Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 2Wallace, Alfred Russel
Science
Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 2
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Naturalists -- Correspondence; Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913
My dear Barrett,--I am always glad when a man I like and respect treats
me as a friend. I am advised by other friends also not to waste more
time on Dr. C. [Carpenter], and I do not think I shall answer him again,
except perhaps to keep him to certain points, as in my letter in the
last _Nature_. In a proof of his new edition of "Lectures" I see he
challenges me to produce a person who can detect by light or sensation
when an electro-magnet is made and unmade. The Association of
Spiritualists are going to experiment, as Dr. C. offers to pay L30 if it
succeeds. Should you have an opportunity of trying with any persons, and
can find one who sees or feels the influence strongly, it might be worth
while to send him to London, as nothing would tend to lower Dr. C. in
public estimation on this subject more than his being forced to
acknowledge that what he has for more than thirty years declared to be
purely subjective is after all an objective phenomenon.
I never had anything to do with showing or sending a medium to Huxley.
He must refer to his seance a few months ago with Mrs. Kane and Mrs.
Jencken (along with Carpenter and Tyndall), when ... nothing but raps
occurred....--Yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
* * * * *
The British Association met in Dublin in 1878, and Prof. Barrett asked
Wallace to stay with him at Kingstown, or, if he preferred being nearer
the meetings, with a friend in Dublin. Earlier in the year Mr. Huggins,
afterwards Sir W. Huggins, O.M. and President of the Royal Society, had
sent Prof. Barrett a very beautifully executed drawing of the knots tied
in an endless cord during the remarkable sittings Prof. Zoellner had with
the medium Slade. Sir W. Huggins invited Prof. Barrett to come and see
him at his observatory at Tulse Hill, near London, and there he met
Wallace and discussed the whole matter. It may not be generally known
that so careful and accurate an observer as Sir W. Huggins was convinced
of the genuineness of the phenomena he had witnessed with Lord Dunraven
and others through the medium D.D. Home. He informed Prof. Barrett of
this himself.
TO PROF. BARRETT
_Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon. June 27, 1873._
My dear Barrett,--The receipt of a British Association circular reminds
me of your kind invitation to stay with you or your friend at Dublin,
and as you may be wishing soon to make your arrangements I write at once
to let you know that, much to my regret, I shall not be able to come to
Dublin this year. Since I met you at Mr. Huggins's I have done nothing
myself in Spiritual investigations, but have been exceedingly interested
in the knot-tying experiment of Prof. Zoellner and the weight-varying
experiments of the Spiritualists' Association. I do not see what flaw
can be found in either of them....--Yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
* * * * *
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