Mr. Sellers verbally made the following addition to his minutes: 

The response to the question propounded by Professor Thompson was attended with more than ordinary delay.  Upon hearing the response, viz.:  ‘We can do so if the conditions are favorable,’ Professor Thompson remarked that this did not answer the question at all.

Professor Thompson:  I made that statement in regard to both of the responses.

Mr. Sellers:  The statement, then, was, that neither of the responses answered the question.  Whereupon the Medium at once obliterated the question from the slate, and remarked, ’Well, that is the best they can do,’ or something of that kind, or, ‘They cannot understand that.’  The fact was that the Medium did not understand the question himself, as it was purposely a somewhat involved question.

Professor Thompson:  The fact appears to have been demonstrated that the Medium seemed to have no difficulty in catching the purport of questions of simple construction at a glance, and that a question of more than average length, which he could not perceive the sense of, or which was somewhat misleading in its terms, was not answered intelligently.

Professor Thompson here further explained that, when writing the question spoken of, he concealed his hand from the observation of the Medium.  Mr. Sellers here imitated the motions of the body of the Medium and the position of his hands at the time—­the left resting on the table, and the right hand beneath the table, near the slate—­after which the writing was displayed.

Mr. Sellers next presented the minutes of the meeting of January 24th, as follows: 

The Committee met on January 24th, 1885, at the Girard House, Philadelphia, in Room 24.

There were present:  Dr. Leidy, Mr. H.H.  Furness and Mr. Coleman Sellers, with the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade.  Dr. Leidy occupied the position previously held by Professor Thompson, to the right of the Medium; Messrs. Sellers and Furness were seated as at the former sittings.

Slates were produced and held as at the previous seances.  Upon one slate the following interrogatories and responses were recorded: 

‘Spirits, are you ready to work?’ Answer:  ‘Soon,’

‘Will you write for the gentlemen?’ Answer:  ‘We are trying to do so.’

At this point the Medium substituted another slate for the one which he had held in his hand, and almost immediately thereafter, upon the new slate being placed under the table, the sound of writing began and was carried on with little interruption.  The writing continued for a very long time, during which the Medium, removing his hand from the hands of the other gentlemen, said, ’You see that if I take my hand away from the circle and thus break the circle, the sound of the writing ceases; if I place my hand back again, the writing is repeated.’  The sound of the writing, which had been temporarily suspended, recommenced when the hand of the Medium returned to its former position.  The Medium further stated, by way of qualifying his statement on this point, ’If I do not jerk it away I can raise my hand a little.’  He illustrated his meaning by slightly elevating his hand and withdrawing it from the other hands, at the same time calling attention to the fact that the sounds of the writing on the slate were continued.