WCP7088

[1] [p. 411]

This reads very like truth, and looks very suspicious, but it happens that another gentleman who was present at the séance in question took away with him some of the sand for the purpose of subjecting it to microscopic examination; and from that gentleman— Mr. J. Traill Taylor, Editor of the "British Journal of Photography" and an occasional contributor to other scientific journals—I have received the following note on the subject:—

I remember the séance to which you have alluded, and which was held on the evening of August 23, 1874, during the Belfast Meeting of the British Association, which I was attending. At that time, among other bye-pursuits, I was engaged in the microscopical examination of sand of various kinds, and I omitted no opportunity of procuring samples. During my visit to Ireland I obtained specimens from the sea-coast of Counties Down and Armagh, as well as from the shores of Lough Neagh. When the shower of sand fell upon the table during the séance I appropriated a quantity of it for subsequent [2] [p. 412] examination. The most careful inspection under the microscope satisfied me that it was absolutely identical with some that had been procured from the Antrim coast of Lough Neagh, while it differed in certain respects from that obtained at the sea coast. Having subsequently seen a communication on this subject in the "English Mechanic" (by a writer who, I believe, had not been present at the séance), the purport of which was that the séance sand was similar to some obtained from a part of the sea-coast where the medium had been recently residing, I again subjected these various sands to microscopical examination, only to be confirmed in my previous conclusion. I followed this by a chemical test as follows:—I washed each sample of sand in a test-tube of distilled water, to which I then added a solution of nitrate of silver. A precipitate of chloride of silver was obtained from all the samples of sea-sand, but no precipitate was formed by that which came from Lough Neagh nor by that obtained at the séance, which last, under this chemical test behaved in a manner precisely similar to the Lough Neagh sample. I recollect that the result of this test was my feeling sure that the writer to whom I have alluded had not had the same data as those in my possession for arriving at a conclusion. In about a year after that time I threw away over a dozen different samples of sand, including those to which I have referred, as I required for another purpose the boxes in which they had been kept.