Black was wonder-stricken, and got away the negative, no charge whatever having been made. Mumler now claimed publicly to be a spirit-portrait photographer, and as such he eventually opened a studio in New York, having previously satisfied Silver, Gurney, and other photographers as to the genuineness of his claims, never hesitating to operate in their galleries if required, and with their apparatus and chemicals. Mumler was arrested in New York; whether on the ground of witchcraft or of endeavouring to obtain money under false pretences, I am at present uncertain, but his trial was the sensation of the day, and numerous witnesses were examined. He was honourably acquitted. In this country, several who are amateur photographers have investigated this subject with more or less success. These include some F.R.S.’s, scientists, artists, and others. I question whether any have so persistently done so as the late Mr. John Beattie, of Clifton, and his friend, Dr. Thompson. Mr. Beattie was a skilled professional photographer of the highest eminence who, some time prior to his death, had adopted the views of the spiritualistic school. The figures he obtained on his plates were much blurred in outline, some being misty in the extreme. I possess some two or three dozen of these, taken by or in the presence of, Mr. Beattie, whose intelligence, honesty, and powers of observation no one would venture to doubt. Many such photographs are claimed to have been produced by Hudson, a professional photographer, formerly of the Holloway Road, and I submit for examination a work by the late Miss Houghton, containing fifty-four of Hudson’s spirit photographs. There are many ways by which, assuming the genuineness of only one of all spirit photographs hitherto produced, the spurious article may be made even better than any alleged real ones I have yet seen. A plate secretly impressed previous or subsequent to being placed in the camera fulfils the condition; so does one at the back of which is placed a phosphorescent tablet in the dark slide. Pressure on the surface, such as by that of a Woodbury relief film, also causes a developable image; in short, trickery in a whole variety of forms may, and has been, impressed into the service.