Chapter IV: Other Seances with Eusapia Paladino (1)

The medium, whose marvellous seance performances we have been describing has been the subject of a long series of observations by eminent and careful experimenters. Her endowments are indeed exceptional. When you study with Eusapia, the comparison of her powers with those of ordinary cases makes you think of the difference between a fine electrical machine operated under good atmospheric conditions and a bad one operated on a rainy day. You see more with her in one hour than in a host of faulty trials with other mediums.

Our study of these unknown forces will progress rapidly if, in place of limiting the results obtained to one or two groups, such as those which precede, we examine the totality of the observations made in the seances of this medium. My readers can then compare them with the preceding ones; they can judge, they can make their own estimates.

The documents which I am now going to print are all borrowed from the _Annales des sciences psychiques_ and from the valuable collection of M. Albert de Rochas upon _The Externalization of Motivity_.

A few words, first, about the debuts of Eusapia in her mediumistic career.

Professor Chiaia, of Naples, to whom I owe it that I was able to receive Eusapia at my house and obtain the experiments reported above, was the first to bring her gifts into public notice. He first published on the 9th of August, 1888, in a journal issued at Rome, the following letter addressed to Professor Lombroso:

_Dear Sir_,--In your article, _The Influence of Civilization upon
Genius_ (which has incontestable beauties of style and of logic), I
noticed a very happy paragraph. It seems to me to sum up the
scientific movement (starting from the time when man first invented
that head-breaking thing called an alphabet) down to our own day. This
paragraph reads as follows:

"Every generation is prematurely ready for discoveries which it never
sees born, since it does not perceive its own incapacity and the means
it lacks for making further discoveries. The repetition of any one
manifestation, by impressing itself upon our brains, prepares our
minds and renders them less and less incapable of discovering the laws
to which this manifestation is amenable. Twenty or thirty years are
enough to make the whole world admire a discovery which was treated as
madness at the moment when it was made. Even at the present day
academic bodies laugh at hypnotism and at homoeopathy. Who knows
whether my friends and I, who laugh at Spiritualism, are not in error,
just as hypnotized persons are? Thanks to the illusion which surrounds
us, we may be incapable of seeing that we deceive ourselves; and, like
many persons of unsound mind who stubbornly oppose the truth, we laugh
at those who are not of our way of thinking."

Struck by this keen thought, which by chance I find adapted to a
certain matter with which I have been occupied for some time, I
joyfully accept it, without abatement, without any comment which might
change its sense; and, confining myself to the fine old rules of
chivalry, I make use of it as a challenge. The consequences of this
challenge will neither be dangerous nor bloody: we shall fight fairly;
and, whatever may be the results of the encounter, whether I succumb
or whether I make my opponent yield, it will always be in a friendly
way. The result will tend to the improvement of one of the two
adversaries and will be in every way useful to the great cause of
truth.

There is much talk nowadays of a special malady which is found in the
human organism. We notice it every day; but we are ignorant of its
cause and know not what to call it. The cry is raised that it be
subjected to the examination of contemporary science; but science, in
reply, only meets the request with the mocking ironical smile of a
Pyrrhus, for the precise reason (as you say) that the time is not yet
ripe.

But the author of the paragraph I have quoted above, of course did not
write it merely for the pleasure of writing. It seems to me, on the
contrary, that he would not smile disdainfully if he were invited to
observe a special case that is worthy to attract the attention and to
seriously occupy the mind of a Lombroso. The case I allude to is that
of an invalid woman who belongs to the humblest class of society. She
is nearly thirty years old and very ignorant; her look is neither
fascinating nor endowed with the power which modern criminologists
call irresistible; but, when she wishes, be it by day or by night, she
can divert a curious group for an hour or so with the most surprising
phenomena. Either bound to a seat or firmly held by the hands of the
curious, she attracts to her the articles of furniture which surround
her, lifts them up, holds them suspended in air like Mahomet's coffin,
and makes them come down again with undulatory movements, as if they
were obeying her will. She increases their weight or lessens it
according to her pleasure. She raps or taps upon the walls, the
ceiling, the floor, with fine rhythm and cadence. In response to the
requests of the spectators, something like flashes of electricity
shoot forth from her body, and envelop her or enwrap the spectators of
these marvellous scenes. She draws upon cards that you hold out
everything that you want--figures, signatures, numbers, sentences--by
just stretching out her hand toward the indicated place. If you place
in the corner of the room a vessel containing a layer of soft clay,
you find after some moments the imprint in it of a small or a large
hand, the image of a face (front view or profile), from which a
plaster cast can be taken. In this way, portraits of a face taken at
different angles have been preserved, and those who desire so to do
can thus make serious and important studies.[30]

This woman rises in the air, no matter what bands tie her down. She
seems to lie upon the empty air as on a couch, contrary to all the
laws of gravity; she plays on musical instruments--organs, bells,
tambourines--as if they had been touched by her hands or moved by the
breath of invisible gnomes.

You will call that a particular case of hypnotism; you will say that
this sick woman is a fakir in petticoats, that you would shut her up
in a hospital. Let me beg of you, most eminent professor, not to shift
the argument. As is well known, hypnotism only causes a momentary
illusion; after the seance, everything takes its original form. But
here the case is different. During the days which followed these
marvellous scenes there remained traces and records worthy of
consideration.

What do you think of that?

But allow me to continue. This woman, at times, can increase her
stature by more than four inches. She is like an india-rubber doll,
like an automaton of a new kind; she takes strange forms. How many
legs and arms has she? We do not know. While her limbs are being held
by incredulous spectators, we see other limbs coming into view,
without knowing where they come from. Her shoes are too small to fit
these witch-feet of her, and this particular circumstance gives rise
to the suspicion of the intervention of mysterious power.

Don't laugh when I say "_gives rise to the suspicion_." I affirm
nothing; you will have time to laugh presently.

When this woman is bound, a third arm is seen to appear, and nobody
knows where it comes from. Then follows a long series of droll teasing
tricks. She abstracts bonnets, watches, money, rings, pins, and
produces them again with great adroitness and gayety; she takes coats
and waistcoats, pulls off boots, brushes hats and puts them back upon
the heads of those to whom they belong, curls and strokes mustaches,
and occasionally hits you with a fist, for she also has fits of
ill-temper. I said _a_ fist, because it is always a clumsy and callous
hand that strikes the blow. It has been noticed that the hand of the
sorceress is small. She has large finger-nails; has a moist skin, the
temperature of which varies from the natural warmth of the body to the
icy chill of a corpse the touch of which makes you shiver; she allows
herself to be handled, pinched, observed; and ends by rising into the
air, remaining suspended there with no visible means of support, like
one of those plump wooden hands hung out over the sidewalk as a sign
at the shops of the glove merchants.

I swear to you that I emerge with a very calm spirit from the cave of
this Circe. Freed from her enchantments, I pass all my impressions in
review, and end in scepticism, although the testimony of my senses
assures me that I have not been the sport of an error or of an
illusion.

All these extraordinary manoeuvres cannot be attributed to
prestidigitation. We ought to be on our guard against every kind of
trickery, and make a scrupulous investigation in order to forestall
mendacity or fraud.

But the test sometimes fails; the facts do not always meet the demands
of the eager and restless spectators. This is one more mystery to
explain, and proves that the individual herself who works these
wonders is not their sole arbiter. Undoubtedly, she possesses the
exclusive power of producing these portentous feats; but they cannot
materialize except with the co-operation of an unknown agent, some
_deus ex machina_.

From all this two things result; namely, the great difficulty there is
in examining the true inwardness of this stupefying piece of
charlatanry, and the necessity of making a series of experiments in
order to get together enough of them to illuminate the dark intellects
of the dupes and to overcome the obstinacy of the wranglers.

Now you see my challenge. If you have not written the paragraph cited
above simply for the pleasure of writing it; if you have the true love
of science; if you are without prejudices,--you, the first alienist in
Italy,--please have the kindness to take the field, and persuade
yourself that you are going to measure swords with a worthy adversary.

When you can take a week's vacation, leave your beloved studies, and,
instead of going into the country, show me a place where we can meet.
Choose the time yourself.

You are to have a room into which you will enter alone before the
experiment; there you will arrange the furniture and other objects
just as you wish; you will lock the door with a key. I believe it
would be useless to present the lady to you in the costume worn in the
Garden of Eden, because this new Eve is incapable of retaliating upon
the serpent and of seducing you.

Four gentlemen will be our seconds, as is fitting in all knightly
encounters; you will choose two, and I will bring the other two.

No easier conditions were ever drawn up by the Knights of the Round
Table. It is evident that, if the experiment does not succeed, I shall
be able to accuse only the harsh decrees of destiny; you will consider
me but as a man suffering from hallucination, who longs to be cured of
his extravagances. But, if success crowns our efforts, your loyalty
will impose upon you the duty of writing an article, in which, without
circumlocution, reticence, or error, you will attest the reality of
the mysterious phenomena and promise to investigate their causes.

If you decline this meeting, please explain to me your sentence, "The
time is not yet ripe." Undoubtedly, that might apply to common
intellects, but not to a Lombroso, to whom is addressed this advice of
Dante: "Honor ought to close the lips of falsehood with truth."

Yours very devotedly and respectfully,
(PROFESSOR) CHIAIA.

M. Lombroso did not at once accept this eloquent and witty challenge. However, we shall presently find that learned professor himself experimenting. In the mean time read what M. de Rochas tells us of Eusapia's youth:--

Her first mediumistic manifestations began at the age of puberty, when
she was about thirteen or fourteen years old. This coincidence is
found in almost all the cases in which the singular power of
producing movements at a distance has been observed.

At this epoch of her life it was remarked that the Spiritualistic
seances to which she was invited succeeded much better when she was
seated at the table. But they tired and bored her, and she refrained
from taking part in them for eight or nine years.

It was only in her twenty-second or twenty-third year that the
Spiritualistic education of Eusapia began. It was directed by an
ardent Spiritualist, M. Damiani. It was then that the personality of
_John King_ appeared, a spirit who took possession of her when she was
in the trance state.[31]

This John King is said to be the brother of Crookes's Katie King, and
to have been Eusapia's father in another existence. It is John who
speaks when Eusapia is in her trance; when he speaks of her, he calls
her "my daughter," and gives advice about the care of her person and
life. M. Ochorowicz thinks this John is a personality created in the
spirit of Eusapia by the union of a certain number of impressions
collected in the different psychic environments in which her life has
been passed. This would be almost the identical explanation for the
personalities suggested by the hypnotists, and for the variations of
personality observed by MM. Azam, Bourru, and Burot, et al.

Some have thought they noticed that Eusapia prepared herself,
consciously or unconsciously, at the seance, by diminishing her
respiration,--a very singular thing. At the same time, her pulse
gradually rises from 88 to 120 pulsations a minute. Is this a practice
analogous to that which the fakirs of India employ, or a simple effect
of the emotion which, before every seance, Eusapia experiences?--a
fact which has a strong tendency to convince the sitters, but is never
sure of the production of the phenomena.

Eusapia is not hypnotized; she enters of herself into the trance state
when she becomes a link in the chain of hands.

She begins to sigh deeply, then yawns and hiccoughs. A series of
varied expressions passes over her face. Sometimes it takes on a
demoniacal look, accompanied by a fitful laugh very much like that
which Gounod gives to Mephistopheles in the opera of _Faust_, and
which almost always precedes an important phenomenon. Sometimes her
face flushes; the eyes become brilliant and liquid, and are opened
wide. The smile and the motions are the mark of the erotic ecstasy.
She says "_mio caro_" ("my dear"), leans her head upon the shoulder of
her neighbor, and courts caresses when she believes that he is
sympathetic. It is at this point that phenomena are produced, the
success of which causes her agreeable and even voluptuous thrills.
During this time her legs and her arms are in a state of marked
tension, almost rigid, or even undergo convulsive contractions.
Sometimes a tremor goes through her entire body.

To these states of nervous super-activity succeeds a period of
depression characterized by an almost corpse-like paleness of the face
(which is frequently covered with perspiration) and the almost
complete inertia of her limbs. If she lifts her hand, it falls back of
its own weight.

During the trance her eyes are turned up, and only the white is
visible. Her presence of mind and her general consciousness are
diminished or not at all in evidence. She gives no reply, or, if she
does, her reply is retarded by questions. Eusapia has no recollection
of what has taken place during the seances, except for states of mind
bordering close on those of her normal state; and, consequently, they
only relate, as a general thing, to phenomena of slight intensity.

In order to aid in the manifestations, she frequently asks that her
force be increased by putting one more person in the chain. It has
frequently happened to her to address a sympathetic spectator, to take
his fingers and press them as if to draw something out of them, then
push them abruptly away, saying that she has enough force.

In proportion as her trance increases, her sensibility to light
increases. A sudden light causes difficulty in her breathing, rapid
beatings of the heart, an hysterical feeling, general irritation of
the nerves, pain in the head and eyes, and a trembling of the whole
body, with convulsions,--except when she herself asks for light (a
thing which frequently happens to her when there are interesting
verifications to be made upon the subject of displaced objects), for
then her attention is strongly called in other directions.

She is in constant motion during the active period of the seances.
These movements may be attributed to the hysterical crises which then
agitate her; but they appear to be necessary to the production of the
phenomena. Every time that a movement is being caused at a distance,
she imitates it, either with her hands or with her feet, and by
developing a much stronger force than would be necessary for producing
the movement by contact.

Here is what she herself says of her impressions when she wishes to
produce a movement at a distance. _She suddenly experiences an ardent
desire to produce the phenomena; then she has a feeling of numbness
and the goose-flesh sensation in her fingers; these sensations keep
increasing; at the same time she feels in the inferior portion of the
vertebral column the flowing of a current which rapidly extends into
her arm as far as her elbow, where it is gently arrested. It is at
this point that the phenomenon takes place._

During and after the levitations of the tables she has a feeling of
pain in her knees; during and after other phenomena, in her elbows and
all through her arms.

It was only in the end of February, 1891, that Professor Lombroso, whose curiosity had finally been strongly excited, decided to come to Naples to examine these curious manifestations about which everybody in Italy was speaking. The following reports by M. Ciolfi were published apropos of this visit.[32]

_First Seance_

A large room, selected on the first floor by these gentlemen, had been
put at our disposal. M. Lombroso began by carefully examining the
medium, after which we took places around a gaming table. Mme.
Paladino sat at one end; at her left, MM. Lombroso and Gigli; I faced
the medium, between MM. Gigli and Vizioli; then came MM. Ascensi and
Tamburini, who closed the circle, the last named at the right of the
medium and in contact with her.

The room was lighted by candles placed upon a table behind Mme.
Paladino. MM. Tamburini and Lombroso each held a hand of the medium.
Their knees touched hers, at a certain distance from the feet of the
table; and her feet were under theirs.

After a rather long wait the table began to move, slowly at first,--a
matter explained by the scepticism, not to say the positively hostile
spirit, of those who were this night in a seance circle for the first
time. Then, little by little, the movements increased in intensity. M.
Lombroso proved the levitation of the table, and estimated at twelve
or fifteen pounds the resistance to the pressure which he had to make
with his hands in order to overcome that levitation.

This phenomenon of a heavy body sustained in the air, off its centre
of gravity and resisting a pressure of twelve or fifteen pounds, very
much surprised and astonished the learned gentlemen, who attributed it
to the action of an unknown magnetic force.

At my request, taps and scratchings were heard in the table. This was
new cause for astonishment, and led the gentlemen to themselves call
for the putting out of the candles in order to ascertain whether the
intensity of the noises would be increased, as had been stated. All
remained seated and in contact.

In a dim light which did not hinder the most careful surveillance,
violent blows were first heard at the middle point of the table. Then
a bell placed upon a round table, at the distance of a yard to the
left of the medium (in such a way that she was placed behind and to
the right of M. Lombroso), rose into the air, and went tinkling over
the heads of the company, describing a circle around our table, where
it finally came to rest.

In the midst of the expressions of deep amazement which this
unexpected phenomenon drew forth, M. Lombroso showed a strong desire
to hear and to prove it again. Whereupon the little bell began to
sound, and again made the tour of the table, redoubling its strokes
upon it, to such a degree that M. Ascensi, divided between
astonishment and the fear of having his fingers broken (the bell
weighed fully ten ounces), hastened to rise and go and seat himself on
a sofa behind me.

I kept insisting that we had to do with an intelligent force,--a
matter that he persistently denied,--and that consequently there was
nothing to fear. But M. Ascensi refused, under any circumstances, to
take his place again at the table.

I called attention to the fact that the circle was broken, since one
of the experimenters had left, and that, under penalty of no longer
being able to observe the phenomena in a cool judicious spirit, it
would be necessary that he should at least keep silent and motionless.
M. Ascensi was very willing to pledge himself to that.

The light was extinguished, and the experiments began again. While, in
response to a unanimous wish, the little bell was beginning again its
tinklings and its mysterious aerial circuits, M. Ascensi, taking his
cue, unknown to us, from M. Tamburini, went (unperceived, owing to the
darkness), and stood at the right of the medium, and at once with a
single scratch lighted a match, so successfully, as he declared, that
he could _see the little bell, while it was vibrating in the air_,
suddenly fall upon a bed about six feet and a half behind Mme.
Paladino.

I will not attempt to depict for you the amazement of the learned
body, the most striking manifestation of which was a rapid exchange of
questions and comments upon this strange occurrence.

After some remarks I made about the intervention of M. Ascensi, who
seemed likely to seriously trouble the psychic condition of the
medium, the darkness was turned on again, so to speak, in order to
continue the experiments.

At first it was a little work-table, small, but heavy, that moved
about. It was placed at the left of Mme. Eusapia, and it was upon it
that the little bell was placed at the beginning of the seance. This
small piece of furniture struck against the chair on which M. Lombroso
was seated, and _tried to hoist itself up_ on our table.

In the presence of this new phenomenon, M. Vizioli gave up his place
at our table to M. Ascensi and went to stand between the work-table
and Mme. Eusapia, to whom he turned his back. At least he said he did
all this, for we could not see him on account of the darkness. He took
the little table between his two hands and tried to hold it; but, _in
spite of his efforts, it released itself_ and went rolling over the
floor.

An important point to note is that, although MM. Lombroso and
Tamburini had not for a moment let go of the hands of Mme. Paladino,
Professor Vizioli announced that he felt a pinch in the back. General
hilarity followed this declaration.

M. Lombroso stated that he had felt his chair lifted up so that he was
compelled to remain standing for some time, after which his chair had
been so placed as to permit him to sit down again.

He also experienced twitches upon his clothes. Then he and M.
Tamburini felt the touches of an invisible hand upon their cheeks and
fingers.

M. Lombroso, especially struck with the two facts of the work-table
and the little bell, judged them of sufficient importance for him to
put off till Tuesday his departure from Naples, which had been first
fixed for Monday.

Upon his request I promised a new seance, on Monday, at the Hotel de
Geneve.

_Second Seance_

At eight o'clock in the evening I arrived at the Hotel de Geneve,
accompanied by the medium, Eusapia Paladino. We were received under
the colonnade by MM. Lombroso, Tamburini, Ascensi, and several other
persons whom they had invited; namely Professors Gigli, Limoncelli,
Vizioli, and Bianchi (superintendent of the insane asylum at Sales),
Dr. Penta, and a young nephew of M. Lombroso, who lives at Naples.

After the customary introductions, we were asked to go up to the
highest story in the house, where we were introduced into a very large
room with an alcove. Curtains, or portieres, were let down across the
front of the alcove. Behind the curtains at a distance of about three
feet and a half, measured by MM. Lombroso and Tamburini, there was
placed, in this alcove, a round table, with a porcelain salver filled
with flour, in the hope of obtaining face-imprints in it. The alcove
also contained a tin trumpet, writing-paper, and a sealed envelope
containing a sheet of white paper, to see if we could not get _direct
writing_ on it.

The gentlemen inspected the alcove with extreme care, in order to
assure themselves that there was nothing there of a fixed-up,
suspicious nature.

Mme. Paladino sat down at the table, a little less than two feet from
the alcove curtains, turning her back to them. Then, at her request,
she had her body and her feet tied to her chair by means of cloth
bands. This was effected by three members of the company, who left
only her arms free. That done, places were taken at the table in the
following order: on the left of Mme. Eusapia, M. Lombroso; then, in
succession, M. Vizioli, myself, the nephew of M. Lombroso, MM. Gigli,
Limoncelli, Tamburini; finally, Dr. Penta, who completed the circle
and sat at the right of the medium.

MM. Ascensi and Bianchi refused to form part of the circle, and
remained standing behind MM. Tamburini and Penta. I paid little
attention to these two, being certain that their action was a
premeditated combination in order to redouble the vigilance. I simply
recommended that, while they were observing with extreme care, each
should remain quiet.

The experiments began in candlelight strong enough to light up the
whole room. After a long wait the table began to move, slowly at
first, then more energetically. However, the movements remained
intermittent, labored, and much less vigorous than at Saturday's
seance.

The table volunteered a request by taps of its leg designating the
letters of the alphabet, that MM. Limoncelli and Penta should exchange
places. This exchange effected, the table called for the turning out
of lights.

A moment after, and with more force this time, the movements of the
table began again. Suddenly, in the midst of these, violent blows were
heard. The chair placed at M. Lombroso's right tried to climb up on
the table, then hung suspended upon the arm of the learned professor.
All of a sudden the curtains of the alcove were shaken, and swung
forward over the table in such a way as to envelop M. Lombroso, who
was very much moved by such a wonder, as he himself has declared.

All these phenomena, happening at long intervals, in the darkness, and
in the midst of noisy conversation, were not estimated at their true
worth. It was thought that they were only the effects of chance or
were jests of some member of the company.

While we are all waiting and discussing the import of the phenomena
and the greater or less value that should be set on them, the noise of
the fall of an object is heard. When the room is lighted, there is
found at our feet under the table the trumpet which had been placed on
the round table in the alcove behind the curtains. This circumstance,
which MM. Bianchi and Ascensi receive with a burst of laughter,
surprises the experimenters, and has the effect of more completely
fixing their attention.

The room is darkened again, and, by urgent request some fugitive
glimmers of light are seen to appear and disappear at long intervals.
This phenomenon impressed MM. Bianchi and Ascensi, and put an end to
their incessant railleries, so much so that they came and formed a
part of the circle. At the moment of the appearance of the gleams, and
even some time after they had ceased to show themselves, MM.
Limoncelli and Tamburini, at the right of the medium, said that they
were touched in several places by a hand. M. Lombroso's young nephew,
absolutely sceptical, who had taken a seat by the side of M.
Limoncelli, declared that he felt the touch of a flesh-and-blood hand,
and asked with some impetuosity who did that. He forgot--being not
only sceptical, but artless--that, like himself, all the persons
present were helping to form the chain of hands and were in mutual
contact.

It was getting late, and the lack of homogeneity in the circle was
abridging the phenomena. Under these conditions I thought I ought to
end the seance and cause the candles to be lighted.

When MM. Limoncelli and Vizioli were taking leave, the medium being
still seated and bound, and all of us were standing around the table
conversing about the luminous phenomena, and comparing the scattered
and feeble effects obtained in this soiree with those of the Saturday
preceding, and seeking the reason for this difference, we heard noise
in the alcove, and saw the portieres which enclosed it vigorously
shaken, and the round table which was behind them slowly advancing
toward Mme. Paladino, still seated and bound.

On seeing this strange, unexpected phenomena occur in full light, we
were all stupefied with amazement. M. Bianchi and M. Lombroso's nephew
dashed into the alcove, under the impression that some person
concealed there was producing the movement of the portieres and the
round table. Their astonishment was unbounded when they ascertained
that there was no one there, and that, under their very eyes, the
table continued to glide over the floor in the direction of the
medium. That is not all. Professor Lombroso observed that, while the
table was in movement, the salver on it had been turned upside down
without a single particle of the flour which it contained being
spilled; and he added that no prestidigitator would have been able to
accomplish such a feat. In the presence of these phenomena taking
place as they did, after the breaking up of the circle, in such a way
as to eliminate the hypothesis of a magnetic current, Professor
Bianchi, in obedience to the love of truth, confessed that it was he
who, for the sake of a joke, had contrived and brought about the fall
of the tin trumpet, but that in the presence of such achievements as
this he could no longer be sceptical, and was going to apply himself
to the study of them in order to investigate their causes.

Professor Lombroso complained of the trick, and said to M. Bianchi
that, as between professors met in order to make scientific studies
and researches in common, mystifying pranks like this could not but
cast a slur upon the respect due to science.

Professor Lombroso, who was a prey both to doubt and to ideas of his
own which tormented his mind, made an engagement to be present at
further meetings on his return to Naples in the following summer.

M. Ciolfi, having sent these two reports to M. Lombroso, the eminent professor of Turin confirmed their accuracy in the following letter, dated June 25, 1891:--

_Dear Sir_,--The two reports that you have sent me are of the utmost
accuracy. I add that, before we had seen the salver turned over, the
medium had announced that she would sprinkle the faces of those who
sat by her with flour; and everything leads to the belief that such
was her intention, but that she was not able to realize it,--a new
proof, to my mind, of her perfect honesty, especially considering her
semi-unconsciousness.

I am filled with confusion and regret that I combated with so much
persistence the possibility of the facts called Spiritualistic. I say
facts, because I am still opposed to the theory.

Please give my greetings to M. E. Chiaia, and, if it is possible, get
M. Albini to examine the visual field and the inner recesses of the
eye of the medium, about which I desire to inform myself.

Yours very truly,
C. LOMBROSO.

M. Lombroso soon after published his experiences and reflections, in an article in the _Annales des sciences psychiques_ (1892) which ends thus:

None of these facts, (which we must admit, because no one can deny
things which he has seen) is of such a nature as to lead us to form
for their explanation an hypothesis of a world different from that
admitted by the neuro-pathologists.

Above all, we must not forget that Mme. Eusapia is a neuropath; that
in her childhood she received a blow on the left parietal bone, which
produced a hole so deep that you could put your finger in it; that she
remained subject to attacks of epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria,
which take place especially during the seance phenomena; and that,
finally, she has a remarkable obtuseness of touch.

Well, I do not see anything inadmissible in this,--that in the case of
hypnotic and hysterical persons the excitation of certain centres,
which become powerful by the paralysis of all the others and then
provoke a transposition and a transmission of physical forces, may
also produce a transformation in luminous force or in motive force.
Thus we understand how the force in a medium which I shall call
cortical or cerebral may, for example, lift the table, pull somebody's
beard, hit him, caress him, etc.

During the transposition of senses due to hypnotism,--when, for
example, the nose and the chin _see_ (and that is a fact which I
observed with my own eyes), and when for some moments all the other
senses are paralyzed, the cortical centre of vision, which has its
seat in the brain, acquires such an energy that it supersedes the eye.
It is this which we have been able to prove, Ottolenghi and I, in the
case of three hypnotized persons, by making use of the lens and of the
prism.

The phenomena observed would be explained, according to this theory, by a _transformation_ of the powers of the medium. Let us continue our account of the experiments.

Taking into consideration the testimony of Professor Lombroso, several savants--including MM. Schiaparelli, director of the observatory at Milan; Gerosa, professor of physics; Ermacora, doctor of natural philosophy; Aksakof, councillor of state to the Emperor of Russia; Charles du Prel, doctor of philosophy in Munich; Dr. Richet, of Paris, and Professor Buffern--met in October, 1892, in the apartment of M. Finzi, at Milan, to renew these experiments. M. Lombroso was present at several of the soirees. There were seventeen in all.

The experimenters present signed the following long declaration:

The results obtained did not always come up to our expectations. Not
that we did not secure a large number of facts apparently or really
important and marvellous; but, in the greater number of cases, we were
not able to apply the rules of experimental science which, in other
fields of observation, are regarded as indispensable in order to
arrive at certain and incontestable results. The most important of
these rules consists in changing, one after the other, the methods of
experiment, in such a way as to bring out the true cause, or at least
the true conditions of all the events. Now it is precisely from this
point of view that our experiments seem to us still incomplete.

It is very true that the medium, to prove her good faith, often
voluntarily proposed to change some feature of one or the other
experiment, and frequently herself took the initiative in these
changes. But this applied only to things that were apparently
indifferent, according to our way of seeing. On the contrary; the
changes which seemed to us necessary to put the true character of the
results beyond doubt, either were not accepted as possible or ended in
uncertain results.

We do not believe we have the right to explain these things by the aid
of insulting assumptions, which many still find to be the simplest
explanation, and of which some journals have made themselves
champions. We think, on the contrary, that these experiments are
concerned with phenomena of an unknown nature, and we confess that we
do not know what the conditions are that are required to produce them.
To desire to fix these conditions in our own right and out of our own
head would be as extravagant as to presume to make the experiment of
Torricelli's barometer with a tube closed at the bottom, or to make
electrostatic experiments in an atmosphere saturated with humidity, or
to take a photograph by exposing the sensitive plate in full light
before placing it in the camera. However, it is a fact that the
impossibility of varying the experiments in our own way has diminished
the worth and the interest of the results obtained, by depriving them
of that rigorous demonstration which we are right in demanding in
cases of this kind, or, rather, to which we ought to aspire.

The following are the principal phenomena observed.

_Levitation of One Side of the Table_

We agreed to have the medium sit alone at the table, in full light,
her two hands placed on its upper surface and her sleeves drawn back
to the elbows.

We remained standing about her, and the space above and under the
table was well lighted. Under these conditions the table rose at an
angle of twenty to forty degrees, and so remained for some minutes,
while the medium was holding her legs stretched out and striking her
feet one against the other. When we pressed with the hand upon the
lifted side of the table, we experienced a considerable elastic
resistance.

The table was suspended by one of its ends to a dynamometer which was
coupled to a cord: this cord was tied to a small beam supported upon
two wardrobes.

Under these conditions, the end of the table having been lifted six
and a half inches, the dynamometer showed seventy-seven pounds. The
medium sat at the same narrow end of the table, with her hands
_wholly_ on the table, to the right and the left of the point where
the dynamometer was attached. Our hands formed the chain upon the
table, without pressure: they would not have been able in any case to
do more than _increase_ the pressure brought to bear on the table. On
the contrary, the desire was expressed that the pressure should
diminish, and soon the table began to rise on the side of the
dynamometer. M. Gerosa, who was following the marks on the apparatus,
announced this diminution, expressed by the successive figures 7-1/2,
4-1/2, 2-1/2, 0 (pounds). At the last the levitation was such that the
dynamometer rested horizontally on the table.

Then we changed the conditions by putting our hands under the table.
The medium, especially, put hers, not under the edge, where it might
have touched the vertical border-board and exercised a push downwards,
but _under the rail that unites the feet_, and touched this, not with
the palm, but _with the back of the hand_. Thus all the hands together
could only have diminished the traction upon the dynamometer. Upon the
desire being expressed to see this traction augment, it increased from
7-1/2 pounds to 13 pounds. During all these experiments each of the
medium's feet rested under the foot of her nearest neighbor to right
or left.

_Complete Levitation of the Table._

It was natural to conclude that if the table, in apparent
contradiction to the law of gravity, was able to rise partly, it would
be able to rise entirely from the floor. As a matter of fact, this is
what happened. _This levitation, one of the most frequent phenomena
that occur in the experiments with Eusapia, stood a most satisfactory
examination._

The phenomenon always materialized under the following conditions: the
persons seated about the table place their hands on it, and form the
chain; each hand of the medium is held by the adjacent hand of her two
neighbors; each of her feet remains under the feet of her neighbor,
who also press her knees with theirs. She is seated, as usual, at one
of the small ends of the table, _a position least favorable for a
mechanical levitation_. At the end of several minutes the table makes
a side movement, rises first to the right, then to the left, and
finally mounts off of its four feet straight into the air, and lies
there horizontally (as if it were floating on a liquid), ordinarily at
a height of from 4 to 8 inches (in exceptional cases from 24 to 27
inches); then falls back and rests on its four feet. It frequently
remains in the air for several seconds, and while there also makes
undulatory motions, during which the position of the feet under the
table can be thoroughly examined. During the levitation the right hand
of the medium often leaves the table, as well as that of her neighbor,
and is held in the air above.

In order the better to observe this thing, we removed one by one the
persons placed at the table, recognizing the truth that the chain
formed by several persons was neither necessary for this phenomenon
nor for others. Finally, we left only a single person with the medium,
seated at her left. This person placed her foot upon Eusapia's two
feet and one hand upon her knees, and held with her other hand the
left hand of the medium. Eusapia's right hand was on the table, in
full view,--though sometimes she held it in the air during the
levitation.

As the table remained in the air for several seconds, it was possible
to obtain several photographs of the performance. Three pieces of
photographic apparatus were working together in different parts of the
room, and the illumination was furnished by a magnesium light at the
opportune moment. Twenty photographs were obtained, some of which are
excellent. Upon one of them (Pl. VIII) we see Professor Richet, who
holds one hand, the knees, and a foot of the medium. The other hand of
the latter is held by Professor Lombroso. The table is shown
horizontally lifted,--a fact proved by the interval between the
extremity of each foot and the extremity of the corresponding
projected shadow.

In all the experiments which precede, we gave our attention
principally to a careful inspection of the position of the hands and
the feet of the medium; and, in this respect, _we believe we can say
that they were safe from all criticism_. Still, a scrupulous sincerity
compels us to mention the fact to which we did not begin to call
attention before the evening of October 5, but which probably must
have occurred also in the preceding experiments. It consists in this,
that the four feet of the table could not be considered as perfectly
isolated during the levitation, because one of them at least was in
contact with the lower edge of the medium's dress.

On this evening it was remarked that a little before the levitation,
Eusapia's skirt was inflated on the left side until it touched the
foot of the nearest table. One of us having been charged with the duty
of hindering this contact, the table was unable to rise as before, and
it only did rise when the observer intentionally permitted the contact
to take place. This is shown in the photographs taken during this
experiment, and also in those in which the table-foot in question is
visible (after a fashion) at its lower extremity. The reader will see
that at the same time the medium had her hand placed upon the upper
surface of the table, and on the same side, in such a way that this
table-foot was under her influence, as much in its lower portion, by
means of the dress, as in the upper portion, by means of the hand.

Now in what way is it possible for the contact of a light dress-stuff
with the lower extremity of the foot of a table to assist in the
levitation? That is something we do not know. The hypothesis that the
dress may conceal a solid support, skilfully introduced, which may
serve as a temporary support for the foot of the table, is a very poor
one.

In fact, to keep the whole table resting on this one foot through the
influence that a single hand could produce upon the upper surface of
the table would require that the hand exercise upon the table a very
strong pressure, one that we cannot suppose Eusapia capable of, even
during three or four seconds.

We convinced ourselves of this by ourselves making proof of it with
the same table.[33]

_Movements of Objects at a Distance, without Contact with Any of the
Persons Present_

1. Spontaneous movements of objects.

These phenomena were observed several times during our seances. It
often happened that a chair, placed for this purpose not far from the
table, between the medium and one of her neighbors, began to move
about, and sometimes came up to the table. A remarkable instance
occurred in the second seance, everything being _all the time in full
light_. A heavy chair, weighing twenty-two pounds, which stood a yard
from the table and behind the medium, came up to M. Schiaparelli, who
was seated next the medium. He rose to put it back in its place; but
scarcely was he seated when the chair advanced a second time toward
him.

2. Movement of the table without contact.

It was desirable to obtain this phenomenon as a matter of experiment.
For that purpose, the table being placed upon casters, the feet of the
medium were watched, as has been said, and all of the sitters formed
the chain with their hands, including those of the medium. When the
table began to move, we all lifted our hands, without breaking the
chain, and the table thus isolated made several movements. This
experiment was several times renewed.

_The Fetching of Different Objects, the Hands of the Medium Being tied
to those of her Neighbors._

In order to assure ourselves that we were not the victims of a trick,
we tied the hands of the medium by a string to those of her two
neighbors, in such a way that the movements of the four hands would
reciprocally control each other. The length of the cord between the
hands of the medium was from eight to twelve inches, and between each
one of her hands and the hands of her neighbors four inches. This
distance of space was purposely arranged in order that the hands of
the neighboring persons might, in addition, readily hold those of the
medium during the convulsive movements which usually agitate her.

The tying was done in the following way: we took three turns of the
string around each wrist of the medium, without leaving any slack, but
drawn so tightly as almost to give her pain,[34] and then we tied two
simple knots. This was done in order that, if by any artifice the
hand was able to release itself from the string, the three turns would
work against it and the hand could not get back again under the string
as it was before.

A little bell was placed upon a chair behind her. The chain was
formed, and her hands as well as her feet were held as usual. The room
was darkened in answer to the request that the little bell should at
once sound, after which we were to untie the medium. _Immediately_ we
heard the chair move, describe a curve upon the floor, approach the
table, and presently place itself upon it. The bell rang, then was
thrown upon the table. The light having been at once turned on, we
ascertained that the knots of the string were in perfect order. It is
clear that the fetching on of the chair was not produced by the action
of the hands of the medium.

_Impressions of Fingers obtained on Smoked Paper._

In order to decide if we had to do with a human hand ... or with any
other way of dealing, we fixed a sheet of paper, blackened with the
smoke of a lamp, upon the table, on the side opposite that of the
medium, and expressed a wish that the hand would leave an impression
on it, that the hand of the medium should remain unsoiled, and that
the lampblack be transferred to the hands of one of us. The hands of
the medium were held by those of MM. Schiaparelli and Du Prel. The
chain was made in the darkness, then we heard a hand lightly tap upon
the table, and presently M. Du Prel announced that his left hand,
which he held on the right hand of M. Finzi, had had the sensation of
fingers rubbing it. As soon as the room was lighted, we found upon the
paper several imprints of fingers, and the back of M. Du Prel's hand
was covered with lampblack; _but the hands of the medium, examined
then and there, had no trace of it_. This experience was repeated
three times. When we insisted upon having a complete impression, we
obtained five fingers upon a second sheet of paper, and upon a third
the impression of almost an entire left hand. After that the back of
M. Du Prel's hand was completely blackened, the hands of the medium
remaining perfectly clean.

_Apparition of Hands upon a Dimly Lighted Background_

We placed upon the table a large cardboard covered with a
phosphorescent substance (sulphide of calcium), and we placed other
pieces of cardboard upon chairs in different parts of the chamber.
Under such conditions we saw very plainly the outline of a hand
imposed on the cardboard of the table. Upon the background formed by
the other pieces we saw the shadow of the hand pass and repass around
us.

On the evening of September 21 one of us several times saw the image,
not of one, but of _two hands at once_, thrown upon the glass panes of
a feebly illuminated window (outside it was night, but the darkness
was not complete). These hands exhibited a rapid tremulous motion, but
not so rapid as to hinder us from seeing the outline clearly. They
were wholly opaque and were thrown upon the window as absolutely black
silhouettes.

This simultaneous appearance of two hands is _very significant_, for
they cannot be explained on the hypothesis of a trick of the medium,
who would not have been able in any way to free more than one of her
hands, owing to the surveillance of those who sat beside her. The same
conclusion applies to the clapping of two hands, one against the
other, which was several times heard in the air.

_The Levitation of the Medium to the Top of the Table_

We regard this levitation as among the most important and most
significant of Spiritualistic achievements. It took place twice, on
September 28 and October 3. The medium was seated at one end of the
table, uttering deep groans, and was lifted up with her chair and
placed upon the table, not moving from her position, those next her
still holding her hands as she rose.

On the evening of September 28, while her two hands were held by MM.
Richet and Lombroso, the medium complained of their grasping her under
the arm. Then, in a state of trance she said, with the changed voice
which she usually has while in this state, "Now I bring up my medium
upon the table." At the end of two or three seconds the chair, with
the medium seated in it, was not thrown, but lifted with precaution
and placed upon the table. MM. Richet and Lombroso are sure they did
not assist her in this ascension. After she had spoken, being all the
time in a state of trance, the medium announced her descent, and (M.
Finzi being substituted for M. Lombroso) was placed upon the floor
with care and precision, MM. Richet and Finzi following her movements
without at all assisting them.

Moreover, during the descent, both gentlemen felt a hand touching them
lightly several times upon the head. On the evening of October 3 the
same phenomenon was repeated in similar circumstances.

_Touchings_