Throughout the whole of these experiments we are left in the most glorious uncertainty as to time: we have not the faintest idea given us how long the experiments lasted, how long the accordion was playing its music, how long it contravened the laws of gravity, and floated about in the air of a cage placed under a dining-room table. The greatest obscurity is thrown over all, and yet we are gravely told this is a "scientific and crucial experiment"! Supposing now for the moment (and this is pure supposition only), that Mr. Home were capable of trickery, and that Mr. Crookes and Dr. Huggins were capable of being deceived; and suppose that a thin wire or thread was hooked on to each end of the accordion, and that a concealed and prepared musical box or other instrument was played, what is there in these experiments unaccounted for? * But we immediately banish these base suppositions from our mind, for we are recalled to a sense of our errors by 'remembering that we are writing as if trickery and deception were possible in the presence of two Fellows of the Royal Society, gravely engaged in "a scientific investigation of a new force."

Probably by this time our readers have had enough of experiment No. 1; let us now turn to experiment No. 2, which is of an entirely different kind, and one designed, as we are informed, to test Mr. Home's powers of causing "alteration in the weight of bodies," a power which Mr. Crookes states is "most striking, and most easily tested with scientific accuracy." With him here we most cordially agree, so long as the proper apparatus is used; but not under the conditions which Mr. Crookes considered sufficient. The apparatus which he employed was as follows:-"It consisted of a mahogany board 36 in. long by 9 in. wide and 1 in. thick. At each end a strip of mahogany 1 in. wide was screwed on, forming feet. One end of the board rested on a firm table, whilst the other end was supported by a spring balance hanging from a substantial tripod stand. The balance was fitted with a self-registering index, in such a manner that it would record the maximum weight indicated by the pointer. The apparatus was adjusted so that the mahogany board was horizontal, its foot resting flat on the support; and in this position its weight was 3 lbs., as marked by the pointer of the balance." On Mr. Home placing his fingers lightly on the extreme end of this board, the pointer of the balance descended, and after a few seconds it rose again, and this movement was repeated.several times, "as if by successive waves of the Psychic Force"! At the end of these experiments, the pointer had marked a maximum fall of 6 lbs.

* We would note that it is always an accordion that is played at these séances, never a concertina or any other instrument.

Mr. Home exerted his pressure at a distance not more than 1 inches from the extreme end; and since the wooden foot was 1 inches wide and rested flat upon the table, Mr. Crookes shows, and shows rightly, that no amount of pressure within that space could produce any action on the balance. The whole value of this experiment turns upon one fact, the utter immovability of the table itself; and, as we might have anticipated, this is the one precaution not attended to. The slightest examination of the apparatus will show that if the table moved in any so slight a degree, the index of the balance must descend, and successive movements of the table would produce exactly the same effect as "the successive waves of the Psychic Force.' We leave it to our readers to imagine which would be the easiest way to account for the results produced, and especially when they recollect how the mere touch of Mr. Home's hand caused so much motion in the accordion, and then think how the table might have to suffer in the same

manner.

Mr. Crookes takes credit to himself for having given “a plain unvarnished account" of his experiments, and we have but faithfully quoted him. It is a true maxim, "The greater the pretensions, the greater the failure," and a more lamentable exhibition of misdirected energies it has never been our lot to read of. But, worst of all, by far the most damaging fact throughout is to publish it to the world that these are samples of scientific experiments. These-in which every minute detail, and all obvious precautions, are neglected, where caution should be the rule and is the exception-where the greatest possible care should have been shown, but where all is most careless and most untrustworthy-are such experiments to be called scientific, because, forsooth, an F.R.S. is the investigator?

And then, again, the conclusion of this remarkable account, the maudlin complaints that real men of science had neglected this question, had refused to entertain it, and would not consent to act on committees to investigate it-what is all this but the repetition of what we have so often heard and always know to be untrue. Mr. Crookes was solicited to repeat his experiments, or any one of them, at the last meeting of the British Association at Edinburgh, and Professor Stokes even went so far as to propose the appointment of a committee of Section A; but as usual, of course, nothing came of it-the subject was wisely dropped. Some experiments, like some stories, won't bear too much investigation. What was the result of the St. Petersburg committee of six scientific men appointed to investigate Mr. Home's spiritualistic pretensions? To Mr. Crookes the explanation of the failure, he says, " appears quite simple," "Mr. Home's power is very variable and at times entirely

absent; ""when the Russian experiment was tried it was at a minimum," and so on. The real facts of the case will, we think, form a fitting commentary on the experiments we have been criticising, and will also show how far Mr. Crookes is entitled to be considered an impartial scientific investigator. We quote from the "Russian Academical Gazette." "A glass table was employed, on which stood a lamp with a reflector, so that the ground underneath the table was brilliantly illuminated and the slightest movements made by Mr. Home could be observed. When the séance had begun, Mr. Home announced that he began to feel the presence of spirits, and that these were manifesting themselves by the fluctuations of the flame of a taper standing on the table. To this it was replied that these fluctuations were produced not by spirits but by the ventilator; in fact, when this was shut, the fluctuations ceased. He then said the quick throbbing of his pulse showed the presence of spirits, but one of the committee proved that this was only due to excitement and fatigue, since his pulse beat as fast as Mr. Home's. After these two failures the medium gave up the experiment with the table and proposed to alter the weight of some object. A common bucket was then placed on a weighing machine. The company waited long and in vain; no change of weight occurred. When, finally, the séance broke up, and nothing whatever had been accomplished, Mr. Home promised to repeat the experiment; but next day he gave out that he was indisposed and therefore unable to keep his engagement." Surely it required no F.R.S. to tell us that on this occasion Mr. Home's power was at a minimum; most candid readers would confess he had none at all.

And now, finally, a word in conclusion. Until Mr. Home and his friends and allies Mr. Crookes and Dr. Huggins and "the well-known serjeant-at-law," Serjeant Cox, whose scientific aspirations have led him to play the part of the Chorus in a Greek play-until these gentlemen will submit their mystic forces, whether spiritual or "psychic," to a most searching and public scientific examination, they cannot hope to meet with any credit, either for honesty of belief or for scientific accuracy. Truth ever is and ever should be above suspicion; it may lie at the bottom of a well, but we are sadly mistaken if it does at the bottom of a wire-work cage. And when we say that we much prefer everything above-board, we certainly make no exception when that board is a dining-room table.

366

THE MOSS WORLD.

BY R. BRAITHWAITE, M.D., F.L.S.

[PLATE LXXVII.]

"Muscus in parietes hærens, contemptim a multis adspicitur, at iis, qui ad examen structuræ et virium descendunt, infinitæ admirationis occasionem præbet."-HEINZIUS.

OST active students of British Botany arrive at a period

when having mastered the flowering plants and ferns, they look round for some new field for investigation, in doubt which to "take up" of the four great groups of cellular plants still remaining, the Mosses, Lichens, Algæor Fungi; each a world within itself, and offering material sufficient to occupy the longest life. Be it our task on the present occasion to say a few words on the first of these, and thus haply open out a new store of enjoyment to some who, hitherto, have not directed attention to them.

By the ancients, as by the unlearned of the present day, mosses were but little regarded, few species were distinguished, and with them were confounded various lichens and algæ. Now, however, that the microscope is in such general use, there can be little difficulty in referring any cryptogamous plants to their proper class, and none has its characters better defined than that of mosses. The first publication which brought them specially into notice was the "Historica Muscorum" of Dillenius, published at Oxford in 1741, in which the species are carefully figured, with enlarged outlines of the leaves; then came (1778-94) the various works of John Hedwig, in which were made known the whole process of their reproduction and their anatomy, and thus Bryology was established on a sound basis; following him came Bridel, Schwaegrichen, Hooker, and a host of other writers down to C. Muller, Wilson, Schimper, Lindberg, and Mitten of our own time, by whose publications the study has gradually been perfected.

The moss world, however, includes among its citizens forms so diverse in habit and structure, that three great groups are at once recognisable.

1. BRYINE, the frondose or true mosses, embracing probably