The Veil Lifted

The publication in the British Journal of Photography of Mr. Taylor’s Paper, with the proceedings of the meeting at which it was read, has aroused a wide-spread and deep interest in the subject. The principal portions of it, and, in some instances the whole of the Paper, together with editorial comments, have subsequently appeared in newspapers and journals in Canada, Australia, India, America, and other countries. As his experiments will be a matter of historical interest, many scientific men will be pleased to have his Paper in this book form, with the reproductions of two of the psychic pictures which he obtained on his photographic plates.

The term “spirit photographs” is generally used to describe photographs of psychic entities who cannot be seen by ordinary persons, but can be photographed by a medium, or with the help of a medium, and with the co-operation of these unseen entities. Such portraits are obtained both indoors and in the open air, with and without a background, by natural light and by artificial light; and, in the case of “materialised” forms at séances, which are visible to every person present, the portraits have sometimes been taken by light produced by the spirits, the exact nature of which is unknown.

The following may serve as a rough classification of what are called spirit photographs:—

1. Portraits of psychical entities not seen by normal vision.

2. Pictures of objects not seen nor thought of by the sitter or by the medium or operator; such as flowers, words, crosses, crowns, lights, and various emblematic objects.

3. Pictures which have the appearance of being copied from statues, paintings, or drawings. Sometimes these are busts or heads only. The flatness in some photographs of this class is supposed, by persons who have not investigated the subject, to be proof that the photographs are produced in a fraudulent manner.

4. Pictures of what are called materialised forms visible to normal sight.

5. Pictures of the “wraith” or “double” of persons still in the body.

6. Portraits on plates which developers have failed to bring into view, but that can be seen and described by clairvoyants and by mediums when in trance and whose descriptions agree, though made independently.

There are, also, portraits that cannot be classed as photographs, as they have not been taken by the agency of a camera, or by exposing the prepared plate previous to development of the image.

Those who desire further information than is contained in this volume on the subject of spirit photography should read the following:—

A series of important articles by the late Mr. Stainton Moses (M.A. Oxon), in Human Nature, Vols. VIII. and IX., 1874-75. The volumes may be had on loan from the Library of the Spiritual Institution, 15 Southampton Row, W.C., or from the Library of the Spiritual Alliance, 2 Duke Street, Charing Cross. The subscription to either Library is a guinea a year.

Article on “Ghosts and their Photographs,” by the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A., in the Fortnightly Review, January, 1893.

Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye. By Miss Houghton. Illustrated by six plates, containing fifty-four miniature reproductions from the original photographs. E. W. Allen, Ave Maria Lane, 1882. Sold also by Jas. Burns, 15 Southampton Row, W.C. Price 10s. 6d.

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	PAGE
Preface	v
Introduction	1
What led to the recent Experiments in Psychic Photography	1
Testimony relating to David Duguid	3
“Spirit Photography,” with Remarks on Fluorescence. By J. Traill Taylor	9
Origin of “Spirit” Photography	10
Some Investigators of the Subject	11
Photographing the Invisible	15
Fluorescence	17
A Lady’s Joke	20
Some Personal Experiments	23
How the Psychic Figures Behaved	31
The Stereoscopic Camera in Use	33
Remarks by Members and Visitors	37
Portrait obtained without Exposure in Camera	49
Press Notices of Mr. Taylor’s Paper:—
From the “Practical Photographer,” April, 1893	53
From the “Review of Reviews,” April, 1893	57
From “The Morning” (Daily Newspaper), April 4th, 1893	59
From the “Medium and Daybreak,” March 24th, 1893	60
From “Light,” March 18th, 1893	63
From “Light,” March 25th, 1893	64
From “Light,” May 6th, 1893	67
From the “Two Worlds,” March 24th, 1893	69
Ghosts and Their Photographs. By the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A.	71
“Will you Show me the Ghost?”	73
“Authentic” Ghost Photographs	76
The late Editor of “Light”	78
Spirit Photography. By Jas. Robertson, Glasgow	85
His Opportunities for Observation	89
David Duguid prevailed on to try Experiments	90
Experiments in Mr. Robertson’s Warehouse	91
John Page Hopps on Spirit Life	92
A beautiful Portrait obtained	92
Testimony by “Edina”	93
Portrait obtained in Edinburgh of a Child	94
Details of the Experiments to obtain it	95
Miscellanea. By Andrew Glendinning	111
How Abraham Lincoln’s Spirit Photograph was obtained	115
Experiments by Professor Crookes, F.R.S.	122
The beauty of Katie King described	123
Lecture by Arthur Maltby	128
Lantern Transparencies, by Mr. Acton	129
How a Portrait was obtained without a Camera	144

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	PAGE
PHOTOGRAPH OF SPIRIT HEAD AND FACE BY DAVID DUGUID	Frontispiece.
PORTRAIT OF DAVID DUGUID	25
PHOTOGRAPH OF SPIRIT BY J. TRAILL TAYLOR	29
ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPH BY J. TRAILL TAYLOR	35
PHOTOGRAPH OF A LADY AND THE SPIRIT OF HER FATHER	79
PHOTOGRAPH OF MR. STAINTON MOSES, M.A., AND SPIRIT	83
PHOTOGRAPH OF HON. M. A. DOW AND SPIRIT OF MABEL WARREN	117
PSYCHIC PICTURE OBTAINED WITHOUT A CAMERA OR EXPOSURE OF PLATE TO LIGHT	145
PSYCHIC FORM OBTAINED OCTOBER 21, 1893	149
MRS. GREEN AND SPIRIT	153
SPIRIT LADY	157
PSYCHIC FORM OBTAINED APRIL 29, 1892	160

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“Every new truth which has ever been propounded has, for a time, caused mischief; it has produced discomfort, and often unhappiness.”—Buckle, in History of Civilisation.

A number of test séances for spirit photography had been held with Mr. David Duguid, of which no records have been kept, but in April and May, 1892, four séances were held under strict test conditions, notes of which were made at the time, and signed by the various persons who were present. These notes were printed for private circulation, and a copy was sent, with some of the photographs, to Mr. Frederic W. H. Myers, Cambridge, (Hon. Secretary Psychical Research Society).

He suggested that when there was another opportunity for a test séance, the presence of a “scientific man,” and some one well acquainted with photographic manipulations, be got to attend to watch the experiments.

One of the investigators induced Mr. Duguid to come to London to give a séance under the strictest test conditions which could be devised; and Mr. J. Traill Taylor, Editor of the British Journal of Photography, by special request consented to take charge of the experiments, and to fix the conditions under which they should be made.

Mr. Taylor combines in himself the special qualities named by Mr. Myers, inasmuch as he is a “scientific man,” and an expert in photographic chemistry, optical research, and all photographic manipulations.[1]

Mr. Taylor is the author of several works relating to the chemistry, optics, physics, and practice of photography; and besides being a member of Council of the Photographic Society of Great Britain, is an honorary member of the Imperial Polytechnic Society of Russia, and of all the leading Photographic Clubs and Societies in London, and of several in New York.

In a book recently published, entitled The Rise and Progress of Modern Spiritualism[2] (consisting of a reprint of a course of lectures delivered in Glasgow by Mr. James Robertson), the author gives the following testimony as to Mr. Duguid:—

One of Mr. Glendinning’s private letters to the editor of a photographic journal, with reference to an intended action for libel, contained the following:—

That would be an easy thing to do; but, when it is considered that Mr. Duguid has for a long time been employed by Mr. Robertson in his bicycle works; that Mr. Robertson, who is an active business man and a good judge of character, is year after year in almost hourly contact with Mr. Duguid; that he has been at many of Mr. Duguid’s séances, some of these being held in his (Mr. Robertson’s) own house—when these things are borne in mind, the value of the voluntary tribute given by Mr. Robertson to Mr. Duguid’s honesty and uprightness will be the more fully appreciated.

For nearly thirty years has Mr. David Duguid been before the world as a private medium for various descriptions of spirit phenomena. He has given innumerable séances readily, without fee or desire for reward, to clergymen, medical men, artists, teachers of science, lawyers, journalists, merchants, and men and women in all ranks of life; he has sacrificed time and money in the cause which is dear to his heart, and upon which no act or word of his has ever brought a stain. These facts are well known to many, nor would it be necessary to print them here were it not for the efforts made to destroy public confidence in the facts brought to light through his mediumship by writers in certain photographic journals, and the artful insinuations of men who put themselves forward on the plea of being anxious investigators.

At a meeting of the London and Provincial Photographic Association, held on March 9, 1893, Mr. J. Weir Brown in the chair, the following paper by Mr. Taylor was read by him, and, with his consent, is reprinted from the British Journal of Photography (Vol. XL., No. 1715, March 17, 1893).

There was a large attendance of members, and several visitors were present. Visitors were allowed to make remarks, a privilege of which several availed themselves. Some members put questions to Mr. Taylor on points of detail regarding his experiments, all of which he replied to frankly and explicitly. In replying to one member, Mr. Taylor stated that he had received a letter, asking him to bring a reasonable man with him to witness his experiments—in fact, he said, he had the option of taking any one he chose. To another member Mr. Taylor replied that he himself placed the sitters and the camera, and also arranged the lighting of the room. Several members spoke highly of Mr. Taylor’s qualifications to conduct such experiments; but as they could not accept the spiritualistic hypothesis, and as the photographs had to them the appearance of being copied from cut-out prints, or made by “stump-work,” they concluded that therefore they could not be genuine, ignoring entirely Mr. Taylor’s emphatic statements, which he had already given in his paper, viz.:—

“My conditions were entirely acquiesced in”—that I “should use my own camera and unopened packages of dry plates, purchased from dealers of repute, and that I should be excused from allowing a plate to go out of my own hand till after development,” and that “I should dictate all the conditions of operation.”

As a matter of fact, everything connected with the experiments was subject to Mr. Taylor’s entire control and approval.

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By J. Traill Taylor.

The presence of smoke may be considered as implying the existence of flame. Spirit photography, so called, has of late been asserting its existence in such a manner and to such an extent as to warrant competent men making an investigation, conducted under stringent test conditions, into the circumstances under which such photographs are produced, and exposing the fraud, should it prove to be such, instead of pooh-poohing it as insensate because we do not understand how it can be otherwise—a position that scarcely commends itself as intelligent or philosophical. If in what follows I call it “spirit photography” instead of psychic photography, it is only in deference to a nomenclature that extensively prevails, and not as offering a surmise from any knowledge of my own as to what is matter and what spirit, or the distinction between mind, spirit, and matter, for in truth I don’t know. I approach the subject merely as a photographer.

Before I proceed, a few words on the origin of spirit photography may not be out of place. In March, 1861, W. H. Mumler, the principal engraver in the employ of Bigelow Bros. & Kennard, the leading jewellers of Boston, when whiling away an idle hour as an amateur photographer, had a form other than that of any one present developed on his collodion plate. He surmised that it arose from an image having been previously on the plate, and its having been imperfectly cleaned off. Subjected to a more thorough cleaning, the form again appeared more strongly marked than before, and he could offer no other explanation than the one given. It got noised abroad through the press that a spirit had been photographed, and although Mumler strove to suppress the misrepresentation, as he regarded it, yet he eventually succumbed to popular demand, and took two hours a day from his regular work, devoting them to photography. This he had to extend to the whole of each day, entirely discarding his regular profession. Many men of eminence sat to him, most of whom he did not know at the time. He seems to have encouraged his sitters in the adoption of such test conditions as they deemed satisfactory. The figures that usually appeared on the plate with the sitters were, if I rightly infer, those on whom the sitters’ minds had been set. That eminent portrait photographer, Mr. Wm. Black, of Boston, so well known all over the world as the inventor of the acid nitrate bath, undertook to investigate the bonâ fides of Mumler’s methods. Through a friend who had just previously sat and obtained a figure, Black offered fifty dollars if Mumler would operate in his presence and obtain a picture. Invited to come, the acute Black critically examined camera, plate, dipper, and bath, and had his eye on the plate from the moment its preparation began until it was sensitised and locked in the dark slide, removing it himself from the camera, and carrying it into the dark room, where, on development, a figure of a man was seen leaning on B.’s shoulder. Black was wonder-stricken, and got away the negative, no charge whatever having been made. Mumler now claimed publicly to be a spirit-portrait photographer, and as such he eventually opened a studio in New York, having previously satisfied Silver, Gurney, and other photographers as to the genuineness of his claims, never hesitating to operate in their galleries if required, and with their apparatus and chemicals. Mumler was arrested in New York; whether on the ground of witchcraft or of endeavouring to obtain money under false pretences, I am at present uncertain, but his trial was the sensation of the day, and numerous witnesses were examined. He was honourably acquitted.

In this country, several who are amateur photographers have investigated this subject with more or less success. These include some F.R.S.’s, scientists, artists, and others. I question whether any have so persistently done so as the late Mr. John Beattie, of Clifton, and his friend, Dr. Thompson. Mr. Beattie was a skilled professional photographer of the highest eminence who, some time prior to his death, had adopted the views of the spiritualistic school. The figures he obtained on his plates were much blurred in outline, some being misty in the extreme. I possess some two or three dozen of these, taken by or in the presence of, Mr. Beattie, whose intelligence, honesty, and powers of observation no one would venture to doubt. Many such photographs are claimed to have been produced by Hudson, a professional photographer, formerly of the Holloway Road, and I submit for examination a work by the late Miss Houghton, containing fifty-four of Hudson’s spirit photographs.

There are many ways by which, assuming the genuineness of only one of all spirit photographs hitherto produced, the spurious article may be made even better than any alleged real ones I have yet seen. A plate secretly impressed previous or subsequent to being placed in the camera fulfils the condition; so does one at the back of which is placed a phosphorescent tablet in the dark slide. Pressure on the surface, such as by that of a Woodbury relief film, also causes a developable image; in short, trickery in a whole variety of forms may, and has been, impressed into the service.

The higher department of fluorescence may with success be employed. Here is something to which believers in the visibility of spirit forms to a camera are quite welcome. At the time, and àpropos of the Mumler trial in New York, I wrote that a good many absurd things have been said pro and con on the subject; but a writer in the latter category, who asserted that anything that is visible to the eye of the camera, and thus capable of being depicted by photography, must therefore necessarily be visible to the human eye, was surely ignorant of that important branch of physics popularly known as fluorescence. Many things are capable of being photographed which to the physical eye are utterly invisible. Why, for that matter, a room (visually dark) may be full of the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum, and a photograph may be taken in that dark light. Objects in a room so lighted would be plainly visible to the lens of the camera—at any rate, they could be reproduced on the sensitive plate, while, at the same time, not an atom of luminousness could be perceived in the room by any person possessing ordinary or normal vision. Hence the photographing of an invisible image, whether it be of a spirit or a lump of matter is not scientifically impossible. If it reflect only the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum, it will be easily photographed, although quite invisible to the sharpest eye.

Again, Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., well known as one of the most eminent of electricians, says (Electric, June, 1871), when passing a current of electricity through a vacuum tube, the results of which were indicated by touches of light about the poles:—“In one instance, although the experiment was carried on in a dark room, this light was so feeble that it could not be seen, and the operators doubted if the current were passing. But photography was at work, and in thirty minutes a very good picture was produced of what had taken place. This,” he says, “is a remarkable fact; indeed, it borders on the wonderful, that a phenomenon invisible to the human eye should have been, so to speak, seen by the photographic lens, and a record thereof kept by chemical agency. It is highly suggestive, and we may anticipate that it will be turned to good account by practical philosophers.”

Some very striking phenomena in photographing the invisible may be produced by the agency of fluorescence. Figures depicted upon a background by one or other of certain substances I shall presently name, although invisible to the eye, may become visible to the camera. Of these, the best known, although not the most effective, is disulphate of quinine. Such a solution, although to the eye it is colourless like water, is to the camera as black as ink. Fill three phials respectively with water, quinine, and common writing ink, and you have two whites and one black; but photograph them, and you have two blacks and one white. The camera has reduced the transparent quinine solution to the colour of the ink. Those of you who may care to experiment in this direction, please take notice that the quinine must be acidulated with sulphuric acid, and that hydrochloric acid, even a small trace, will destroy this property. Among other substances that are fluorescent, or that change the refrangibility of rays of light, are mineral uranite, certain salts of uranium, canary glass, alcoholic solution of chlorophyll, æsculine, tincture of stramonium seeds, and of turmeric. There are others known to be still better, but my experiments in this direction are yet too incomplete to warrant my even indicating them.

Let me for a moment enter the realm of speculation, and assume that there are really spirits invisible to the eye but visible to the camera and to certain persons called seers or clairvoyants only. Might we not suggest that there is some fluorescent compound in the eyes of such persons not present in those whose eyes are normal, and that it is to this they owe their seeing powers? Some of you may probably be aware that Dr. Bence Jones and other philosophers have actually established the fact of such fluorescent substances being found in some eyes. May this throw any light upon the recognised fact of certain animals being able to see in the dark?

When the subject of fluorescence is more thoroughly investigated (it is a discovery of Sir D. Brewster, who was followed by Herschel and Professor Stokes, and is as yet but of yesterday), we may hope for a vast accession to our knowledge of subjects as yet very slightly understood.

At the Bradford meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1873, Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S., demonstrated before the Mathematical and Physical Section what I have said respecting invisible drawings on white cards having produced bold and clear photographs when no eye could see the drawings themselves, and I brought away back to London these photographs, and, for aught I know, may have them still.

To prevent this disquisition from being too dry, I will here introduce a fanciful sketch I wrote àpropos of Dr. Gladstone’s demonstration at the time mentioned:—

A mischievous young lady of scientific proclivities who attended the meeting of the British Association, and who was addicted to practical joking, listened attentively to Dr. Gladstone’s observations upon the properties of quinine referred to, and having carefully noted the discussion that followed, reasoned within herself thus: If solution of quinine can make invisible marks upon paper, which will come out black in a photograph, it ought to do the same when applied to the skin. So she procured some of this solution, and upon her fair brow she painted with it a death’s head and cross-bones. These, of course, were invisible to human vision. Thus prepared, she went to a photographer to have her portrait taken. All went right until the operator went an to develop the plate, when she soon heard an altercation between the photographer and the attendant boy, in which it was evident that the latter was being charged with having coated an old or dirty plate.

A second negative was taken, with this result, that the operator, after bestowing a puzzled, affrighted look at the lady, rushed downstairs to the principal of the establishment. Both returned to the dark room, and a third negative was taken, when it became evident that intense excitement was being produced in the dark room. After an excuse to the lady about there being electricity in the atmosphere, which had affected the chemicals, she was requested to sit once more.

Scarcely had the plate been developed, when both photographer and assistant rushed out from the dark room, pale and excited, and explained that on the brow of the sitter in each negative was emblazoned the insignia of the King of Terrors. The negatives were produced leaving no doubt of the fact. What was to be done?

The sitter hinted something about not being disposed to be made a fool of by one who she was satisfied was a spirit photographer, and that she, for one, would not allow herself to become the victim of such absurdity. This upset the equanimity of the photographer, who expressed his earnest conviction that she was an emissary and personal friend of the common enemy of mankind.

“I shall look in again to-morrow,” said the lady, in her sweetest tones, “if you promise not to play any of your silly ghost tricks upon me.”

“Not for ten thousand worlds,” said the artist, “shall you ever set foot within my studio again!”

“Oh,” she laughingly rejoined, “I shall drop in through the roof and visit you some day when you are disengaged;” and with that she departed.

“I knew it!” gasped the photographer. “I felt a sulphurous odour the moment I came near her. Send immediately for my friend, the Rev. ——, and get him to offer prayer, and free the studio from the evil influences remaining after a visitation from one whose feet, although clad in boots, would, if examined, be found to be cloven.”

For several years I have experienced a strong desire to ascertain by personal investigation the amount of truth in the ever-recurring allegation that figures other than those visually present in the room appeared on a sensitive plate. The difficulty was to get hold of a suitable person known as a sensitive or “medium.” What a medium is, or how physically or mentally constituted to be different from other mortals, I am unable to say. He or she may not be a photographer, but must be present on each occasion of trial. Some may be mediums without their being aware of it. Like the chemical principle known as catalysis, they merely act by their presence. Such a one is Mr. D. of Glasgow, in whose presence psychic photographs have long been alleged to be obtained. He was lately in London on a visit, and a mutual friend got him to consent to extend his stay in order that I might try to get a psychic photograph under test conditions. To this he willingly agreed. My conditions were exceedingly simple, were courteously expressed to the host, and entirely acquiesced in. They were, that I for the nonce would assume them all to be tricksters, and, to guard against fraud, should use my own camera and unopened packages of dry plates purchased from dealers of repute, and that I should be excused from allowing a plate to go out of my own hand till after development, unless I felt otherwise disposed; but that, as I was to treat them as under suspicion, so must they treat me, and that every act I performed must be in presence of two witnesses, nay, that I would set a watch upon my own camera in the guise of a duplicate one of the same focus—in other words, I would use a binocular stereoscopic camera and dictate all the conditions of operation. All this I was told was what they very strongly wished me to do, as they desired to know the truth and that only. There were present, during one or other of the evenings when the trials were made, representatives of various schools of thought, including a clergyman of the Church of England; a practitioner of the healing art who is a fellow of two learned societies; a gentleman who graduated in the Hall of Science in the days of the late Charles Bradlaugh; two extremely hard-headed Glasgow merchants, gentlemen of commercial eminence and probity; our host, his wife, the medium, and myself. Dr. G. was the first sitter, and, for a reason known to myself, I used a monocular camera. I myself took the plate out of a packet just previously ripped up under the surveillance of my two detectives. I placed the slide in my pocket and exposed it by magnesium ribbon which I held in my own hand, keeping one eye, as it were, on the sitter and the other on the camera. There was no background. I myself took the plate from the dark slide, and, under the eyes of the two detectives, placed it in the developing dish. Between the camera and the sitter a female figure was developed, rather in a more pronounced form than that of the sitter. The lens was a portrait one of short focus; the figure being somewhat in front of the sitter, was proportionately larger in dimensions. I submit this picture (see opposite). It is, as you see, a lady. I do not recognise her or any of the other figures I obtained as being like any one I know, and from my point of view, that of a mere investigator and experimentalist, not caring whether the psychic subject were embodied or disembodied.

Many experiments of like nature followed; on some plates were abnormal appearances, on others none. All this time Mr. D., the medium, during the exposure of the plates, was quite inactive. After one trial, which had proved successful, I asked him how he felt and what he had been thinking of during the exposure. He replied that his thoughts had been mainly concentrated upon his chances of securing a corner seat in a smoking carriage that night from Euston to Glasgow.

If the precautions I took during all of the several experiments, such as those recorded, are by any of you thought to have been imperfect or incomplete, I pray of you to point them out. In some of them I relaxed my conditions to the extent of getting one of those present to lift out from the dark slide the exposed plate and transfer it to the developing dish held by myself, or to lift a plate from the manufacturer’s package into the dark slide held in my own hand, this being done under my own eye, which was upon it all the time; but this did not seem to interfere with the average on-going of the experiments.

The psychic figures behaved badly. Some were in focus, others not so; some were lighted from the right, while the sitter was so from the left; some were comely, as the dame I shall show on the screen, others not so; some monopolised the major portion of the plate, quite obliterating the material sitters; others were as if an atrociously badly vignetted portrait, or one cut oval out of a photograph by a can-opener, or equally badly clipped out, were held up behind the sitter. But here is the point: not one of these figures which came out so strongly in the negative was visible in any form or shape to me during the time of exposure in the camera, and I vouch in the strongest manner for the fact that no one whatever had an opportunity of tampering with any plate anterior to its being placed in the dark slide or immediately preceding development. Pictorially they are vile, but how came they there?

Now, all this time, I imagine you are wondering how the stereoscopic camera was behaving itself as such. It is due to the psychic entities to say that whatever was produced on one half of the stereoscopic plates was reproduced on the other, alike good or bad in definition. But on a careful examination of one which was rather better than the other, and which is now about to be projected on the lantern screen for your examination (see page 35), I deduce this fact, that the impressing of the spirit form was not consentaneous with that of the sitter. This I consider an important discovery. I carefully examined one in the stereoscope, and found that, while the two sitters were stereoscopic per se, the psychic figure was absolutely flat. I also found that the psychic figure was at least a millimetre higher up in one than the other. Now, as both had been simultaneously exposed, it follows to demonstration that, although both were correctly placed vertically in relation to the particular sitter behind whom the figure appeared, and not so horizontally, this figure had not only not been impressed on the plate simultaneously with the two gentlemen forming the group, but had not been formed by the lens at all, and that, therefore the psychic image might be produced without a camera. I think this is a fair deduction. But still the question obtrudes, How came these figures there? I again assert that the plates were not tampered with by either myself or any one present. Are they crystallisations of thought? Have lens and light really nothing to do with their formation? The whole subject was mysterious enough on the hypothesis of an invisible spirit, whether a thought projection or an actual spirit, being really there in the vicinity of the sitter, but it is now a thousand times more so. There are plenty of Tycho Brahes capable of supplying details of observations, but who is to be the Kepler that will from such observations evolve a law by which they can be satisfactorily explained?

In the foregoing I have confined myself as closely as possible to narrating how I conducted a photographic experiment open to every one to make, avoiding stating any hypothesis or belief of my own on the subject generally, and it only now remains to exhibit the results, bad and fraudulent-looking as they are, on the screen.

Having finished the reading of his paper, Mr. Taylor exhibited by the aid of the lantern, slides from some of the negatives he had obtained. A series of “Spirit Photographs,” the work of Mr. Hudson, formerly of Holloway Road, and some French photographers, were also shown by Mr. Maltby, a visitor, who was introduced by Mr. Taylor.

Messrs. Downey, P. Everitt, W. E. Debenham, F. A. Bridge, A. Cowan, A. Haddon, J. S. Teape, A. Mackie, and others took part in the meeting, but their remarks, for the most part, were characteristic of unacquaintance with the subject.

Mr. A. Glendinning explained that it had originally been intended to have had the photographs taken in the studio of a West-end photographer, but that gentleman had withdrawn his consent owing to his religious views, expressing the opinion that such experiments were dangerous, if not wicked. The experiments were therefore made in the drawing-room of a house in Dalston.

Mr. W. E. Debenham asked if it would be possible to repeat the experiments in the presence of the same medium and two members of the London and Provincial Photographic Association.

[This question was answered at a later period of the meeting, when the suggestion was made by the Chairman.]

Mr. Glendinning said he had been interested in the subject of psychic photography for twenty-eight years, and he asked permission from the Chairman to make a few remarks. This being readily and courteously granted, he said, “Do the members of this Society, who are now present, believe that Mr. Taylor is competent for the investigation which he recently undertook? I do not mean, are you prepared to endorse his statements regarding the results of his recent experiments? I do not mean merely, do you consider Mr. Taylor an honest investigator? There are many honest men who would not be considered qualified to watch with sufficient care and accuracy experiments in photographic manipulations. There are others who are honest and upright, and who are skilful in the ordinary routine of photographic work, who may possess very little knowledge of chemistry or of optics, in their relation to practical photography. Others, again, may be honest men, skilful manipulators, and adepts in chemistry and in optics, but too opinionative to conduct such experiments as those under consideration. Well, then, gentlemen, looking at the matter all round, I put it to you this way. My own belief, my strong conviction, is this, that Mr. Taylor is well qualified in every respect for the very important and, I would add, the very solemn task which he undertook. A man with an open mind, prepared to—

possessed of shrewdness, tact, an eye like a hawk’s, watchful and ready to detect the slightest attempt at trickery or fraud, with an integrity of purpose and an independent outspokenness which would lead him fearlessly to expose and denounce those who would so far forget themselves as to trifle with the most sacred feelings of our nature, by attempting to palm off as abnormal and strange that which is but a miserable counterfeit of a grand reality. Gentlemen, do you uphold me in my view that Mr. Taylor was the right man for the experiments to which reference has been made? (Applause and expressions of approval.) I thank you for this expression of your opinion. I do not wish to corner you; I do not wish to trap you into a seeming acquiescence with views which you have not considered. My desire is to be perfectly frank; but there are reasons, into which I need not enter now, why I have put before you the statements and the question to which you have responded. Well, supposing for the moment that Mr. Taylor’s report of his experiments is an accurate statement, that portraits have appeared on his plates, and have been printed from his plates, which cannot be accounted for by any known agency, it seems to me to be a fair conclusion to arrive at, that there were other persons present at those experiments besides the ladies and gentlemen who could be seen with the normal vision; that these unseen visitors were exhibiting an active and intelligent interest in the matter, and that they were aiding by their co-operation to produce the abnormal images which appeared on the plates. Call these unseen visitors by the name which may commend itself to you as most fairly descriptive; call them spooks, or ghosts, or astrals, or elementals, or even, if you prefer to do so, call them devils. I call them spirit friends—ex-carnated human beings—that is what they profess to be, and that is what, in an experience of such matters extending over a good many years, I have always had good reason to believe them to be. Therefore I transfer the name from the principal operators to the pictures themselves, and I call the latter spirit photographs. Likewise, because the abnormal portraits, so far as they have been recognised, are portraits of persons who have cast off the earthly tabernacle, I claim that the name spirit photographs, or photographs of spirits, is as near as we can get to accuracy in the present state of our knowledge.”

Mr. F. A. Bridge said they were bound to believe Mr. Taylor’s statement; but, as practical photographers, though the pictures shown might be spirit photographs, he thought they gave them the idea of cut-out prints, but as to who cut them out he did not know and did not care. He, however, did not for one moment wish to impute any complicity or dishonesty to Mr. Glendinning in connexion with the experiments, for that gentleman appeared (as he had said) merely to have been desirous of arriving at the truth.

Mr. Debenham quite agreed with Mr. Bridge as to Mr. Glendinning’s bonâ fides in the matter. He would propose, if possible, a committee be formed to be present at some similar séance.

A Member stated that Mr. Taylor’s experiments had been vitiated to some extent by his not having the whole of the conditions under his own control (a remark to which Mr. Taylor does not seem to have thought it necessary to reply, as he had already distinctly stated that the whole of the conditions were subject to his entire control).

Professor A. Haddon observed that if spirits gave out ultra-violet rays, it would be advisable to use lenses made of quartz, as they would have a far better way of rendering such subjects on the plate than with ordinary lenses, which cut off ultra-violet. Again, had different eyes different powers as regards the taking in and cutting out of different rays? Mr. Friese Greene had shown how it was possible to allow an impression to be made on the retina, and then to be transferred to a plate. Most probably only certain people possessed this power, for it was curious no one had repeated the experiment with success.

Mr. T. Shorter said he had had some experience of the subject, and in many instances such portraits had been distinctly recognised as those of relatives and friends, and it was not by any means a peculiar experience. The late Mr. Beattie, of Clifton, obtained portraits of this kind through Mr. Hudson, to whom he went in a very sceptical spirit. Hudson allowed him to go through all the manipulations himself; Mr. Beattie took his own plates, and inverted them before they were exposed. On one picture, after it was taken he recognised the portrait of his own brother. He (Mr. Shorter) knew of a good many instances of a similar kind. For instance, he said, Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace had had no hesitation in recognising portraits so obtained. Of course there were many taken in this way that could not be identified; but, on the other hand, there were many that could. He could quote forty instances where people could identify them.

A Member explained how a collection of portraits of deceased persons can be made by professional photographers. He stated his firm sometimes receive such portraits to copy, and at times when they deliver the copies they pretend that the original pictures are lost or injured; so the customers have nothing to compare the copies with. This brought forth the rebuke from Mr. Maltby (a visitor) that the conduct of the firm might be “smart,” but could not be considered honest.

Mr. Arthur Maltby said the spirit forms which are photographed were created from the aura that escapes from sensitive subjects. Some years ago a gentleman went to a photographer to have a portrait taken, and, instead of his portrait appearing, as he expected, that of a man who had been abroad for many years, and of whom he knew nothing, appeared on the plate. Some weeks afterwards a telegram came announcing that the man, whose spirit photograph had appeared on the plate, was shot. Again, during the last Austrian war, an officer who had never been photographed in his regimentals appeared to a brother officer as a photographed spirit. On one occasion the figure of a small child appeared in the centre of a picture. The child had been dead nearly fifty years, but was recognised after that lapse of time. He suggested that a photograph could be taken to prove that fluid rays pass from a sensitive, like photographic rays of light. This aura, which was the material emanating from all parts of the body, was collected to form the portraits of those who wished to prove the immortality of the soul.

Mr. J. Weir Brown (the chairman) said that although the pictures shown that night by Mr. Maltby might be recognised as spirit photographs, they had only to do with Mr. Traill Taylor’s experiments,[4] and he was bound to say that some of the examples shown bore evidence of being patchwork on the plates, and not similar to those that were shown by Mr. Maltby. Mr. Taylor’s results were very mysterious; and, although Mr. Taylor himself was very watchful, there was nothing to lead them to any conclusion on the matter, so that it must remain a mystery. He suggested that Mr. Glendinning should provide an occasion, if he could, for the London and Provincial Photographic Association to send a small committee to take part in similar experiments, and he was sure that they would only send fair-minded men to represent them.[5]

Mr. Glendinning, in reply, said he would be willing to use his influence to get such experiments carried on in the presence of the same medium later in the year. (Hear, hear.) He said that his friend, the medium, had so much confidence in Mr. Traill Taylor, that probably he would carefully consider Mr. Taylor’s suggestions in the matter.

Mr. Taylor asked why they should expect Mr. Glendinning, who is not a member of the society, to be at the trouble for them. He suggested that the society appoint a committee to investigate the subject, and advertise for the services of a suitable medium with whom to try experiments.

Towards the close of the proceedings, Mr. Glendinning handed to the chairman, and to some of the members sitting near him, a print of a psychic portrait from a negative obtained without the plate being exposed in the camera, or to light of any kind excepting that given by a nightlight in a dark lantern to develop by. The experiment was made in consequence of a conversation with Mr. Taylor (after his experiments were concluded), and about an hour before the medium left for his return journey.

An Ilford dry plate had been taken by Mr. Glendinning from a new packet, put in clean paper, and held by the medium, in the dark room, between the palms of his hands; Mr. Glendinning placed his hands above and below those of the medium; he then took the plate and placed it in his developing tray, when a full-length figure appeared, clear and distinct, although without artistic effect. The negative was in Mr. Taylor’s possession at the meeting.

The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to Mr. Taylor for his paper.

Note.—With regard to one or more of the psychic portraits taken by Mr. Taylor on his own plates, in which he found that the psychic image had not been formed by the lens at all, and with regard to the important discovery made by Mr. Glendinning, in a later experiment with his friend, the medium, it would be a mistake to conclude that the psychic images on photographic plates are always produced in this way. There are many spirit photographs, regarding which all the evidence is in favour of the theory that they are produced by the agency of the camera at the same time as the sitters. With respect to one of the pictures taken by Mr. Taylor, and shown by him on the lantern screen, the sitter, after Mr. Taylor left the room to develop the plate, stated to those present that there ought to be on the plate a spirit form to his right and nearer the camera than himself, as he felt “drapery like a robe of silky crape pass him at the right side when the photograph was being taken.” When Mr. Taylor appeared with the developed picture, it showed a full-length female form, with a white robe, but no drapery about the head or shoulders. The sitter further stated that, during the exposure of the plate, his mind was occupied in calculating some sums in arithmetic, so that the psychic form could not be considered to be a photographic representation of his thoughts.

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Psychic Photography.—At a recent London and Provincial meeting, Mr. J. Traill Taylor showed some negatives of what are commonly called “spirit photographs,” which he had taken under test conditions. He had bought ordinary commercial plates from a well-known commercial dealer, and exposed them at a recent séance held in the north of London. He took his own stereoscopic camera, opened the original packets of plates and filled the slides himself in the presence of two gentlemen. He exposed them by magnesium light upon two sitters, one of whom was alleged to be a “medium,” and immediately developed them himself. On development some of them showed other figures (in addition to those of the sitters) which had not been visibly present when the exposure was made. The exposures were made in the afternoon in an ordinary drawing-room, when it was far from dark, and the magnesium light was supplementary to the daylight. Prints from the resulting negatives, viewed in the stereoscope, showed the sitters in relief, but the “ghosts” with the appearance of flatness. We are almost surprised at Mr. Taylor’s temerity in bringing forward such a subject before such an audience, when he knows full well the unreasoning prejudice with which the subject is met. Like the brothers of Dives, “they would not be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” We do not imagine that Mr. Taylor wished to convince his hearers of anything, but surely he was over-sanguine if he even expected fair investigation or criticism. Before he came forward in this matter, he would have been taken as a competent investigator—in fact, the meeting in question passed a resolution to the effect that he was a “reliable person, and a gentleman well qualified to conduct such an experiment as had been described.” Yet, when he states that fraud was impossible, he is at once condemned as either an incompetent or an impostor—preferably the former. A committee was appointed to investigate the matter. Will they be believed if they give a report similar to that of Mr. Taylor’s? Or will they only be believed if they give the report that is expected?

Referring to the unsuccessful attempt made in another photographic journal to throw doubt upon Mr. Taylor’s experiments by raising a cry of trickery, the Practical Photographer makes this sensible observation:—

“Surely this is a miserable evasion of the main point at issue, which is not whether the medium was capable of fraud if he got the chance, but whether Mr. Taylor is believable when he asserts that the chance for fraud was not given.”

In the May issue of the same journal there is the following:—

“Five correspondents write on this head; but they only bring forward experiences of many years ago, references to the News and Journal of old dates, and similar evidence. The letters are interesting, but we cannot find room for a correspondence on the subject. Of testimony there is more than enough. Those who can be convinced by testimony are probably convinced already, if they have examined the subject. If the matter is to be advanced further, it must be by careful experiments under test conditions, and such experiments will not satisfy the active objectors unless they can be repeated to order, and, so far as we know, no one has claimed to be able to do this. Only new tests, well authenticated, are of use in our columns at present. Any such we are prepared to publish, with reproduction of the alleged psychic photographs if desired.”

In the Review of Reviews[8] for April, there is a reproduction of one of the spirit photographs taken by Mr. Traill Taylor, and also of the portrait obtained by Mr. Glendinning and Mr. Duguid, without the use of a camera, and without exposing the prepared dry plate to light until after it was developed and fixed. Mr. Stead refers to Mr. Taylor as a well-known photographic journalist, of unquestionable good faith, and prints the details of the experiments as given in Mr. Taylor’s paper. Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S., who has had much experience in this subject, and possesses a large collection of spirit photographs, thinks the most interesting results of the recent experiments are those in which the form of one of the sitters is blended with the form of the psychic portrait; but Mr. Stead thinks the portrait obtained without the camera the most interesting. He concludes his article thus:—

“Mr. Glendinning assures me most positively that the plate had not been tampered with. If so, it is to be hoped Mr. Duguid will repeat the last experiment under test conditions. It is much the most interesting of the lot.[9]

“The illustrations are badly developed, but they suffice to show that the plate was sensitive to the presence of entities invisible to the human eye. Everything, of course, depends upon the accuracy and honesty of the photographer; and the reputation of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Glendinning is above reproach.”

The recent lecture on “Spirit Photography,” given by Mr. J. Traill Taylor before a large audience, composed of the members of the London and Provincial Photographic Association and their friends, is being much talked about in photographic circles. Mr. Taylor, whose personal bonâ fides in the matter are admitted to be quite above suspicion, showed upon an ordinary lantern screen the results which he had obtained. The conditions under which the spirit experiments were conducted were as follows:—Mr. Taylor used his own binocular stereoscopic camera, and provided himself with unopened packages of “Ilford” dry plates, purchased from dealers of repute. He exposed the plates by means of magnesium ribbon in the presence of a medium. At the first attempt, between the camera and the sitter a female figure was developed. On several of the other plates exposed various figures were also discovered. It was distinctly asserted by Mr. Taylor that none of these were visible to him at any time during the exposure in the camera, and he vouched that no one had the slightest opportunity of tampering with the plates before they were placed in the dark slide or immediately preceding development.

The Experiments in Spirit Photography.—We call attention to certain important points in Mr. Taylor’s paper and the remarks which follow it. The first consideration is, that nothing should be jumped at as fraud, though it may appear to be so. Mr. Taylor has taken a strong, manly position in exhibiting photographs which have all the appearance of being spurious, and yet he knows they are not so. A man in a position less eminent could not afford to be so bold. Mr. Glendinning dwells on this feature of the investigation in an excellent manner.

The photograph obtained without exposure at all, described at the close of the report, suggests a means of producing pictures quite unknown to science or photographic art. It, in its way, resembles the direct writing on closed slates, or on unopened packets of paper. But on carefully examining Mr. Taylor’s negatives it appears as if the spirit figures had not been cut out and stuck on, but there is a blending of the one picture with the other, showing plainly that a different mode of operation was at work.

We have often observed in our lectures that the nature of the image differs in the pictures of every spirit photographer. Evidently the photographers on the other side have taken up Mr. Taylor’s challenge to investigate in a very serious manner, and have shown some of their skill to set the brains of mortal photographers on the alert for a more comprehensive knowledge of the possibilities involved in their art.

Let this thought dwell in the mind of every reader, that many of the so-called “frauds” attributed to spiritual experiment have not been frauds at all, but the hasty conclusions of that unworthy suspicion which is begotten of ignorance. Such conclusions bring the subject to a standstill, whereas a tentative and trustful investigation would lead to most important discoveries. We rejoice to see the healthy direction which the present experiments have taken.

We invite the special attention of our readers to a report in our present issue, of experiments in “Psychic Photography,” conducted by Mr. J. Traill Taylor. Never before, so far as we are aware, has the investigation of this, one of the most interesting of Spiritualistic phenomena, been undertaken by a man so competent in every way for the work, enjoying, as he does, a high reputation for his scientific attainments in his own special department, and for his powers of keen and careful observation. Using his own camera and plates, and conducting the operations with his own hands, he succeeded in photographing figures, “not one of which,” he avers, “had been visible in any form or shape during the time of exposure in the camera.” But more than this, by observing the results on the occasion when a stereoscopic camera was employed, he arrived at the conclusion that—as some Spiritualists have long thought to be probable—the figure developed had not been formed by the lens, and the psychic image might be produced without the camera at all. It will be interesting to observe what Mr. Taylor’s photographic brethren will have to say to him; for ourselves we tender him our hearty thanks.

The importance of this address can scarcely be exaggerated, and for two reasons,—one, that we have a scientific photographer, of the first rank, treating the subject publicly before a body of men, the majority of whom would, presumably, be at least sceptical; and, next, that in the address there were advanced certain speculations which may not only help to the elucidation of the means whereby such photographs are produced, but also throw light upon the great problem of Spiritualism itself.

Of the experiments which have been already described we have nothing to say, except that, unless fraud be admitted as having been possible, figures were produced on the plates which could only have got there in some abnormal way. Fraud, however, seems to have been about as impossible as it could be under any circumstances whatever. Mr. Taylor used his own camera. The plates were bought from dealers of repute, and the parcel was opened in view of two witnesses, witnesses above suspicion. Mr. Taylor insisted that he should keep the plates in his own hands until after development, and this caution he relaxed only so far as getting one of those present to lift out from the dark slide the exposed plate and transfer it to the developing dish held by himself, or to transfer a plate from the manufacturer’s package into the dark slide held by his own hand. Unless, therefore, there had been connivance on the part of the “dealers of repute” who supplied the plates, which is out of the question, or the persons present were all of them leagued together to cheat, we are forced to the conclusion that the results were genuine....

A few more words must be given to Mr. Traill Taylor. The importance of his lectures has been dealt with elsewhere, but it can bear emphasising here. Facts, or what appear to be facts, we have in plenty, but the explanation of these facts, except theoretically, is not so common. Anything which sheds even the faintest glimmer on the meaning of these facts is supremely welcome, and this glimmer, or more than glimmer, Mr. Taylor has produced. It will be strange if that “fluorescence” which has been so relied upon for the general theory of fraud should turn out to be the means of demonstrating the opposite.

It was not to be expected that Mr. Traill Taylor’s photographs would be left unchallenged. But as it is impossible to impute fraud to Mr. Taylor or his associates, the objectors are thrown back on somewhat flimsy arguments. A letter to the Christian World may perhaps be taken fairly well to represent the kind of argument. The letter is signed “F. Gass.”

Of course we know that fraudulent spirit photographs have been plentifully sold, but because there is a large amount of falsehood in the world it does not follow that there is no truth. But let us see how Mr. Taylor is treated by this critic: “Mr. Taylor says these forms were invisible to watchers in the room, and were, therefore, disembodied spirits.”

There is no such “therefore” in Mr. Taylor’s address. What he did say was: “In the foregoing I have confined myself as closely as possible to narrating how I conducted a photographic experiment open to every one to make, avoiding stating any hypothesis or belief of my own on the subject generally.”

The writer takes exception to Mr. Taylor’s statement that the figures when examined by the stereoscope were absolutely flat; because “the figures were solid enough to obscure a view of the sitting medium when they stood between him and the camera.” That is, Mr. Gass knows all about solidity, and what could or could not be done by what Mr. Taylor is careful to call a “psychic entity.” That there is any appearance of light and shade in the engraving as it is in the Review of Reviews proves nothing; even if it is there, we have Mr. Taylor’s assertion that in the photograph he examined with the stereoscope the “psychic figure was absolutely flat.” As to the nonsense about the clothing of the figures and the draper’s shops in Ghost-land we have nothing to say. Mr. Gass then falls foul of photographs being taken without the employment of a lens. Such a thing would be a miracle. So Mr. Gass knows what a miracle is. “To obtain a portrait on a plate, light is imperatively necessary, and to obtain an image of a figure it must be brought into focus by the lens of a camera.” Of course, if these things “must” be so, there is an end of the matter, but the experiment went to disprove the necessity of this “must.” And what is “light”? Has Mr. Gass any knowledge of the spectrum, and could he himself “see” the actinic rays which produce the pictures on the sensitised plate?

Mr. Taylor is, perhaps, the most competent and reputable man who, as an experienced and scientific photographer, has undertaken such experiments, hence his testimony is all the more valuable. The medium was Mr. David Duguid, and the results are of great importance.

Mr. A. Glendinning, who brought about the sittings, deserves the thanks of all Spiritualists.

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By the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A.

Ever since the appearance of the more than sensational “Real Ghost Stories” and “More Ghost Stories”—which are, like the ghosts, still appearing—a great and calm tolerance of the occult made manifest seems to have diffused itself throughout English society. People are bringing out their own private little bogey stories, of which they used to be quite ashamed, and, what is more curious, they are bringing out their bogey photos, both of which things reveal the fact how many more ghost stories and ghost photos are about than people seem generally to have imagined. Only the other day I was told of a young lady who went down to Brighton to an ordinary photographer. She sat as an ordinary sitter, suspecting nothing. The plate came out blurred all over; photographer surprised, and on point of casting plate aside, when sitter begs to see it, and further begs to have it printed off. Result—photo blurred all over, sitter unrecognisable; when subjected to high magnifyer, milky way of blue reveals innumerable faces, but all the same face! Recognised by young lady at once as face of dead lover. This is the kind of story which is becoming tiresomely common, and often bewilderingly well evidenced.

Now, unless I had thought this question of alleged appearances—palpable enough to be seen, perhaps photographed—might have a grave side to it, I should not have for two Sundays rung the changes, and the pros and cons. in the pulpit, and pointed out the momentous connexion between such manifestations and our interests here and hereafter. People seemed much impressed with this view. The fact is that every time I announced the subject at St. James’s, Westmoreland Street, Marylebone, crowds were unable to get seats, and I was in a way compelled to resume the topic next Sunday, while thousands struggled in vain to get into my tolerably spacious vestry after the sermon to catch glimpses of the selected photos and spirit drawings there exposed to view. Well, this shows, I suppose, that I had, if possible, under-estimated the toleration which I solicited for this dubious subject, but which I hardly expected to win.

The physical philosopher (and we are all physical philosophers, whatever else we may be) naturally asks, when he is told that this or that person has seen a ghost, “Will you show me the ghost?” Sometimes he is informed that if he sleeps in the haunted room he will be quite satisfied. Sometimes he does, and isn’t—sometimes he does, and is; when he is, like a wise man he is apt to keep what he has seen (as Johnson said every man did his religion) to himself. Perhaps he may have been in the habit of laughing at ghosts and sneering at people who believed in them, and doesn’t want to eat his own words. Perhaps he resembles the man who said “he did not believe in ghosts, but was very much afraid of them;” or, perhaps, he had no taste, after making a full confession about what he may have seen, for the retort courteous, that he was probably a fool or a liar—or both. Anyhow, the physical philosopher might next inquire, Did several people see the ghost at once, or independently at different times? Is there reason—that is to say—to suppose the ghost was really an objective (external to the spectator) or merely a subjective hallucination? A very reasonable inquiry. “Photograph me a ghost; chemicals have no fancies, plates don’t get nervous, and lenses tell no lies!” Good. So we proceed to get a medium into the studio; we photograph away, and a ghost comes out behind the medium!

“Ah! but did you examine the plate before it was slipped in?”

“No.”

“Then the plate was cooked; the ghost was already on it.”

“Try again.” This time you bring your own plate; but again comes a ghost.

“Ah! but did you change the screen behind you—shift it, or put your own screen?”

“No.”

“Well, the ghost was in chemicals on the screen.”

So next time you remove the photographer’s screen, and put your own, and bring your own plate, too; but again comes a ghost.

“Ah! but did you examine the inside of the camera? Did you watch the developing process? Did you watch your plate from beginning to end? Nay, did you spy everything—windows, &c.—outside thoroughly? A ghost might be shot on to the exposed camera. Did you allow any one to dress up in a sheet behind you, and do the partial exposure trick?”

Well, next time you take every precaution, and if still you get a ghost, “that gives to reflect,” as the French say; so let us reflect a little.

The most authentic ghost photos are the hardest to get hold of. They are in the hands of private amateur photographers, who are shy of lending or showing them because they are shy of being accused of fraud or folly; besides, to them these photos are often sacred, or they seem to portray the features of the beloved dead. I believe Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., one of the greatest scientists living—the renowned inventor of the radiometer—has obtained spirit photos of a materialised form that appeared apart from the medium, and moved about the room freely while a continuous current of electricity was being passed through the entranced medium, so that she could not move without betraying the motion. But, like the wise man he is, Mr. Crookes, after having tasted the quality of scientific bigotry, and already suffered somewhat for his ardour in the pursuit of unpopular and novel truth—Mr. Crookes, I say, keeps certain experiences, together with his abnormal photos, to himself, and will not now even show them. It is of no importance to him what those who do not and cannot know the facts think about them. They belong to his laboratory work. Why should he bother himself with a crowd of outsiders? Of course, no spirit photo, of itself, can bear conviction, nor is it possible to produce about it in a journal any evidence that will. The two spirit photos I have been prevailed upon to allow the Editor of the Daily Graphic to use with this open letter are, nevertheless, of considerable interest. (1) The lady seated went with her daughter. She did not tell the photographer who was in her thoughts. She thought of and longed for her father to appear. She did not even tell her daughter or any one else the mental test. She thought that her father should appear wearing a peculiar black cap which he commonly used during the last days of his illness. That test was never revealed before the plate was developed; but it was answered, as may be seen in the photo (see opposite); the features also are too marked to allow of any doubt.

The picture on page 83 represents Mr. Stainton Moses and a figure unknown to him. The accomplished Editor of Light is best known to the public as M.A. Oxon. The Rev. Stainton Moses, a graduate of Oxford University, was for many years Classical and English master at University College, London. From his investigations he became convinced of the general truths of what is vaguely called Spiritualism, and has devoted himself for some twenty years to making the public familiar with the higher aspects, while warning them against its ridiculous, dangerous, or degrading tendencies. The only interest of the photo is that it was taken under all those strict test conditions which I have alluded to above in this open letter. The chief professional spirit photographers are M. Buguet, of Paris, frightened by the priest into a recantation of his spirit photos, which recantation no one who tested Buguet believes any more than does Buguet himself; Mr. Hudson, who was, I am told, not always above suspicion, but, like other mediums, was also successful under rigid test conditions; Mumler, Beattie, and many others I know nothing about. Mr. Stead is now occupied in testing spirit photography, and that being the case, we are soon likely to hear more about it from an abler pen than mine. So great was the interest shown in the labelled spirit photos and the spirit drawings by the late Mrs. Watts, daughter of William and Mary Howitt, exposed in my vestry, St. James’s, Westmoreland Street, Marylebone, that I kept them up for a second Sunday. There is nothing like publicity as a means of getting at truth. Let in the light! Sift facts! “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”—1 Thess. v. 21.

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By Jas. Robertson, Glasgow.

The most striking phenomena associated with what comes under the name of Spiritualism are those connected with photography. It was very naturally thought that nothing was so capable of bringing conviction to the inquirer as a record made by the camera, which might be considered free from all imagination, unconscious cerebration, expectancy, &c., and yet there has been no part of the phenomena that has been more fiercely assailed as being fraudulent. No matter how clear and searching and honest has been the experimenter, if success attends his work suspicion and cruel innuendo invariably follow him. The truths pertaining to the spiritual are not received in the same calm, critical, and philosophic spirit as the discoveries that are presented in other realms. People gladly welcome a new planet, or a new metal, and laud the discoverer; but the explorer in spiritual phenomena is at once set down as either a madman or a fraudulent person. One can scarcely estimate the loss the world has sustained by its want of fair treatment; sensitive souls fear to speak out and tell all they know. Robert Chambers kept his Spiritualism in the background, and walked through life honoured and respected, but he made the battle of unpopular truth all the more difficult to fight for the men and women who did speak out. Spiritualists, though set down as credulous, are as far removed from this condition as it is possible to be; they have had to fight their way step by step, critically examining, but honestly yielding when the facts were too much for them.

Very many photographic artists are in their ranks who have again and again met with strange and weird markings on the sensitive plate, which they could not understand; they have sought only to get at the truth. Fraud lives but for the hour, and the person who has joined the ranks of an unpopular cause knows that a fierce light will beat upon all his actions, so that he need be more than ordinarily cautious in all he sets down; but though bogus spirit pictures can be made, must we cease to present those which are got by honest people under conditions that have been considered perfect? Over twenty years since, in New York, a photographer named Wm. H. Mumler succeeded in getting hundreds of pictures of the so-called dead, which were recognised by their friends as portraits; the great body of people who went to him were total strangers, one of them, thickly veiled, being the wife of the murdered President Lincoln. On the plate was seen her husband and one of her children, who had passed on. I had the good fortune to come in contact with those who went to Mr. Mumler shortly after arriving in New York, and who got test pictures which were beyond cavil or suspicion. In hundreds of cases the camera saw and reported what the physical senses did not cognise.

Mr. Mumler’s success brought him only hardship and excessive pain; he was dragged into the law courts and fiercely assailed as an impostor, but the volume of evidence which was brought in his favour so vindicated his character that he triumphed. In our own country again and again we have had photographers, amateur and professional, who have met with these forms on their plates.

Mr. Hudson, of London, got many test pictures, and a whole crowd of eminent people have vouched for the reality of the likenesses of their deceased friends.

Mr. John Beattie, of Clifton, a retired photographer of twenty years’ experience, a man thoughtful and skilful, along with his friend Dr. Thompson, made experiments in spirit photography for their own private satisfaction, and placed on record details of their patience and ultimate success. Forms again and again, some fragmentary, faint, and shadowy, some full and clear, appeared on the plate, fully attesting that spirit photography was real.

The late editor of Light, Rev. Stainton Moses, M.A., had a most extensive experience, and brought a clear and searching intellect to bear upon it. His series of papers dealing with the subject is careful and complete in all details, and shows with what patience and care the spiritual investigator examines the ground before he gives forth his conclusions. In his experiments he ofttimes saw the figures which afterwards made their appearance on the plate.

My own opportunities for the observation of the reality of the phenomena have been good. Brought into close and daily contact with Mr. David Duguid, through our business relations, I have been able to witness almost all the pictures which have been taken through his mediumship. He has been most averse all the time to give sittings, as he fully knows the amount of suspicion which must gather, and the annoyance that will be created, however successful; yet still he is anxious to perform his share in the work of demonstrating human immortality. It seems hard that the spiritual medium, of all persons, should have the taint of suspicion cast around him. Spiritualists themselves have come from such a sceptical, materialistic side of human experience, that they are suspicious of each bit of phenomena which has not hitherto come under their gaze. It must not be overlooked that the bulk of exposures have been the result of the actions of spiritualists who would have nothing but what is genuine.

Some years since Mr. Duguid yielded to the strong pressure that was brought to bear, and took at intervals pictures on which appeared other forms than those seen by the physical senses. Each effort was not a success. Again and again have we gone into the developing chamber, only to find there was but the physical sitter. On all these occasions we took the utmost care to be able to vouch for the conditions under which they were taken, so as to meet the naturally critical questions which would be put. Mr. Andrew Glendinning, of London, who has been on the closest terms of friendship with Mr. Duguid for over thirty years, used to come down, and at such times the latter yielded to the request for a sitting.

Mr. Glendinning brought his own plates, took every precaution that they should not pass out of his sight—not that he suspected anything wrong, but that he might make his testimony of value. We had on almost every visit the most marked success. During the process I was often conscious of the presence of spirit people before they made their appearance on the plate; people who were known in the flesh and others came in this mysterious way, and clearly showed that death must be some other thing than what was made out by popular theologies. As the Rev. John Page Hopps says, “A future life means persistence of life, means that the spirit self remains a conscious living self when it sheds the muddy vesture of clay.... Such a being, acting from the unseen upon the sphere of what is to us the seen, might, under certain conditions, be able to work what we call miracles.” It was the good fortune of Mr. Glendinning to get beside us on one occasion a most exquisite face of a lady, full of each charm and grace that make up the womanly character. The term angelic might be applied to it. Such a face the seraphic painters have ofttimes drawn, a Raphael might have painted it. From somewhere must have come this form; and Spiritualism demonstrates what Mr. Justice Groves, in The Correlation of Physical Forces, gives as a probable theory, “Myriads of organised beings may exist imperceptible to our vision, even if we were among them.”

A legal gentleman of some literary culture, who had become conscious of the reality and beauty of the spiritual philosophy, wrote several valuable articles, in which were given the clearest proofs of spirit identity. He was most anxious to get the picture of a dear boy whom death had carried away some years before, and whose absence, perhaps, made him at first inquire as to whether Spiritualism had any joy to give.

Under the signature of “Edina” this gentleman gives one of the most satisfactory bits of evidence it would be possible to get. He made attempts to get this portrait in Glasgow, but in vain; though the child’s sister, who was clairvoyant, saw him quite distinctly, “Edina” was not able to get his impress on the plate. I give the following from “Edina,” which surely places beyond a doubt that these spirit photographs are what they claim to be:—

Why should we not accept this as a truthful statement? The word of such a man as “Edina” would be accepted to the full on any other subject, but there is a deep-rooted antipathy in the public mind against the recognition or acceptance of spiritual phenomena. Florence Marryat, in describing the striking and marvellous incidents of her life, asks why she should be disbelieved in these matters any more than Lady Brassey, or Livingstone, or Stanley regarding their travels.

The most conclusive of testimony as to the reality of spirit photography was that recently given in London by Mr. Traill Taylor, editor of the British Journal of Photography, and one of the most capable men it was possible to get for entering into an investigation of this matter. Mr. Taylor holds the first of scientific reputations, and would have been selected by all the leading minds in the world of photography as worthy of representing it. The story told by him is clear in every detail as to the methods he adopted to meet any objections that might arise, and the success attained was quite in keeping with what had hitherto been got by Mr. Glendinning and others in their Glasgow experiments. Mr. Glendinning felt so confident that other honest minds could only reach the same results as himself, that he prevailed on Mr. Duguid to visit London, and give these test sittings to Mr. Taylor. This is another stone in the fabric of evidence that builds up the new spiritual truths. Such evidence has been given again and again by other workers in this field, but scarcely ever before by a person enjoying such a reputation in this special domain as does Mr. Taylor.

It was scarcely to be expected that Mr. Taylor’s statement, clear as it is, and which, had it had no connexion with spiritual phenomena, would have been welcomed and widely applauded, would be accepted. Even as Wm. Crookes, F.R.S., when he blessed Spiritualism, instead of cursing it as was expected, met with a tremendous amount of ridicule and malignity, so has Mr. Taylor. Those who heard the story, while admitting that Mr. Taylor was quite the ablest man in the ranks to enter on such an investigation, still felt that they would have been abler still, and yet no one could point out any other precautions which might have been taken. As one who was present I know the matter was entirely in his (Mr. Taylor’s) hands to do as seemed to him best. We were as desirous of truth as he was, and the unprejudiced mind could only find in it all, results which are perfectly conclusive of the reality of spirit photography. Mr. Stead gives publicity to one of the pictures obtained by Mr. Taylor, in the April number of Review of Reviews, and concludes his remarks by saying that “Everything, of course, depends upon the accuracy and honesty of the photographer, and the reputation of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Glendinning is above reproach,” and so is it also with the medium (Mr. Duguid) who only contributed his presence during the experiments, taking the least interest really of all those who were present.

It might be asked what kind of evidence would be accepted to prove the reality of the various phases of spiritual phenomena? Could a Tyndall or a Huxley have done more in an investigation of this kind than was done by Mr. Taylor, Mr. Glendinning, and those who were associated with them? Were photography the sole phenomenon associated with the movement, this might require to be investigated again and again, but for over thirty years certain positive statements have been made, and the evidence tendered, as to the reality of spirit raps, which psychical science can throw no light upon.

Cromwell Varley, F.R.S., with his acknowledged electrical experience, thought he could soon explode the spirit theory, but, instead, he became a devoted and courageous spiritualist. William Crookes, F.R.S., and Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S., have alike testified to the spirit raps, and to the phase of materialisation by which forms solid and tangible are built up. Mr. Crookes on many occasions has photographed these physicalised “forms,” and Dr. Wallace has vouched for the fact that with a spirit medium he got a photograph, and, on sending this abroad to other relatives, it was at once recognised as the portrait of his departed mother, and certain peculiarities which could not be imitated made the matter more certain.

Mr. Taylor has done nothing new, only corroborated what the many bold but practical people had found out before—the people who, to get at truth, had stood any number of hard names. They were not deceivers or idlers carried away by the light of an idea, but practical, sober-minded people, who trusted to nothing but experiment, and willing to tread down any amount of obstacles that truth might be reached. A man like Mr. Andrew Glendinning, certain of the facts of spirit communion, might, had he been selfishly inclined, have allowed the world to sneer on, and have troubled little about the accumulation of evidence; but the rich fruits he had gathered during many years made a naturally generous nature anxious to share them with others. The propagation of an unpopular idea was not likely to bring him honour of any kind. He knew well what all past experimenters had to face, but he was determined this question should be placed in such a position that there would be no reason for cavil. It has been with much patience, and amid many suspicions, that this careful investigator has helped to make palpable that there is a roadway between the “undiscovered country” of spirit life and this world of ours; that the transcendent intuitions of poets and seers have been founded on realities which are now being demonstrated.

We spiritualists have indeed got to know, beyond a doubt, what the human race had not learned in its thousands of years, viz., that death is a delusion. The lamp has been kindled at the light gleaming from the sky, and nothing can again put out the flame.

Spiritualism has a certain aim, and does not mean to drift. It has come for a divine purpose, to be sacredly cherished and unfolded. Even Mr. Stead, the longer he pursues his investigations, has less and less to say regarding the danger of investigation. He feels and acknowledges that he has entered upon a realm which may yet have many priceless gems to give up. The spiritualist must be a come-outer, able to break away from trammels and all despotic traditions. The fear of the Evil One, the bad odour associated with the name “witchcraft,” the unwise and weak bits in Old Testament history, stop him not in his investigations. “Thou shalt” and “thou shalt not” of tradition he asks the authority for, taking nothing on authority but truths which can be demonstrated.

If the world applauds those who joined together fire and water and iron and made it ready to do men’s bidding, if it reverences those who with audacious hands have taken the lightning from heaven and sent it to carry tidings between the ends of the earth, so will it one day surely reverence and honour the many spiritual workers who have toiled bravely to make it evident that there is no death. “He that walks with humble men,” says a wise teacher, “often stumbles over masses of unsunned gold where men, proud in emptiness, looked only for common dust.”

Why should intelligent men mock at small beginnings like the rise of the modern spiritual movement? The great institutions which have done the best work for mankind have had to face the same kind of sneer and ridicule. History repeats itself all the time. As Lecky eloquently points out, the Christian religion, which was surely a potent force for good or evil, was unseen by the leading minds who made up the intellectual force of the Roman empire. No single man of weight saw in it a conquering power, but glanced at it as something weak and ignoble. Carlyle regrets that the wise and penetrating Tacitus could only see in it a weak superstition, while he (Carlyle) held somewhat similar views about Spiritualism (which, according to Theodore Parker, has more evidence for its wonders than any other historic form of religion), as the best word he could offer was that it was “the religion of Dead Sea apes.”

That the idea of spirit communion will grow and find a place in the people’s hearts is as certain as that the sun shines each day. The best of minds have welcomed it, even those who could not tolerate it at first. It is indeed a choice revelation of higher import than all physical science has yet given. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wondered how the world, weeping for its dead, did not accord it warm welcome. She found in Spiritualism the richest consolation. This age has almost witnessed the abolition of slavery, and to-day there is not more antagonism to Spiritualism than sixty years since there was towards the anti-slavery party. Lloyd Garrison, afterwards a pronounced Spiritualist, was indeed bold for conscience sake, for truth and justice, when he started the Liberator. It did not seem as if the idea which possessed him could take root. When his enemies made inquiry as to Garrison’s movements in 1831, they reported that his office was in an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro-boy, and his supporters a few insignificant persons of all colours—and yet in spite of this early report his idea shook the world. The man and the negro-boy were pretty vigorous, and there was a great truth promulgated from that obscure hole.

Spiritualism, through the brave advocacy of heroic men and women, is at last becoming credible; more toleration is now shown for its claims. Phenomena once considered trivial now receive attention. Many are awakening to the new thought, and becoming better able to read the mystery of their past lives through what it teaches. The influence of a noted journalist like Mr. Stead is sure to keep the flame alight, and divert the thought of those who want rest on this most important of all problems that concern us. Thanks to such men as Wallace, Crookes, Stainton Moses, Taylor, and others, who have collected and verified facts so patiently, and demonstrated so surely that our dead live on, and take an affectionate interest in our goings out and comings in.

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By Andrew Glendinning.

Either the discoveries made by Mumler, Stainton Moses, Beattie and others, have now been confirmed, or a very eminent man, specially trained in rigid investigation, and an acknowledged expert in optics and the chemistry and manipulation of photography, has been the victim of a marvellous and inexplicable delusion.

To say that, notwithstanding all the precautions arranged, and carefully carried out by Mr. Taylor, he was time after time deceived, is to make a statement entirely opposed to probability and common sense, yet that is the false refuge to which some fly from whom better things might be expected. It exhibits strongly the credulity of incredulity, and an ability to strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. To print insinuations against the characters of those who investigate new and important facts, and to air the superior wisdom of the critics in what are apparently intended as witticisms, may serve the purpose of a day, but truth remains unsoiled and unassailable.

When George Cruikshank was preparing his pictorial brochure against Spiritualism, he was asked what he knew of the subject; he replied he knew nothing, and did not intend to inform himself till he had finished his book. That is the position of many in regard to spirit photography; the less they know about it, the more they feel qualified to judge; and a man who, for the first time, deigns to consider it, will, with the utmost confidence in his own opinion, condemn as fraudulent a genuine spirit photograph; yea, he will even profess to discover the mark of the scissors and the grain of the paper from which he imagines the photograph has been cut and copied.

Other objectors profess to have looked into the subject, but because they saw nothing they thought worth following up, therefore they practically conclude it is impossible any one else can be more fortunate.

That there are, and will continue to be, honest doubters goes without saying. There are scientific men who cannot believe in the possibility of this new thing—their minds are in old grooves. Others say the consensus of opinion of photographers is against it. Granted; and what of that? Any mere opinion as to whether spirit photography be possible does not in any way affect the question. Opinions do not alter facts. The facts in this matter are entirely in favour of the reality of spirit photography.

There need not now be any question as to whether spirit photography is possible. That was settled thirty years ago. There is nothing in the whole range of psychic phenomena for which the evidence is more conclusive. Had there been no other proof, the sworn evidence of scientific men, bankers, merchants, lawyers, photographers, and others, at the Mumler trial was overwhelmingly abundant. And since that trial there has been an accumulation of evidence from various quarters, yielding proof upon proof that spirit photography is a fact, and must be recognised as such. Contradicted it can be; that is easy to do. Sneered at it may be; that, too, is not difficult. A man may sneer at a fact which he is unable to comprehend, but a sneer proves nothing. Neither does an unsupported contradiction, whether the contradiction be made by a single person, or be made as a formal resolution by a society.

Some of the witnesses who were examined on oath at Mumler’s trial were experts, such as Samuel K. Fanshaw. That gentleman was one of the best miniature painters and facial experts in New York, and was also familiar with photographic manipulations. He said he went to Mumler an entire stranger, sat for a picture, witnessed the whole process, and received a likeness of his mother, which he said was more like her than the one he had painted from memory. Mr. Livermore, banker, had three negatives, in which his wife appeared in three different positions. He was accompanied by Mr. Hitchcock, of the New York Sun, and Mr. Gurney, a leading photographer. When Judge Dowling asked Mr. Livermore if he recognised these pictures as likenesses of his wife, his answer was, “Unmistakably.”

The spirit photograph of Abraham Lincoln has often been referred to. My copy of it is now too faint for reproduction, but it may be stated that when Mrs. Lincoln visited Mr. Mumler, she wore a thick crape veil, so thick that no one could distinguish a feature of her face. She travelled under an assumed name from Springfield (Illinois) to Boston, went direct from the train to Mumler’s house, gave her name as “Mrs. Lindall,” and did not remove her veil till the prepared plate was in the camera ready to be exposed. She obtained an excellent picture of her husband, standing behind her, with his hands resting on her shoulders, and looking down with a pleasant smile.

Prominent Americans, whose names are well known in this country, received through Mumler’s mediumship test spirit photographs of friends whom they recognised. Amongst these may be mentioned the Hon. Henry Wilson, then Vice-President of the United States, Judge Edmonds, and William Lloyd Garrison.

As a fair specimen of spirit photographs obtained through Mumler, I submit one (see opposite) got by the Hon. Moses A. Dow, who was editor and proprietor of the Waverley Magazine, Boston. The portrait was fully recognised by Mr. Dow as that of an amiable and accomplished young lady who had been his assistant editor. Before sitting for the portrait Mr. Dow had a séance with a lady medium, and received from her a message, which purported to be from his late assistant editor, instructing him when to go to Mumler’s for the picture, stating that she would appear with a wreath of lilies on her head, would stand by his side, would put her hand on his shoulder, and would bring him beautiful flowers. The photograph has lost some of its intensity; but in the original negative the wreath of white lilies is very distinct, and the spirit is holding between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand an opening moss-rosebud, the exact counterpart of one which Mr. Dow placed between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand, while her body lay in the coffin just before the funeral.

Similar tests have been obtained in photographs by other mediums. On one occasion Mr. Parkes had a visit from a friend who had promised to spend a forenoon and try experiments, but he was unwilling to sit for a portrait owing to sudden and severe illness, which he said would prevent any success. He was induced by his wife to try. While Mr. Parkes was preparing a plate with collodion his friend sat down to compose himself, and at once he became conscious of the presence of a spirit form by the kindly way passes were made over his head, curing him entirely of his painful illness. On the plate being developed there was a graceful female form standing beside him, with her head bent downwards towards him, and behind her—extending outwards and upwards from her shoulders—there was a patch of light seemingly intended to represent wings. The sitter afterwards solved the enigma by stating that the influence from the spirit was of such a sweet and delightful character, that it led him to hum to himself his favourite hymn:—

The imagery of the hymn found an embodiment in the photograph. “I have no wings—nor do I require wings,” subsequently explained the spirit, “but the appearance of wings was assumed to please father.” Her father was the sitter. Little thought he when waiting with a sad heart at the dying bed of a loved daughter, and trying to sing the children’s hymn, that the time would arrive when she would come from her spirit home to cheer him in hours of sorrow and give him her portrait, or that she would be able to render herself visible to normal sight, and with her arms round father and mother, kiss them both and speak to them both. Such are some of the secret blessings which come to those who wait, work, and pray.

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The difficulties and discouragements which arise in trying to photograph unseen forms do not exist to the same extent in photographing what are called “materialised forms.” Some excellent results in the latter have been obtained by various persons. The most notable instances are those by Mr. Wm. Crookes, F.R.S., recorded in the last chapter of his valuable book, Phenomena of Spiritualism, on the photographing of the spirit, Katie King, by the electric light. At these experiments Mr. Crookes had five complete sets of photographic apparatus fitted up, all of which were used at the same time at each séance, and some excellent negatives were obtained. “But,” adds Mr. Crookes, “photography is as inadequate to depict the perfect beauty of Katie’s face as words are powerless to describe her charms of manner. Photography may, indeed, give a map of her countenance; but how can it reproduce the brilliant purity of her complexion, or the ever-varying expression of her most mobile features, now overshadowed with sadness when relating some of the bitter experiences of her past life, now smiling with all the innocence of happy girlhood when she had collected my children round her, and was amusing them by recounting anecdotes of her adventures in India?

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Amongst the important papers contributed to the Psychical Congress at Chicago, one was sent, at the request of the Committee, by Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S. In it he says:—

Dr. Wallace has given a great deal of thoughtful consideration to this subject, and has a large collection of genuine spirit photographs. In his book, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism,[14] he devotes sixteen pages specially to the topic. These pages—like everything else from Dr. Wallace’s pen—are worthy of careful study, the following sentences particularly so:—

Dr. Wallace gives minute details of some experiments which resulted in his obtaining photographs which he recognised as unmistakable likenesses of his mother.

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When Mr. Duguid was first asked to come to London to give test séances to Mr. Taylor, it was hoped that Mr. Stainton Moses would have so far recovered strength as to be present at the experiments. He took great interest in the subject, and many of his photographs have been reproduced by Mr. Arthur Maltby and Mr. Acton. On March 19th and 26th Mr. Maltby gave lectures in the Athenæum Hall, and exhibited on the lantern screen a number of spirit-photograph transparencies. Here are a few notes made at the meeting on March 19th, by Mr. Burns, jun. Mr. Maltby said:—

Mr. Maltby then showed on the lantern screen about forty spirit photographs, and other pictures connected with the subject, all of which he explained. Many of the photographs of spirits had been recognised by the sitters and other relatives. He then spoke of the spiritual advantages to be derived from spirit communion, and after an invocation he thus concluded:—

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At a séance held twenty-nine years ago, the following question was put as to spirit photographs: “We do not comprehend how these are produced. Can you give us any information as to the process gone through?” The answer given through the medium, Mr. Peter A. Chesser, marine engineer, may be of interest to some. It was this: “Spirits impress their image on the plate by depositing thereon repeated layers of magnetism. According to their respective powers of affording this, so is the impression more or less distinct. The magnetism must be of the same texture or affinity as that possessed by the operator; it is accomplished by a rapid vibration of the spirits’ magnetic emanation in depositing layer after layer, and the process is this: The operator by frequent manipulation saturates his materials with his aura—I do not mean the animal aura of mesmerism, but his spiritual aura; this, by repeated impression on his part from repeated manipulations (which require considerable time, since he is still in the body and has, therefore, more difficulty in, as it were, filtering this spirit-aura through the pores of his body than have the spirits, who are not trammelled in like manner), at last leaves a positive viscidity on his materials which serves to retain the first impressions thrown by the spirits upon it. When they from affinity cohere, the image is rapidly built up on this superstructure. Any person through the pores of whose body-material this spirit-aura can readily pass is in a condition to take photographs of the kind to which you refer. Much passiveness, however, is requisite.”

This reply refers, of course, to the photographs in class No. I., mentioned in the Preface, not to pictures which are produced by spirit precipitation.

In experiments made with Mr. Chesser at that time (1864), we used the wet-collodion process, on new glass plates which were cut for us by a glass merchant. The plates were carefully cleansed and finally washed and rubbed by myself with spirits of wine. We never used a plate twice in such experiments. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well and carefully. We obtained some pictures which would have been of interest had we possessed more knowledge of the subject, but we aimed too high and were not satisfied with slow progress. In fact we wanted a clear and good likeness of one of our relatives, so several plates were broken and put in the dust-bin which, in the light thrown on the subject by later experience, we should have prized. One plate of that period was kept because it had a shadowy image of the medium, although he was not within the field of view when the plate was exposed. Unfortunately, the photograph was not intensified; for when I was washing it at the tap, the water got between the plate and the collodion, and away went the film, but, although torn, I managed to spread part of it on the glass again. The following statement was made by one of our unseen friends with respect to that picture. Our questions were put through the medium, and the answers were given by automatic writing.

Question: We have here a photograph upon which there exists so much diversity of opinion that we want to know what it is?

Answer: It is yourself, distinctly enough, but as we see your next question we will proceed to explain how it came about that such impression was produced on the plate.

The Medium: Stop a moment—do you mean that it is my body or my spirit?

Answer: We mean your spirit-aura. Your body could not be taken without your being either directly in front of the camera or reflected into its focus. Perhaps it will be better to explain some of the peculiarities attending this phase, as it involves many points of interest. You were standing in front of the camera for about a quarter of an hour before the picture was taken or the plate prepared. In obedience to a suggestion, you were awaiting the approach of the spirit who told you he could be photographed, and, in order to retain your passivity, you remained standing where you were. When you saw him seated you went to prepare the plate, but not without leaving your emanation behind, which, on the plate being exposed, was duly photographed. The proof is easy. Again stand in the same position for, say, ten minutes, then leave the room, and let a good clairvoyant be introduced and questioned as to what he sees, when he will immediately describe you as supplying the place you have vacated, with all the accessories pertaining thereto. But although he could at all times see this, your emanation could not at all times be impressed on the plate. Returning to another matter: Man does not enjoy only one image of himself, but six, embracing three individualities, viz., body, soul, and spirit; and three emanations proceeding therefrom, respectively, body-odyle, spirit-aura, and soul-essence. These must on no account be confounded with each other, as is too often the case. Respecting the last—soul and soul-essence—as it is more remote, being seldom brought into play outside the human tenement (unless under peculiar circumstances), we do not intend speaking of it in connexion with the present topic; so direct your attention more particularly to the remaining four, partly in explanation of their attributes, and partly in reference to photography. First, then, the body is most easily impressed upon the plate, requiring fewer vibrations than its odylic form, after which, in order, come spirit, spirit-aura, soul and soul-essence, the last requiring millions of vibrations, which, although costing more effort, takes no more time, in many cases. It depends on the sphere of the spirit. You may form an idea of this by taking into account the incredible power of motion which spirits possess. Now, the odylic emanation may be projected by the will from the material body, but the spirit cannot itself be so projected; it must be, as it were, allowed to flow forth of its own accord. Similarly, the spirit, when thus free to move, can project its aura in like manner. In both these cases the emanation, by its velocity, becomes from necessary friction respectively electrified, or magnetic and spiritualised; that is to say, the emanations become endowed with a certain amount of vital energy, life-force, or, in fact, of existence. The mere life-force does not imply intelligence also, but it does when the emanation is spiritualised. Man’s will is from his spirit; hence, the will can project the odyle, but not the spirit, for when the spirit is absent the will is absent, dormant in reality (as the soul never interferes with the will), and the trance state results. It is quite possible for the spirit, under favourable conditions, to project its aura at the same time as the projection of the odyle. The two emanations coming into contact would form a union of the life-element with the thinking principle. We do not mean with thought, but with thought-material—thought being supplied only by the spirit, the ideas or germs of thought being suggested by the soul and elaborated by the spirit. Without this constant emanation, or fluid impulse (viz., the soul-essence) to urge it, the spirit would not think; it would be inactive, the soul-essence being its vivifying impulse to activity. Now, when the odyle and aura have coalesced, a new body, complete in all its functions, is not therefore the result, but merely a body-elementary, i.e., imbued with life-force, and furnished with thought-material, minus thought. This, then, is the eidolon, image, you occasionally hear of. Still, you must not suppose it to be severed from the parent body; by no means: it is linked to it by attraction, gravitation, and affinity, or that element of which you can form ideas for practical purposes, but of which you do not understand the nature. But, you may say, there are instances of eidolons speaking; now, if it has not thought, how can it speak rationally? Let us explain: thoughts are produced by vibrations of their materials, and vibration is produced by the soul-essence through the spirit, the soul being the prime reservoir of motion (intellectually). Now, suppose the eidolon to be questioned by the person to whom it appeared, this question being the result of thought, vibration would communicate the motion to the intellectual materials of the eidolon, and this vibration would be instantly felt by the parent body, and an answer returned accordingly.

In reference to the suggestion that spirit manifestations may be the work of eidolons, the reply was: “As departed spirits do exist, and can communicate with mortals—of which there is abundant proof—there is no need to suppose a state of things which does not exist in order to account for what does.”

An explanation was also given as to how eidolons are formed, but that does not concern our present subject.

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Some investigators seem to think that the same spirit forms ought not to appear on plates with different people, and that if they do so the circumstance warrants suspicion, if it is not even a proof of fraud. This is an entire mistake, and a mistake which can only be made by those who have not investigated the matter in a practical manner for any considerable length of time. Apply the same reasoning to materialisation, or to direct spirit writing, and see what it will lead to. Mr. E. A. D. Opie, of Adelaide, in a lecture on “Spirit Photography,” delivered on July 1st, 1891, before the Adelaide Spiritualistic Association, made this remark: “It is necessary to accept all second-hand reports of this phase of Spiritualism with more than usual reserve, as, in one instance at least, I have discovered, on comparing reports of the obtaining of the same picture by different people.” Mr. Opie in these words probably expresses an opinion held by many others, held in London as well as in Adelaide. And what are we to infer from it? That if two sitters get on their plates a picture of the same spirit form, it will be a proof of fraud? Not at all. Of course, if the pictures have been produced by a dishonest operator, they may be fraudulent. That is not a thing to dispute. But the fact is that there are in existence a number of genuine spirit photographs in which the same abnormal images are found with various sitters. Most of these have differences in size, in attitude, and in spirit drapery on the forms, but the likenesses are identical. Some of them have been taken in different places, with different cameras, with plates purchased in different cities and used by careful investigators.

Mr. Opie’s lecture was published in Adelaide as a pamphlet of twenty-two pages; it is the result of much reading, and it is but fair to Mr. Opie to note that he had no practical acquaintance with the subject.

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Mr. Parkes gave some séances in 1875 in Mr. Burns’s rooms, 15 Southampton Row. On one occasion three sitters got spirit forms on three plates. At the same meeting I requested that I might be photographed. A clairvoyante sitting near me said I ought to get something good, for she could see a number of spirits near me. When the plate was developed there were eleven spirit forms on it.

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Several spirit photographs of children have been obtained. One of these is the interesting one of “Edina’s” little boy, a full account of which is in Mr. Robertson’s paper in this volume. Another child’s portrait was got unexpectedly at a test séance in April, 1892. The arrangements and operations were under my superintendence. I invited a lady (Mrs. J. N. Anderson) to take a place near the sitter in order to try whether her mediumistic power would aid the experiment. I was vexed at not getting the special result I wanted, but soon I had cause for gladness in the joy which the portrait obtained brought to the hearts of the child’s father and mother. To the notes of the séance, which were signed by all present, I added the following words as a postscript: “The child’s dress exhibits what was not known to any person outside of Mr. Anderson’s family.” That test is of a kind to impress a mother’s mind. Previous to the child’s departure he was lying cold in bed, when his mother took from a drawer a night-dress of one of her older boys, and put it on the ailing child. This night-dress had a certain kind of frill round the neck-band; and that night-dress, with its frill and long sleeves, is represented in the photograph. There was no picture in existence from which the photograph could have been copied; and the likeness is not only attested by the parents, but by friends of the family, and by Mr. James Robertson, president of the Glasgow Society, who had often seen the boy.

Some one may ask, how was the photograph of the child obtained, seeing he was too young to come unaided to stand before the camera, or to impress his image on the prepared plate without the camera? An interesting question, no doubt. To it I reply, “I do not know: I am stating facts, not trying to explain them.”

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In the Review of Reviews for April, 1893, Mr. Stead suggested that additional experiments should be tried to obtain psychic pictures without the agency of light or the camera. An opportunity occurred in July to try the experiment with a lady who is not known to Spiritualistic or occult circles—albeit she is a good medium and clairvoyant. A dry plate from my packet of unused plates was placed in a mahogany slide. The lady then held the slide between the palms of her hands. She was under continuous and close observation in a well-lighted room, and one end of the slide was held by myself. On putting the plate in the developer, the picture of a child appeared on it. The plate was not tampered with by any one, nor was there any opportunity given to do so, nor was it exposed to light until after it was developed and fixed. A reproduction of the picture is given herewith (see page 145).

Mr. Stainton Moses, at a meeting of the London Spiritualist Alliance, advised those who intended to experiment in photography to employ a stereoscopic camera. He considered that the genuineness of spirit photographs so obtained could not be called in question. This opinion has also been held by other investigators. In June, 1892, some spirit photographs were submitted to an eminent scientific gentleman, together with copies of the notes, detailing fully the conditions under which the pictures were obtained, and giving the names and addresses of all those who were present at the experiments. The opinion of the gentleman was expressed in writing as follows, viz.:—“You have adopted all the precautions I can think of as being necessary. The only one thing else I can think of is the employment of a binocular camera. That is the final Court of Appeal, and a spirit photograph taken by it can leave no room for cavil.” To those who endorse this opinion I may state I have eight photographs taken with binocular cameras, all obtained under test conditions, and all having abnormal figures which are perfectly stereoscopic per se, as well as in relation to the sitters. Halves of two of these photographs accompany these miscellanea.[15] They were obtained on the 21st October, 1893, on dry plates purchased from Mr. Doublet, and the whole of the manipulations, so far as not done by myself, were under my close and continuous observation.

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The results of Mr. Taylor’s investigations are a prophecy and a lesson. A prophecy of the coming time when photographs of our friends, who have passed from earth-life, may be obtainable by the co-operation with us of spirits who desire to help us, and who will find opportunities and conditions to enable them to do so. When Mr. Stead’s proposal for a spiritual bureau becomes an accomplished fact, we may hope, and may reasonably expect, that spirit photography will be a department of it. Many strange events, which, fifty years ago, seemed as unlikely, are now of frequent occurrence. Mr. Taylor’s experiments are a lesson, as well as a prophecy. A lesson to the materialistic spirit of the age, to guide by new paths to old truths. The materialism of to-day is dogmatic and active; it claims science as its handmaid, it boasts that it has sounded the universe and found in it nothing but the material husks of existence, that all spiritual beings are nonentities—the product of diseased brains—of superstitious minds; its scholars have explored space from star to star and have learned that there is no God; that man passes at death into cold oblivion, into blank nothingness. To use the language of its leading teachers:—“Unprejudiced philosophy is compelled to reject the idea of an individual immortality, and of a personal continuance after death. With the decay and dissolution of its material substratum, through which alone it has acquired a conscious existence and become a person, and upon which it was dependent, the spirit must cease to exist!”

Again:—“Experience and daily observation teach us that the spirit perishes with its material substratum; that man dies.”

And:—“There never has been, and never will be, a real apparition, which could make us believe or assume that the soul of a deceased individual continues to exist: it is dead, never to return.”

And once more:—“Spirits and ghosts are only seen by diseased or superstitious individuals.”

Undoubtedly these views are quite honestly arrived at and held by many. By some through early training. By some in the rebound from bigoted and God-dishonouring creeds. By others again in painful perplexity of mind, while trying to solve the problem of existence. But a universe without a Deity, and man without a soul, present little to boast of in the shape of the consolation they can bring to suffering humanity.

Every opinion a man holds must to some extent influence his life, and the knowledge that a man will live after death ought very considerably to affect his entire character.

We know there is no such thing as death, that what we call by that name is really a birth into a higher sphere—or state of existence—an entrance into a holier and happier region, in whose precincts “we will be enabled through untold ages to cultivate our intellects, perfect our moral characters, and enjoy to the full extent of our capabilities all that is pure, good, true, and godly.

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Some persons admit the reality of supermundane photography, but say it is the work of the Devil. How long is this old myth—this theological superstition—to be flaunted in the face of investigators? how long to be set as a bugbear—a “bogey-man”—not merely to frighten naughty children, but to scare grown men and women, to bar mental progress, and to stereotype from age to age distorted views of God, and of spiritual law and truth?

Some thoughts expressed by “Imperator” to Mr. Stainton Moses, relating to this imaginary prince of evil, are so excellent that no apology is required for appending a few of them: “Cease to be perplexed by thoughts of an imagined Devil. For the honest, pure, and truthful soul there is no Devil nor Prince of Evil such as theology has feigned. Evil comes not nigh him, the adversaries flee from his presence, and the powers of evil are powerless before him. He is guarded around by angel guards, ministered to by bright spirits, who watch over him and direct his footsteps. For him there waits a career of progressive increase in knowledge, and in all that elevates and ennobles the intelligence. He need fear no Devil, unless he creates one for himself. His affinity for good draws around him influences for good. He is fenced around by guardians; nor can he, save by voluntary surrender, fall a victim to the foe.”[16]

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In narrating his experiments, Mr. Taylor confined himself to a statement of facts; he did not set forth the spiritualistic hypothesis, nor did he say that any other would account for the results. Some members of the Association before whom he read his paper were angry because Spiritualists claimed the results as an argument in support of Spiritualism. But why be angry? Any explanation must cover the whole ground. And the explanation offered by Spiritualists is the only one which covers the whole ground. After all, the facts are only one department of the wonders of modern Spiritualism. What is the good of the latter? is asked by those who have not come within the range of its beneficent teachings. The good of it? It has freed the mind from the bondage of dogma, it has swept away the fear of death and the gloom of the grave, it has purified the affections, it has brought much-needed consolation in some of the hours of earth’s bitterest sorrows, it has brought us into communion with those we love and whom we are wont to call dead—given us the knowledge that they live, and given us a reason which appeals to our personal experience that as they live in a higher state of existence, we also shall live after the change we call death.

Our grandest triumphs of science are but trifles compared with what is before us to be realised in the higher life. Yet men and women of education and refinement can content themselves with referring the most mysterious spirit phenomena to conjuring and delusion, and can descend to the inanity of trying to shelve the whole matter by attacking the characters of those whom they ought rather to thank—to bless as the instruments through whom the death-blow must be given to the doctrine which denies the existence of the spirit world, and of our after-life.

At the Photographic Congress held at the World’s Fair, Judge Bradwell, of Chicago, was chairman of the opening meeting. In his introductory remarks, after summarising the work done by photographers, he said: “I have no doubt there are those within the sound of my voice who will live to see the time when photographic reproductions will be sent from country to country as quickly as are telegraphic messages to-day. In conclusion, may I not ask, who shall say that the camera, adjusted by the hand that feels, and focussed by the sensitive eye that sees beyond, with the aid of the intensely sensitive dry plates, shall not bring to light and view the forms of our departed friends, and solve the problem of immortality and life?”

Judge Bradwell is answered. The veil is lifted.

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