(Mr. Sellers here paused to make the following verbal explanation): 

I pause here for the express purpose of having the fact noted that, being thoroughly familiar with the details of the methods of these experiments, I can positively assure the Committee that there is no Mediumistic power in Mr. Kellar, so far as his methods are concerned, that those methods are as easy of solution as are any other physical problems.

(Resuming, from notes): 

The inquiry was then addressed to Dr. Slade, ’Do you know a man named Guernella who, with his wife, gave seances?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ’I know him very well.’  ’Well, how does he perform his wonderful exploits in rappings, etc.?’ ’He is a Medium, a powerful Medium.  I know him very well indeed.  I can assure you that all that he does is done solely by means of his Mediumistic powers.’

I now state to the Committee that the Guernellas exhibited in Philadelphia some years ago as exposers of Spiritualism.  They did not expose it, but they performed experiments which, prior to that time, were said to have been accomplished by the aid of Spirits.  Guernella himself, at my house, in my presence, in broad daylight, performed all the feats and exhibited the phenomena that were produced at the dark and other seances, and he repeated them until I myself became as expert as he in performing them; for which I paid him a consideration.  So much for the Mediumistic power.

(Resuming, from notes): 

Before the close of this last seance, a letter was read to Dr. Slade by Mr. Furness, to which the Medium was requested to make reply at his convenience; the object was to preserve evidence of the fact that the Medium had stated that all the seances must be held under his conditions—­that if the Committee deviated in the slightest degree from the conditions imposed by him (Dr. Slade) he would ’pack up his traps and clear out.’ [The letter and reply will be found annexed to this Record.]

At the end of this seance, the sum agreed upon, three hundred dollars, was paid to the Medium in three one-hundred-dollar bills.  He was asked to sign a receipt for that amount, but his nervousness was such as to make this a task of some difficulty.  He made many attempts to grasp the pen presented to him, but his hand shrank from it.  At last, by a violent effort, and conquering the emotions that overcame him, the Medium grasped the pen and wrote the receipt.  The extreme trepidation of Dr. Slade was possibly due to the unexpected displacement of two covered slates which he had left standing on the floor, resting against the leg of the small table at his back, and which Mr. Furness had overturned with his foot, the result being that at least two of the members of the Committee were apprised, by the quantity of writing on one of the slates, that it was ready for immediate use.

Mr. Sellers (aside):  I saw the writing on the slates.  It had manifestly been prepared for use by the Medium, and up to the moment of its discovery had been carefully kept completely covered.