The Skeptical Sir David Brewster
Home’s mediumship had long been a matter of controversy among English scientists. Home, born in Scotland, had gone to the United States as a child, returning to England in 1855. At that time, he lived in a London hotel owned by a Mr. Cox in Jermyn Street. In his autobiography, Wallace gives attention to Sir David Brewster’s experiences with Home. Brewster, a noted physicist, attended a séance with Home at Cox’s Hotel and another at Ealing, determined to expose any trickery. After a newspaper gave an account of what happened, Brewster wrote to the editor giving his own testimony: “It is quite true that I saw at Cox’s Hotel, in company with Lord Brougham and at Ealing, in company with Mrs. Trollope, several mechanical effects which I was unable to explain. But although I could not account for all these effects, I never thought of ascribing them to spirits stalking beneath the drapery of the table; and I saw enough to satisfy myself that they could all be produced by human hands and feet, and to prove to others that some of them, at least, had such an origin” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, p. 287).
Here Brewster appears to be saying that the things he observed were produced by trickery. But a Mr. Coleman, who spoke with Brewster shortly after the séance, wrote a letter to the paper giving the following account of their conversation (Wallace 1905, v. 2, p. 288).
“Do you, Sir David, think these things were produced by trick?” “No, certainly not,” Brewster is said to have replied.
“Is it a delusion, think you?” “No; that is out of the question.” “Then what is it?”
“I don’t know; but spirit is the last thing I give in to.”
Brewster replied with a letter of his own. Although he maintained his skeptical attitude, he did give some intriguing descriptions of what happened at Cox’s Hoteclass="underline" “When all our hands were upon the table noises were heard—rappings in abundance; and, finally, when we rose up, the table actually rose, as appeared to me, from the ground. This result I do not pretend to explain. . . . A small hand-bell to be rung by the spirits, was placed on the ground near my feet. I placed my feet round it in the form of an angle, to catch any intrusive apparatus. The bell did not ring; but when taken across to a place near Mr. Home’s feet, it speedily came across, and placed its handle in my hand” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, pp. 288–289).
In his autobiography, Wallace noted that Brewster had written a letter to some of his family members shortly after the séance at Cox’s Hotel. In this letter, Brewster expressed himself somewhat differently than he did in his highly skeptical newspaper letters, written half a year later. After explaining how he and Lord Brougham came to Mr. Cox’s hotel to see Home, Brewster went on to say: “We four sat down at a moderately sized table, the structure of which we were invited to examine. In a short time the table shuddered, and a tremulous motion ran up all our arms; at our bidding these motions ceased and returned. The most unaccountable rappings were produced in various parts of the table, and the table actually rose from the ground when no hand was upon it. A larger table was produced, and exhibited similar movements. . . . A small hand-bell was then laid down with its mouth on the carpet, and after lying for some time it actually rang when nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in my hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham. These were the principal experiments; we could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture how they could be produced by any kind of mechanism. Hands are sometimes seen and felt, the hand often grasps another, and melts away as it were under the grasp” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, pp. 289–290).
Wallace noted some discrepancies between this letter and Sir David’s later accounts: “He told the public that he had satisfied himself that all could have been done by human hands and feet; whereas in his earlier private letter he terms them unaccountable, and says that he could not conjecture how they were done. Neither did he tell his public of the tremulous motion up his arms, while he denied that the bell rang at all, though he had before said that it actually rang, where nothing could have touched it” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, p. 290). Wallace stated that “a similar tendency has prevailed in all the scientific opponents of spiritualism” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, p. 290).
St. George mivart and the miracles at lourdes
A scientist with a more favorable attitude to spiritualistic phenomena was St. George Mivart. Having become acquainted with spiritualism through talks with Wallace and by reading his booklet edition of “The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural,” Mivart decided to conduct his own investigations. In the winter of 1870, Mivart was in Naples, Italy, where Mrs. Guppy, a medium known to Wallace, resided with her husband. Wallace provided Mivart with a letter of introduction. Mivart attended three séances with Mrs. Guppy. During one séance, he received correct answers to questions he asked mentally. This greatly surprised him. At another séance, which took place in a darkened room, flowers mysteriously appeared. Mivart explained in a letter to Wallace that “the door was locked, the room searched, and all requisite precautions taken. I was not surprised, because of all I had heard from you and others; but the phenomenon was to me convincing. One such fact is as good as a hundred” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, pp. 300–301). In his letter, Mivart listed some conclusions. Among them: “I. I have encountered a power capable of removing sensible objects in a way altogether new to me. II. I have encountered an intelligence other than that of the visible assistants. III. In my séances this intelligence has shown itself capable of reading my thought” (Wallace 1905, v. 2, p. 301).
A few years later, Mivart visited Lourdes, a pilgrimage place in France where miraculous cures occurred, supposedly by the intervention of the Virgin Mary. During his stay at Lourdes, Mivart conducted a study of the cures. Wallace received from Mivart a long letter, dated April 5, 1874, about his findings. Mivart gave several case histories, gathered from French physicians, including Dr. Dozens (Wallace 1905, v. 2, pp. 302–304). Here follow two of them.
Blaisette Soupevue, a woman of fifty, had a severe eye infection lasting several years and affecting her sight. Her eyelids were turned out, lashless, and covered with fleshy growths. Doctors Dozens and Vergez pronounced the case incurable. After bathing her eyes with water from Lourdes, the woman completely recovered her sight, the growths disappeared, and her eyelashes began to grow again.