Yet one more witness to these marvelous phenomena we must bring before our readers—a trained and experienced physicist, who has experimented in his own laboratory, and has applied tests and measurements of the most rigid and conclusive character. When Mr. Crookes—the discoverer of the metal thallium, and a Fellow of the Royal Society—first announced that he was going to investigate so-called spiritual phenomena, many public writers were all approval; for the complaint had long been that men of science were not permitted by mediums to inquire too scrupulously into the facts. One expressed “profound satisfaction that the subject was about to be investigated by a man so well qualified”; another was “gratified to learn that the matter is now receiving the attention of cool and clear headed men of recognized position in science”; while a third declared that “no one could doubt Mr. Crookes’s ability to conduct the investigation with rigid philosophical impartiality.” But these expressions were evidently insincere, and were only meant to apply in case the result was in accordance with the writers’ notions of what it ought to be. Of course, a “scientific investigation” would explode the whole thing. Had not Faraday exploded table-turning? They hailed Mr. Crookes as the Daniel come to judgment—as the prophet who would curse their enemy, Spiritualism, by detecting imposture and illusion. But when the judge, after a patient trial lasting several years, decided against them, and their accepted prophet blessed the hated thing as an undoubted truth, their tone changed; and they began to suspect the judge’s ability, and to pick holes in the evidence on which he founded his judgment.