I am inclined to believe that the absorption of force takes place from prolonged contact with the emanation of the dead rather than from the transient impression of conscious thoughts, but there was no further recrudescence of the trouble when an iron girder was substituted for the beam, and the girl, when brought back, was perfectly normal. I experimented with the girl later, but did not find that she possessed any marked gifts, although she was indubitably a good hypnotic subject. The beam, or rather a section of it, I secured for the purposes of research, the remainder was burnt.[48] * * * * * Another puzzling if popular subject is that of spirit photographs. I have handled scores of them, but have never yet come across one in which all possibility of ingenious fraud has been entirely eliminated. Certain people have claimed peculiar gifts, but in no case has a satisfactory result been obtained at a genuine test-séance, where scientific precautions have been observed. If anyone has this gift it can be demonstrated easily. The studio must be neutral ground--that is to say, the room must not be the claimant’s habitual studio. The camera must be provided by the testers, as also the dark slide and plates. The medium must be stripped perfectly naked and the same rule should apply to the testing committee if it includes anyone known to the medium. He should not be allowed to touch plates, dark slide, or camera except when naked and under close scrutiny. Development should be carried out under test conditions at the nearest chemist’s dark room. There is no known spiritual law which should lead us to think that a psychograph or spirit photograph is a possibility, and until the matter has been tested by a properly qualified body of men all such photographs are open to the gravest suspicion. Money-making is not the only motive for fraud, and many of the fakers are often more anxious to build up a bogus reputation for “mystery working” than to make a direct profit on the transaction. The avenues of fraud are so numerous that it is only possible to indicate a few of the methods adopted to deceive the credulous. The spirit photograph is deemed to be genuine if it is taken under conditions which an average expert photographer holds to be fraud-proof. The weakness of the whole case lies in the fact that they cannot be obtained under genuine scientific, as opposed to amateur, test conditions. In a word, the spirit image is imprinted on the negative under conditions not normally suspected by the photographers. There are several methods of attaining the result, even when the photographer brings his own plates and dark slides and his own camera. _First_ is the background trick. An acid solution of sulphate of quinine is invisible to the eye, but shows in the photograph. “Phenomena” painted on the wall or near by the objects appear in the photograph though invisible to the eye.