra bad that night. It went on about the same way every night until the following Friday night, when it was very bad. The bed turned up on one side, and threw us out on the floor, and before we were thrown out, the pillow was taken from under my head three times. When the bed rose up, it fell back without making any noise. This bed was so heavy, it took both the woman and girl to pull it out from the wall without anybody in it, and there was only three castors on it. After being thrown out of the big bed, the three of us got into my bed. We were not long in it when it started to rise, but could not get out of the recess it was in unless it was taken to pieces. It ceased about daybreak, and that finished that night's performance.

It kept very bad then for a few nights. So Mr. Murphy, from the " Guardian " Office, and another man named Devereux, came and stopped in the room one night. They sat on two chairs in the room, while we lay each in our own beds. We were not long in bed when I felt a terrible feeling over me like a big weight. I then felt myself being taken from the bed, but could feel no hands, nor could I resist going. All I could say was: "I'm going, I'm going; they're at me." I lay on the floor in a terrible state, and hardly able to speak. The perspiration was pouring through me. They put me back in bed again, and nothing more than strange knockings and noises happened between that and morning. We slept again in the room the next night, but nothing serious happened. We then got another lodging, and the people left it also. For the three weeks I was in the house I lost nearly three-quarters of a stone weight. I never believed in ghosts until that, and I think it would convince the bravest man in Ireland.
JOHN WILLIAM RANDALL.
18 Main St., Enniscorthy.

I heard from Randall a few days ago (January 25th). Nothing has occurred in his new lodgings. The curious association of a particular person in a particular place at a particular time is very characteristic of all poltergeist phenomena.
From the Rev. Canon Rennison.

Kilpatrick Rectory, Wexford,
Jan. 27, 1911.
Dear Sir - I have known John Randall for the past five years, and I believe him to be a thoroughly truthful and trustworthy boy. I think you may rely on any particulars he has given you about the " haunted house " at Enniscorthy. He has always been a steady, well-conducted boy, so far as I know. I am very glad to hear you are reading a paper on the whole affair.
Yours very truly,
JOHN RENNISON.

My best thanks are due to Mr. N. J. Murphy, who kindly spared neither time nor trouble in assisting me in these enquiries.

THE DERRYGONNELLY CASE.

I now pass on to another Irish case of which I heard soon after the disturbances broke out, and was able to visit the spot while the poltergeist was still active, so that I was an eye-witness of many of the occurrences. I wrote a detailed account of what took place at the time, and it was published in the Dublin University Magazine for December, 1877, under the title of " The Demons of Derrygonnelly." No report of this case has yet appeared in our Proceedings, and I can only briefly summarize it here.

In 1877 Mr. Thomas Plunkett, of Enniskillen, a gentleman who has devoted much time to the geological and archseological investigation of the County Fermanagh, wrote to tell me of some mysterious disturbances occurring in a farmer's cottage near some prehistoric limestone caves he was exploring, and asking me to visit the place, which I did.

The place was a hamlet called Derrygonnelly, about nine miles from Enniskillen, and the cottage was some two miles further on. A more lonely spot could hardly be found in this country. Across the bog that lay before us rose the huge limestone cliffs of Knockmore, crowned by an escarpment of overhanging rock. The cottage itself was hidden in the hollow of a field, and no other house could be seen anywhere.

The household consisted of a grey-headed farmer who had recently lost his wife, and a family of four girls and one boy, the youngest about ten years of age, and the eldest, Maggie, round whom the disturbances arose, about twenty years old. -The cottage had the usual large kitchen and dwelling-room, with earthen floors in the centre, and a smaller room opening from each side. In one of them Maggie and the girls slept on a large, old-fashioned four-post bed. The noises, rappings and scratches generally began after they had retired, and often continued the whole night through. Rats, of course, were first suspected; but when objects began to move without any visible cause, stones to fall, candles and boots repeatedly thrown out of the house, the rat theory was abandoned and a general terror took possession of the family. Several neighbours urged them to send for the priest, but they were Methodists, and their class leader advised them to lay an open Bible on the bed. This they did in the name of God, putting a big stone on the top of the volume; but the stone was lifted off by an unseen hand, and the Bible placed on top of it. After that "it," as the farmer called the unseen cause, moved the Bible out of the room and tore seventeen pages right across. Then they could not keep a light in the house, candles and lamps were mysteriously stolen, or thrown out. They asked their neighbours' help, and here I quote the old farmer's words: "Jack Flanigan came  and lent us his lamp, saying he would engage the devil himself could not steal it, as he had got the priest to sprinkle it with holy water." " But that," the old man said, " did us no good either, for the next day it took away that lamp also." They were forced to keep their candles in a neighbour's house some way off, and fetch them at night, and keep them lighted.

During the evenings I spent in the cottage, the farmer and each of his children were independently examined. He gave me a concordant account of the singular freaks of this poltergeist, and their vain efforts to put a stop to it. Those who are interested can read the story, told by the old man, which I took down in writing, as it is published in full in my article already referred to.

My own observations were as follows: After the children, except the boy, had gone to bed, Maggie lay down on the bed without undressing, so that her hands and feet could be observed. The rest of us sat round the kitchen fire, when faint raps, rapidly increasing in loudness, were heard, coming apparently from the walls, the ceiling and various parts of the inner room, the door of which was open. On entering the bedroom with a light the noises at first ceased, but recommenced when I put the light on the window-sill in the kitchen. I had the boy and his father by my side, and asked Mr. Plunkett to look round the house outside. Standing in the doorway leading to the bedroom the noises recommenced, the light was gradually brought nearer, and after much patience I was able to bring the light into the bedroom whilst the disturbances were still loudly going on.

At last I was able to go up to the side of the bed, with the lighted candle in my hand, and closely observed each of the occupants lying on the bed. The younger children were apparently asleep, and Maggie was motionless; nevertheless, knocks were going on everywhere around; on the chairs, the bedstead, the walls and ceiling. The closest scrutiny failed to detect any movement on the part of those present that could account for the noises, which were accompanied by a scratching or tearing sound. Suddenly a large pebble fell in my presence on to the bed; no one had moved to dislodge it even if it had been placed for the purpose. When I replaced the candle on the window-sill in the kitchen,  the knocks became still louder, like those made by a heavy carpenter's hammer driving nails into flooring.

At midnight we drove back to Enniskillen, and next day I telegraphed to Dublin to an acute and careful observer, president of one of our learned societies, to come down to help me in the investigation. He kindly did so. It was the Rev. Maxwell Close, M.A., a man honoured in Dublin for his great learning, remarkable critical insight and singular sobriety of judgment. {1} With him a day or two later, we again drove over in the evening the eleven lonely miles to the farmer's cottage. In spite of the vigilance of my friends, Mr. Close, Mr. Plunkett and myself, we failed to detect the slightest attempt at imposture by any of the family, and we were each equally certain that we were not the victims of hallucination. The noises were heard as before; we searched within and without the cottage, but no cause could be found.

The following night we made another visit with the same result. When we were about to leave some two hours later, the farmer was distressed that we had not "laid the ghost," and I asked him what he thought it was. He replied: "I would have thought, sir, it do be fairies, but them late readers and knowledgeable men will not allow such a thing, so I cannot tell what it is. I only wish, sir, you would take it away."

"Have you asked it to answer a question by raps ?" I asked.

"I have, sir," he said, " as some one told us to do, but it tells lies as often as truth, and oftener, I think. We tried it, and it only knocked at L.M.R when we said the alphabet over." I asked him if it would respond to a given number of raps, and he said it would. This it did in my presence. Then I mentally asked it, no word being spoken, to knock a certain number of times and it did so. To avoid any error or delusion on my part, I put my hands in the side pockets of my overcoat and asked it to knock the number of fingers I had open. It correctly did so. Then, with a different number of fingers open each time, the experiment was repeated four times in succession, and four times I obtained absolutely the correct number of raps. The doctrine of chances shows that casual coincidence is here practically out of the question, and the interesting fact remains that some telepathic rapport between the unseen agent and ourselves appears to exist, on this occasion at any rate.

Before leaving, it was now past midnight, the farmer implored us not to go without ridding him of this pertinacious poltergeist. So I asked my clerical friend to read a few words of scripture and offer up a prayer. He did so, choosing appropriate passages from our Lord's ministry to the possessed, and a suitable prayer. It was a weird scene, the children were in bed, but not asleep, in the inner room, the farmer and Mr. Plunkett seated by the kitchen fire, Mr. Close seated on a stool at the open bedroom door, I holding a lighted candle for him, and seated just within the bedroom. The noises were at first so great we could hardly hear what was read, then as the solemn words of prayer were uttered they subsided, and when the Lord's Prayer was joined in by all, a profound stillness fell on the whole cottage. The farmer rose from his knees with tears streaming from his eyes, gratefully grasped our hands, and we left for our long midnight drive back to Enniskillen.

I am afraid this does not sound a very scientific. account, but it is a veracious one.

Subsequent correspondence, and reports from Mr. Plunkett, showed that the poltergeist had fled from that night onwards, until some curious visitors, after reading my published description, had gone to the farmer's cottage, and tried to bring it back again. It came, they said, feebly and furtively, but whether genuine or Maggie's Irish desire to please the visitors, I have no means of knowing. The farmer is now dead, and Maggie, I believe, in service, but I have lost sight of them all.

In both the preceding cases the disturbances took place at night, in the next two cases they occurred in the day chiefly. The reason appears to be that only when · the living radiant point, or psychic, is in a particular place, and more or less at rest, do the disturbances break out. The boy Randall was away from his lodgings all day at work; the girl, Maggie, was largely engaged in farm work outside, as well as housework within, and some phenomena took place in the day time when she was in the house, but were less marked until she went to bed. In the next case the psychic was evidently more powerful, a somnambulist and clairvoyant, and the disturbances arose when she was in the house, both in the daytime and at night. As, in the case of dowsing, hypnosis, clairvoyance, telepathy and probably all psychical phenomena, the effect of education, the cultivation of the reasoning powers, alert consciousness, in fine, cerebral activity generally, usually diminish and ultimately inhibit the production of supernormal phenomena.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY CASE,

One of the most remarkable and carefully investigated cases of poltergeists is recorded in the Atlantic Monthly?- a leading American review, for August, 1868. This case is so little known and so admirable that I will briefly summarize it.

An Irish girl, 18 years old, named Mary Carrick, went to live as servant with a family in Massachusetts soon after her arrival in America. Six weeks after she came to the family, the house bells began violently ringing without any assignable cause. This would occur at intervals of half an hour throughout the day and evening. The wires were detached frojn all the bells, but the ringing still continued. The bells were hung near the ceiling of the room, 11 feet high. They only rang when the girl was in the room or in the adjoining one, and were seen to ring by the family without any visible cause. The ringing was not a mere stroke of one bell, but a violent agitation of all the bells, A careful examination made by the writer of the article, Mr. Willis, showed that no mechanism of any kind was attached to the bells. So far the case is like the well-known "Bealings Bells" in Suffolk, described with great care by Major Moor, F.RS., in 1834, a full account of which will be found in Dale Owen's "Debateable Land," p. 239.

But more remarkable phenomena followed in the American case. Loud and startling raps occurred on the walls, door and windows of any room where the girl was at work, and followed the girl from room to room, and could be heard in her bedroom at night when she was apparently fast asleep. A little later, chairs were upset, crockery thrown down, tables lifted and moved, and various kitchen utensils hurled about the room. This was during July. In August a careful daily record was kept. The writer of the article states that he saw the table at which the girl had been ironing suddenly lifted when no one was near enough to touch it. This also happened when a child was sitting on the table, and when the writer and other persons tried to hold the table down.

On the 6th of August, as Mary was placing the tea tray on a heavy stone slab, If inches thick, and weighing 48 Ibs., the stone slab suddenly flew up, struck the tray and upset the dishes upon it. The writer states that this happened again in his own presence when he was carefully watching the girl, who was at the moment in the act of wringing out some clothes. The slab rose and fell back with such force that it broke in two, no one touching it. Soon after one-half of the slab was pitched on the ground and the fragments thrown about. Another day a large basket filled with clothes was thrown to the floor, a stool having on it a pail filled with water ran along the floor; a wash tub filled with clothes was taken off its stand and flung to the ground, and the contents thrown about.

The girl would often start in her sleep and scream in terror, the family watching the girl and hearing the violent noises.

The result of all this disturbance greatly alarmed and excited the girl, who was ignorant and superstitious; it brought on a serious attack of hysteria, and she had to be taken to an asylum. All the noises ceased in her absence. At the end of three weeks she was sufficiently recovered to return to her work. None of the movements subsequently took place, but a month later she suffered from somnambulism. Many times when fast asleep she rose in the middle of the night, dressed herself, and went about her work downstairs in .the pitch darkness, even studying some lessons she was doing, and returned to bed in an hour or two.

She was also clairvoyant, and one remarkable instance of this is given by the writer of the article.

The report concludes by saying it may be justly asked why no scientific men were asked to investigate the phenomena during the ten weeks they lasted. To this the writer replies that whilst the phenomena were in full force, a statement of the facts was sent to a leading scientific man in America, with an earnest request that he would investigate and report. The request was treated with absolute contempt; they were told .that such things could not happen, and that it was all trickery.

The writer of the article then tried some experiments himself. He conceived that the sounds, might possibly be electrically produced, and made some experiments to test this idea. When the bedstead on which the girl slept was insulated on glass nothing occurred, but when the insulators were removed the noises returned as violently as ever. A daily journal of the weather and of the disturbances was kept, expecting that the phenomena would be more frequent on dry clear days, but some of the most remarkable disturbances occurred on very rainy ones. With candour the writer therefore concludes that there is some difficulty in applying the electrical hypothesis.

Electricity has to bear a good many sins on its head, but we may safely exonerate it from creating the poltergeist phenomena. The insulation experiments, tried not only on the bed, but also on tables and chairs, certainly inhibited the disturbances, but this inhibition was more probably due to the effect of suggestion either on the girl or on her unseen tormentors. Psychic subjects are exceedingly suggestible, and this often lays them open to perpetrate fraudulent imitations, especially when the enquirer feels confident trickery is an adequate explanation of everything.

THE PORTLAND, OREGON, CASE.

In the autumn of 1909 one of the leading newspapers on the Pacific coast published details of extraordinary disturbances and movement of objects which occurred in a house in Portland, Oregon. Subsequently an article on the subject appeared in the Pacific monthly, and the publicity thus given to the case led to its careful investigation by Dr. Gilbert' and Mr. Thacher, two most competent investigators, who were requested by the American Society for Psychical Research to make a critical and full enquiry. The results of this enquiry are given in detail in the Journal of the American SPR. for September and November, 1910.

The phenomena were associated with the presence of a boy named Elwin March, who, at the time of these occurrences, was eleven years old, and lived with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer, at 546 Marshall Street, Portland, Oregon. The first disturbance took place on Oct. 28th, 1909. A reporter at once got hold of the story, witnessed some of the phenomena, and next day published a full report in the principal local newspaper. The consequent notoriety was so annoying to the Sawyers that they were glad to hand the boy, Elwin, over to Dr. Gilbert, who took him into his own house in Portland, and kept his whereabouts secret for a week until the reporters again ferreted him out. Meanwhile Dr. Gilbert had obtained a detailed statement of the first disturbances from eye-witnesses, but Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert failed to obtain any satisfactory evidence of supernormal phenomena, and, in fact, were convinced that the boy Elwin was the author of the later, if not of the whole of the occurrences. I will return to this presently.

On the other hand the other investigator, Mr. Thacher, whose report, published in the Journal of the American S.P.R* for Nov. 1910, is one of painstaking care, after a most searching investigation, says: Practically all the eye-witnesses were convinced that the movements were produced by supernormal agencies, and the witnesses were numerous enough and intelligent enough to create a presumption in favour of genuine poltergeist phenomena. Mr. Thacher remarks: "I began to collect testimony on Oct. 29 (the day after the first outbreak) and have watched closely all developments for a period of several months. I wrote out the story immediately after the events narrated, it is in substance a diary, and reflects the mental attitude of the witnesses at the time, which gives it a certain value in the final analysis and conclusion."

Let us now look at the evidence. A medical man, Dr. Ainley, testified on Oct. 29th, and made a signed statement next day that he was in Mr. Sawyer's house on Oct. 28th, and standing near the door, saw the telephone fall from its stand, no one being near it but the boy, El win, who had come past it and was then standing near him. Shortly afterwards a chair near the telephone rose up and then fell on; the floor. It was picked up, and again it was. raised and fell on the floor. No one was touching it, and no one was nearer than four feet (subsequently corrected to six feet) from the chair, and the movements occurred plainly in his, Dr. Ainley's sight. Another medical man, J. C. Ross, M.D., of Portland, also signed a declaration that he went to the house immediately after the disturbances, found the occupants frightened and bewildered, chairs, tables and pictures overturned; dishes lying broken on the floor, having by some unseen force been pulled off a sideboard. He, however, did not see any movements after he arrived.

Another witness who had been in the U.S. artillery deposed that he saw two chairs rise up and tip over in the dining-room, whilst the boy, El win, was in the kitchen and no one within ten or twelve feet of the chairs when they rose and fell over. Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer made very detailed depositions of the movement of various articles of furniture when no one was near them. A large glazed picture which hung on the wall, slid slowly down the wall to the floor and rested there without breaking the glass or doing any damage. Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer both saw this, and Mr. Sawyer added that the picture was lifted off the suspending hook, came slowly down, struck the ground at one corner, and then righted itself and stood leaning against the wall.

Another witness, Mr. Casson, said that, hearing of these disturbances, he went to the house and saw several knives and forks rise up an inch or two from the drain-board of the sink and fall over on to the floor. A small basket on the sink also rose up and fell over on the floor. He and Mrs. Sawyer, the only persons present in the room, were six or seven feet away from the sink, and the boy, Elwin, was in an adjoining room. Mr. Sawyer deposed to the plaster coming off the wall and pieces thrown into the room. One piece of plaster flew from the kitchen wall, hit a tailor's goose-iron which was on the table, which in its turn, though weighing over a stone, flew off the table on to the floor. Another day he saw a basket with some onions in it come off the table, and two cans of condensed milk followed it, and all fell on the floor. Then the bread can, with a pail containing some meat which stood in the pantry, fell on the floor, and a number of plates came off the shelf, and fell on the floor. Elwin, though in the room, was not near the things at the time this occurred. The basket that fell was replaced, and again thrown down; this was done several times running. Many other disturbances are reported, and numerous witnesses affirmed no visible agency could have caused them.

Now let us hear the other side. Dr. Gilbert, who had taken the boy to his house, found him cheating at a game, and also saw him deliberately move some objects, when he thought he was not observed. This was some time after the original disturbances, and when nothing had lately occurred. There can be no· doubt the boy did practise several tricks in December, when removed from the Sawyers' house where the disturbances broke out, and Dr. Gilbert obtained a confession from him that he did so. Moreover, though at first he denied having had anything to do with the manifestations, when they first broke out at the Sawyers' house, yet Dr. Gilbert says he was so convinced of the boy's having tricked them all along that after severe cross-examination he obtained a qualified'admission from the boy that he did do some of the earlier things. Hence the conclusion arrived at by Dr. Gilbert was that the whole phenomena were fraudulent, and no supernormal agency need be assumed. On the other hand, Mr. Thacher, who made a more prolonged and searching investigation, says with considerable justice: "Could the fact that the boy had been the centre of attention for several weeks, and that the interest was waning, together with the strong and constantly repeated wishes of the small group of persons about him that the movements without contact should be repeated, be sufficient to induce him to 'fake' the phenomena, and then lie about it [the earlier ones]? Or were all the witnesses utterly unreliable, and was the immediate family all bound together in the deception?"

Now it turns out that there were two persons who influenced Dr. Gilbert's opinion, by attributing fraud to the boy at the outset; one stated that he found 38 threads fastened outside the window of the dining-room, by which the lad probably moved the objects. This evidence also led Dr. Hyslop, of the American S.P.R., at first to conclude that the whole thing was fraud. However, Mr. Thacher discovered that these adverse witnesses were absolutely untrustworthy. No one saw the witness find the threads, and none were to be found; even if the threads had been there, the witness could not explain how they could move various objects within the room. Finally, this witness was found to be a rogue, so that Dr. Hyslop eventually stated his evidence was valueless. The other witness who had stated that the boy himself pulled the plaster off and threw it, turns out to be the owner of the house and anxious to discredit the whole story, as it was likely to depreciate his property; his statements were merely inferences of his own, he had seen nothing to support them, and Mr. Thacher shows they are entirely disproved, inasmuch as the plaster came from parts of the wall and ceiling which the boy, even if present, could not possibly reach.

On the one side we have two discredited witnesses, and on the other over twenty credible and disinterested witnesses who testify to these occurrences as being due to some unseen inexplicable agency. Take, for instance, Mr. Jerome Holmes' statement; he affirms in writing that when in the dining-room on October 28th in the afternoon he saw a chair, which was standing near the door, go right up in the air as much as three feet, and then, whilst it was poised in the air, it turned half over to a horizontal position, and then fell on the floor. No one was near the chair when it went up in the air. El win March had just gone out of the room and was outside the door when the chair rose up and fell. "The chair was plainly in my sight, and I am sure that no person in the room touched it during its movements," Mr. Holmes remarks, adding that when he stated what he himself clearly saw in broad daylight, people said to him, "Well, you must be crazy." Here as elsewhere, as regards the witnesses, it was against their interest to make up these stories.

That the disturbances, like other poltergeist phenomena, are more or less attached to a place, is seen from the fact that after El win and his grandparents had left Marshall Street, the  phenomena did not follow them; but it is asserted movements of objects without contact occurred for a short time in the neighbouring house. Two witnesses told Mr. Thacher the facts, but declined to let their names be published, as they did not wish "to be mixed up in any spooky business." This evidence is, therefore, of little value.

There can be no doubt that this is an important case, not only, nor perhaps chiefly, from a psychical point of view, but from a psychological standpoint.

We find what appear to be undoubtedly genuine phenomena passing into fraudulent imitations by the lad around whom interest chiefly centred. As a recent American writer on the "Psychology of child development" says: " A child sees an elder writing with a pencil. When he has a chance he tries it. To an observer it is a case of imitation, but to the child it is an attempt to get a new experience with a pencil through the image furnished by the adult."

Other cases of trickery, and even confession to a part of the phenomena observed, are recorded in our Proceedings. In a poltergeist case occurring in 1895 at Ham, near Hungerford, Berks., Mr. Westlake saw the twelve-year-old child, who was the centre of the disturbances, deliberately move objects. In the case of Emma Davies at Wem, in Shropshire, Mr. Hughes, who investigated the case on behalf of our Society, obtained a partial confession from Emma Davies. This led to a critical review of the case by my friend, Mr. C. C. Massey, who published a pamphlet which showed how inconclusive such subsequent confessions are, for objects jumped off tables and out of cupboards when the girl was outside the room, and under circumstances quite inconsistent with trickery. Mr. Massey remarks that it is probable the vanity of the girl was more gratified by the reputation of having duped the investigators than by that of being the medium of an unknown force.

The question then arises, are we to reject as worthless evidence of what appear to be supernormal phenomena because sometimes there are cases of subsequent imitation and trickery, and even occasionally confession of fraud ? In cases of  poltergeist, children are usually the centre, of disturbances, and the superficial or prejudiced observer, knowing the love of mischief among children, and that in his and nearly every one's experience objects don't jump about without an assignable cause, naturally comes to the conclusion that any supernormal explanation is needless and absurd. But this a priori argument, which satisfies the man in the street, completely breaks down when a critical and historical study of the whole subject is made.

In the numerous trials for witchcraft recorded in different countries, the so-called witches freely confessed that they did quite impossible things. One of the most tragic and heartbreaking series of confessions occurred in the village of Mobra, in Sweden, where in 1670, it is stated in the public register of the Lords Commissioners who tried the case, that 71 children freely confessed that they were engaged in witchery, that they were carried away by the devil; and being "separately and independently examined to see if their confessions did agree," the Commissioners state they "found that all of them except some very little ones, who could not tell all the circumstances, did practically agree in the confession of particulars." And the particulars consisted in describing the traditional devil, how they were carried through the air and down chimneys, that burning candles were stuck in their hair, but they were not burnt, that they were beaten with thorns, etc., etc. And all this upon oath, and in peril of their lives. In fact, 15 children, who so confessed, were thereupon burnt; 36 children, between 9 and 16 years old, considered less guilty, were publicly beaten once a week for a year, and forced "to run the gauntlet"; 20 more, mere babies, were lashed with rods for three Sundays at the Church door. The number of children more or less found guilty, we are told, was 300. In addition 70 women, all from this same village, were tried; 2 3 freely confessed their witchcraft and were burnt, the rest were imprisoned and afterwards executed. 

Obviously, therefore, we must not place too much reliance upon the confessions of children, nor of uneducated persons, who believe the superstitions of their day to be actual facts, and tacitly accept the opinion of their 'betters,' when told
that they have taken part in the witchery of which they are
accused.

THE DALE TOWER, GEORGIA, U.S.A., CASE.

One of the most recent poltergeists has occurred in Georgia, U.S.A., and is described in the Occult Review for May, 1911. The narrator is a medical man, T. Hart Eaines, M.D., who as soon as he heard of the occurrences began an investigation, and whilst he did not witness the phenomena himself, he interviewed the three young men who collectively saw what occurred, and he personally visited the scene of the disturbance. Dr. Eaines states that the young men are intelligent telegraph operators, and their veracity above suspicion: they are positive that they were not deceived nor hallucinated, and they have all signed a statement certifying to the truth of the facts.

The disturbances took place in a little railway telegraph tower at Dale, Georgia, on the main line of the Atlantic coast railroad. The tower adjoins the railway track, and is the only house -of any description within a quarter of a mile. During nine months in the year the tower is closed, and is opened for the tourist season from January to April. The three young men-Bright, Davies, and Clark-opened the tower on January 4, 1911, and were the sole occupants living in its two rooms, one room above the other, a trap-door closing the stair leading to the upper room. The first thing that occurred was the sudden, inexplicable flinging open of the trap-door, and the difficulty of keeping it closed. In spite of fastening it with stout nails and an iron bar, it would still fly open; mysterious footsteps were also heard on the stair, but a careful search revealed no cause for the disturbances.

Then followed the raising and lowering of the window sashes in the upper chamber, in full view of the three occupants, no one being near the window. "To assure themselves against tricksters, the trap-door leading down to the floor below was closed and securely fastened, and raised only when necessary to descend to the ground. This precaution had no effect whatsoever on the phenomena, and soon various articles began to be levitated about the room in broad open daylight in full view  of all three occupants of the tower, when there was no possible chance for trickery or fraud. A can of condensed milk was seen to lift itself into the air and pass from one end of the desk to the other without the contact of a visible hand. A large dish-pan lying near the stove slowly lifted itself and rolled down the stairs and out of the tower and under it, from whence it had to be fished out with the aid of a long pole. A lantern was levitated on to the desk without having been touched, and in full view of all. On another occasion this lantern made a wild rush across the room and dashed itself into fragments against the wall. An ordinary can-opener flew wildly about the room and fastened itself in the centre of the ceiling. I [Dr. Baines] saw this can-opener, and can assure any one interested that the most expert could .not perform a similar feat once in a hundred efforts. Frequently bolts and taps, such as are used in railroad construction work, would be hurled into the room, breaking a hole in the glass of the window scarcely large enough to enter through.

"On one occasion, when objects were being hurled about the room so persistently that the tower was hastily abandoned by all three occupants, a chair was dashed out of the upper window, and fell with such force that one of the rings was broken. This in broad daylight, with no one in the tower, and the only avenue of entrance or of escape guarded by the three occupants of the tower. I [Dr. Baines] saw the chair, and only a terrific blow could have so injured it."

The young men were now in a state of panic, and one of them walked seven miles to the nearest town, to resign his position, and he assured Dr. Eaines nothing would induce, him again to go through the eerie experience he had suffered. The last of the strange occurrences took place a few days before Dr. Eaines visited the tower and made a searching investigation of the possibility of some outside person tricking the young men. This, he says, was impossible, nor could the vibration of passing trains have caused the phenomena, and any attempt to climb the stair would have been instantly detected by the operators, one of whom was always on duty. Dr. Eaines is convinced that there was no chance of deception, that the operators were perfectly truthful and were not the victims of hallucination.

In fact, the whole record exactly resembles other poltergeist  phenomena in their sudden development and sudden cessation.

A recent case of poltergeist in Surrey was reported in the newspapers, and on inquiry I learnt the phenomena occurred as narrated; but I have been unable to visit the place and obtain the evidence at first hand.

THE VIENNA POLTERGEIST.

In the Journal of the Society for May, 1907, there is a report of a typical poltergeist occurring in a Vienna suburb. The report is sent by an eye-witness of some of the disturbances, Mr. Wàrndorfer, a member of the S.P.R., living at Baden, near Vienna. Regarding this case Miss A. Johnson (Research Officer of the S.P.R.) writes to me as follows: " Mr. Wàrndorfer, whom I know personally, is an unusually cool-headed and competent observer, and a very intelligent and open-minded man. He is genuinely interested in psychical research, and would, I feel sure, be prepared to give an impartial account of anything he witnessed." Miss Johnson adds that she believes Mr. Wàrndorfer" is not convinced of the genuineness of this case, or of any telekinetic phenomena; what it amounts to is that he investigated this case carefully, and did not discover any fraud in it."

The principal points in the narrative are as follow: A smith named Zimmerl has a shop near Vienna (address given), where he employs two apprentices. The shop is at the end of a long court, in the souterrain of a large house inhabited by tradespeople, so that it is entered by going down a short, open stair. Zimmerl had had the shop some four years, but nothing unusual occurred until July, 1906, when a report appeared in a Vienna paper of the mysterious disturbances that had broken out in this smith's shop.

On July 16th, 1906, Mr. Wàrndorfer visited the shop and heard from Zimmerl how tools, bits of iron, etc., had been flung about the place, and both the master and one of his apprentices had been hurt by one of these missiles. He had watched the boys, but could not detect any tricks on their part; in fact, when they were outside the shop the missiles still flew about, and from an opposite direction to where they stood, and where a solid wall intervened. The police had investigated, the matter and could find nothing to account for the disturbances. The tools, etc., had to be put into boxes and moved outside, as they were afraid to work otherwise. The man was much scared, and lost customers through this mysterious annoyance. Once a pipe flew from one side of the shop to the other, and then came back and settled on the anvil in the middle of the room; another time the pipe was taken from ZimmeiTs mouth and fluttered on to the lathe.

Mr. Wârndorfer made several subsequent visits, and heard still more remarkable accounts, and was able to witness many of the occurrences. On one occasion he saw more than a dozen objects thrown about, and was "perfectly certain none of the persons present could have thrown them"; one was thrown when he happened to be alone in the shop. He never saw the objects actually fly, but heard them fall; some dropped close to him, and three struck him on the head. In reply to enquiries from the S.P.R., Mr. Wârndorfer relates five cases of inexplicable movements of objects, which he witnessed in daylight, and of which he believes "the chances of mal-observation were very small indeed." One of these cases was as follows: A small glazed picture which he had seen hanging on the wall a few minutes before came fluttering through the air to the middle of the shop, where it fell on the floor, but did not break; in fact, it moved like a sheet of paper. At the time he was standing about a yard and a half in front of the picture, nobody being near it, nor in that part of the shop through which it moved. He did not see it leave its place, but saw it when it was about a couple of yards from where it alighted. Mr. Wârndorfer adds that he thinks "it would be very difficult, though not impossible, to throw or drop such a picture without its breaking."Another incident witnessed by Mr. Wârndorfer occurred when the smith was out of the shop and the two apprentices were drilling a hole in a piece of iron. He was watching their slow work and noticed that their four hands were all engaged at their work; of this he was" perfectly certain," when suddenly one of the boys screamed with pain; a pair of big iron compasses, which had been lying on the work-bench a yard behind the boy, had flown across and hit the boy sharply on the temple, causing a swelling and a little  blood. Mr. Wàrndorfer saw the iron compasses ricochetting as it were off the boy's head and falling to the ground. He himself was five times hit-three times on the head, as already mentioned, and twice elsewhere, once rather severely, with pieces of iron and steel that unaccountably flew across the room and struck him.

The disturbances continued for two months, and then ceased. One of the lads, round whom the disturbances seemed to cluster, was taken to the police court and fined, though he denied all guilt, and there was no direct evidence of his having thrown anything. The boys were, nevertheless, dismissed, and the disturbances ceased. Mr. Wàrndorfer, . however, does not consider that this proves anything, and he is right, for if his observations were correct the boys could not have been the culprits.

The foregoing poltergeist closely resembles that which occurred at Swanland, near Hull, in 1849, and, a narrative of which was written by an eye-witness, Mr. Bristow, and published by the S.P.R. Prof. Sidgwick, in 1891, interviewed a surviving witness of the phenomena, who confirmed Mr. Bristow's account. Here three workmen in a carpenter's shop were pelted with bits of wood, etc., which seemed to sail through the air " as if borne on gently heaving waves," and no visible cause could be discovered for the disturbances, which lasted about six weeks. The narrative given, if accurate, shows that any normal explanation of the phenomena is untenable.

It must be borne in mind that the evidence on behalf of the phenomena we have been considering rests upon observation and not upon experiment. We cannot repeat the phenomena at will, but must rest content with the statements of credible witnesses. Under such circumstances no single case, however well attested, can produce conviction of the supernormal character of the phenomena; inasmuch as our reason renders us instinctively hostile to the reception of any evidence which cannot be readily fitted in to the structure of our existing knowledge. We have, therefore, to rely upon the accumulation of testimony from many independent observers, in cases widely separated both in space and time. It is with the object of adding to the strength of the faggot of evidence, which exists on behalf of poltergeists, that this paper has been added to others on this subject already published in our Proceedings.

Every one will admit the truth of Glanvil's remark: "That which is sufficiently and undeniably proved ought not to be denied because we know not how it can be, that is, because there are difficulties in the conceiving of it", and if the array of testimony from credible and competent witnesses in different countries and different ages concerning poltergeist phenomena be set aside, all testimony to strange and sporadic occurrences, such as meteorites, fireballs, red-rain, mock-suns, etc., must also be discredited. Few of us have witnessed the fall of meteoric stones to the earth, yet we believe in their existence in spite of the impossibility of their reproduction at our pleasure. The reason why we believe is of course the testimony of many trustworthy witnesses to whom we have given attention. In fact there are some phenomena in physical science which are as rare, elusive and inexplicable as those in psychical research. That strange phenomenon, to which the name of fire-ball or globe lightning has been given, is an example. "As we have hitherto been unable to reproduce a fire-ball by our most powerful electrical machines, some philosophers have denied that any such thing can exist! But as Arago says: 'Where should we be if we set ourselves to deny everything we do not know how to explain ? ' The amount of trustworthy and independent evidence which we possess as to the occurrence of this phenomenon is such as must convince every reasonable man who chooses to pay due attention to the subject. No doubt there is a great deal of exaggeration, as well as much imperfect and erroneous observation, in almost all these records. But the existence of the main feature (the fire-ball) seems to be proved beyond all doubt." These are the words of that eminent and genuine scientific man, the late Professor P. G. Tait, and the words I have italicized are, in my opinion, equally true of the phenomena of poltergeists. There has been, no doubt, much " exaggeration and erroneous observation " in connection with this subject, but this can also be said of the early stages of other new and striking additions to our knowledge.

Moreover, the evidence for poltergeist phenomena is strengthened when we remember the injury to themselves which the witnesses often suffered. As Glanvil says of Mr. Mompesson, "He suffered in his name, his estate, and in all his affairs, and in the general peace of his family. Unbelievers took him for an impostor, others thought it was a judgment of God upon him for impiety. He suffered also in loss of servants and the health and constant affrights of his whole household."

CONCLUSIONS
 
The conclusions to which a study of the subject has led me  may be stated as follows:
(1) That fraud and hallucination are inadequate to explain all the phenomena.
(2) That the widespread belief in fairies, pixies, gnomes, brownies, etc., probably rests on the varied manifestations of  poltergeists.
(3) That in these phenomena occurring in all countries and  going back to remote periods of time we have, as Mr. Lang  suggests, one probable origin of Fetishism among savages, the  belief that an inanimate object may be tenanted by what is  thought to be a spirit.
(4) That the noises, sudden movements of objects, and other  physical phenomena appear to be associated with some unseen  intelligence which can respond, though fitfully and imperfectly,  to an uttered and, there is some evidence to show, to an  unuttered request; hence they must be in some degree related  to our intelligence.
(5) That the disturbances are usually, though not invariably, associated with the presence of a child or young person of  either sex, and appear to be attached to a particular place as  well as to a particular person; some animate as well as inani-
mate point d'appui seems to be essential.
(6) The phenomena are sporadic and temporary, their duration varying from a few days to several months, disappearing as suddenly as they came.
(7) They produce annoyance to those concerned, and sometimes, though rarely, injury.
(8) They can be inhibited by suggestion, acting either upon  the human radiant point or upon the unseen agency, or possibly upon both.
(9) The close connection of poltergeist disturbances with the  physical phenomena of spiritualism, suggests that the latter would be more effectually studied immediately after they were first noticed, and in the place where they first occurred in the presence of the child, or other "medium," round whom they centred. Further, we may expect simulation, and even confession of subsequent trickery, in the case of children, after the phenomena have ceased.

As the universe is founded on order and follows definite intelligible laws, we might expect to discover some analogy between the operation of seen and unseen causes. I fear, however, it will be a long time before we shall bring out of "the disorderly mystery of ignorance into the orderly mystery of science" these puzzling and freakish phenomena. We find, however, in meteorological disturbances, in the unseen physical phenomena of wind and weather, similar puzzling and apparently freakish occurrences. Albeit we have no doubt that long-continued patient observation and classification will ultimately reveal the complex and orderly physical causes at work in our fitful weather. But the scientific use of the imagination is necessary alike in meteorological and bizarre psychical phenomena, such as poltergeists.

The obvious question arises, why in the latter is a human radiant centre necessary? In inorganic nature we find in the behaviour of saturated solutions of salts a state of unstable equilibrium such that a particle of solid matter dropped into the quiescent liquid will suddenly create a molecular disturbance which spreads throughout the solution, causing solid crystals to appear and aggregate; a general commotion results for a short time, until the whole becomes a solid mass of crystals. Here we see the effect of a nucleus upon a previously quiescent state of things. Microscopists are familiar with similar phenomena. Especially in cell growth the presence of a nucleus is essential.

We may term the child, or other living person in poltergeist phenomena, the nucleus, which is the determining factor. We ourselves and the whole world may be but nucleated cells in a vaster living organism, of which we can form no conception. Some incomprehensible intelligence is certainly at work in the congeries of cells and in the galaxy of suns and stars. But evolution in animate and inanimate nature is unlikely to be confined to the visible universe. Living creatures of different types and varied intelligence may exist in the unseen as in the seen. Possibly these poltergeist phenomena may be due to some of these, perhaps mischievous or rudimentary, intelligences in the unseen: I do not know why we should imagine there are no fools or naughty children in the spiritual world; possibly they are as numerous there as here. But why the conjunction of a particular locality and a particular human organism enables them to play pranks in the material world, we are as ignorant as the savage is as to why a dry day and particular material are necessary for the working of an electrical machine in the production of electricity.

At present our obvious duty is to collect, scrutinize, and classify these phenomena, leaving their explanation aside until our knowledge is larger.