direct transmission of ideas from one mind to another” writes Dr Jodl, “without any perceptible physical method of communication would indicate the presence of a crack in the very foundations of all our views on nature, and, if proved, would lead us to a complete revision of fundamental principles.” Dr Henning declares that “psycho-physics, yes, even psychology, as a science, must be utterly wrecked before we have recourse to telepathy.” How different in tone is the statement of one of the most acute among our younger thinkers, Professor Broad of Cambridge[2], who not only tolerates the existence of a spiritual world but postulates the actual necessity of a “psychic factor” in order to provide a coherent explanation of the universe and ourselves. [2] _The Mind and its Place in Nature_, 1925. Since the advent, then, of a new scientific revelation the field lies open for further work and further advances in psychical research. No longer denied access to the precincts of orthodox science or received with a dubious welcome, the professed student of supernormal phenomena can claim and receive a definite status as the representative of an acknowledged branch of scientific study. But in realizing this, he must realize too the responsibilities of a position so assured. Two objects must be permanently kept in view――the accumulation of fresh facts, and the exercise of rigid control and accuracy in our experiments. In the discovery of new material we are, of course, faced by the irritating and disappointing character of the phenomena with which we deal. They are often spasmodic, sporadic, irregular. They do not occur in any fixed sequence nor can they be predicted. Even when our experiments yield obvious success, we are ignorant of what the conditions of such success may be: no satisfactory experimental control of these wayward phenomena seems at present feasible. If they are reached through the channels of mediumship, we are again exposed to the varying and uncertain influences exercised by the physical or mental condition of the medium at the moment. It is quite clear that these ‘sensitives’ are in almost all cases persons of a definitely neurotic or hysterical temperament; indeed, if we can ever establish the actual connection between these pathological conditions and the production of supernormal phenomena we shall have gone a long way in unravelling the tangled skeins of psychical research. The discovery and classification of fresh psychic facts may mean the expenditure of long and tedious hours, but without the renewed exercise of “_recherche lente, persévérante, obstinée_” we cannot hope to convince ourselves or to speak with our enemies in the gate. In this department of research more than all others our facts soon become more or less obsolete, or at any rate lose their compelling force. No one now alludes to the careful mechanical safeguards against fraud devised by Sir William Crookes in the eighties.