338. “The _Journal du Magnetisme_ of the 10th of March, 1853, had already furnished us with the reported account given in the course of last January to the tribunal of London, by the _rapping spirit_ of the house of Sanger; the same phenomena, the same stupefaction, the same impossibility to discover the jugglers. However, the subject appeared to rest at this point in Germany, when, in the month of April, the first phenomenon of _table moving_ reached Bremen, and then the _Augsbourg Gazette_ insisted on its true origin. 339. “‘For eight days previous,’ it said, ‘our good town has been in an agitation difficult to describe; it is completely absorbed by a miracle which was not thought of before the arrival of the steamer from New York—the Washington. The NEW PHENOMENON IS IMPORTED FROM AMERICA.’ 340. “Now a certain Doctor André was the first to describe this first exhibition of table turning; therefore they called it his _discovery_. What a discovery! 341. “‘Having formed a chain,’ he says, ‘of seven or eight persons, the _right_ little finger of each touching the _left_ one of his neighbour, the table they surround will commence turning, and continue as long as the chain remains unbroken, and stop when an individual leaves it.’ 342. “A general burst of pleasantry and incredulity first accompanied the revelation of the doctor. But soon experiment begins, and laughter gives place to a sort of dejection. Certain savans, professors of the University of Heidelberg, MM. Mittermouer and Zoepfl, M. Molh, brother of the member of the Institute, Eschenmajer, Ennemoser, and Kerner, attest the same facts; and Doctor Lœwe of Vienna undertakes to give the theory of it: ‘This theory consists, according to him, in the opposite polarity of the right and left sides of the human body; hence, having formed a chain of human beings, the contrary poles of which, viz. the right and left, touch each other, and this chain, exerting upon any body whatever a prolonged action, conveys to it an electric current, and converts it into a magnet, and thus polarization is established in that body; and in virtue of its tendency to magnetic orientation, the south pole of the table impressing it with a movement to the north, the latter commences a continued rotation, and turns on its axis as long as the indispensable conditions are continued.’ 343. “Unfortunately, the spirits are very soon seen to dispense with these _indispensable conditions_. Thus, then, at Bremen, Vienna, and Berlin, there was not a table at rest on its legs, and still the French press observed a uniform inexplicable silence! 344. “We ask, however, what would have been said, had we foretold what began to appear unavoidable, that in less than a month, table and hat turning would reach Paris. The announcement was scarcely known when it appears that such a thing has always existed; that it is a law of nature; and that tables never had any other destiny!