it tightly, and as he does so, asking the owner of the arm to note that this is his left hand, then let the experimenter, without relaxing this hold, stretch the remaining fingers and thumb up the arm as far as he can, and while clasping it with his thumb and forefinger, remark that this second pressure comes from his other hand.  The conviction is complete in the mind of the blindfolded friend that he feels the grasp of two hands, whereas only the left hand of the experimenter has grasped his arm, and the right hand is free to beat a drum or play a zither.  After this test, which is patent to all, we can dismiss the theory of a Spiritual origin of the hand behind Mr. Keeler’s screen.  To forestall the discovery by Mr. Keeler’s companion of this trick, and to prevent its detection by simply feeling with his free right hand after the suppositious hands of the Medium, which are grasping his left forearm, a second visitor is requested to share the discomfort of the muslin envelope, and to sit on the right of the first visitor and to hold the latter’s truant right hand with his left hand, while his right is exposed to view outside the curtain.  Again we refer to the Appendix for the minutes of our meeting.

We had a seance also with Messrs. Rothermel and Powell, of whom the former is the Medium, the latter, acting mainly as a reservoir of psychic force, guides and directs the seance.  In this case the Medium’s Spiritual manifestations, as well as his material arrangements, are similar to those of Mr. Keeler, except that instead of having a visitor whose arm may be grasped, Mr. Rothermel’s hands are fastened in his lap by bands of tape passed around his legs and sewed to his clothes.  After the black curtain had hid the hands from our sight we were not again allowed to examine them except in the most hurried and superficial way, but, even in the brief inspection which was permitted, a glance was sufficient to show that the tape had been tampered with.  The close of the seance was announced by the sound of clipping scissors, and by Mr. Rothermel’s exclamation, while still concealed, that the Spirits were cutting him loose.  We had no means of knowing whether the tape was cut at the beginning of the seance or not.  When the muslin envelope was removed, Mr. Rothermel’s hands were certainly free.  The bands were cut, and we had no difficulty in believing that the hands which were dexterous enough to play the zither with very remarkable skill, under such conditions, behind the curtain, were deft enough to sever the cords.

Our seances with Mrs. Maud E. Lord were acknowledged by the Medium herself to be altogether unsatisfactory.  This is much to be regretted.  Mrs. Lord is one of the few professional Mediums whose excellence is acknowledged by all Spiritualists alike, and who, in her attitude towards the Commission, displayed every desire to aid a full and complete investigation into the manifestations peculiar to her Mediumship, and furthermore, without remuneration.