WCP7089

[1] [p. 706]

NOTE C.—A letter of Dr. Carpenter's has also 'at his own request' been forwarded to me, in which he attempts to justify the conduct narrated above. In Nature for November 15 Mr. Crookes printed the letter which was given in fac-simile in American newspapers, with remarks of a somewhat similar character to those I have here made. Dr. Carpenter, writing three days afterwards (November 18), wishes it to be stated in Fraser as his 'own correction,' that this letter was not carried away from England by Eva Fay; adding—'What was carried away by Eva Fay was a much stronger attestation, publicly given in full detail by Mr. Crookes in a communication to the Spiritualist;'—of which communication I give an abstract in an appendix to this article. This obliges me to add a few further particulars.

In Nature, October 25, in a note to a letter about the Radiometer, Dr. Carpenter says: "'On the strength of a private letter from Mr. Crookes, which has been published in fac-simile in the American newspapers, a certain Mrs. Or Miss Eva Fay announced her "spiritualistic" performances as endorsed by Prof. Crookes and other Fellows of the Royal Society.'" This supposed letter was 'set forth' in detail in last month's Fraser as above stated.

In Nature, November 8, Dr. Carpenter says, 'And the now notorious impostor, Eva Fay, has been able to appeal to the "endorsement" given to her by the "scientific tests" applied to her by "Professor Crookes and other Fellows of the Royal Society," which had been published (I now find) by Mr. Crookes himself in the Spiritualist in March, 1875.'

From the above it follows, that it was between October 25 and November 8 that Dr. Carpenter first became acquainted with Mr. Crookes' account of his experiments with Eva Fay; and finding (from Mr. Crookes' publication of it) that his own detailed account of the contents of the fac-simile letter was totally incorrect, he now makes a fresh assertion—that Eva Fay 'carried away with her' a copy of the Spiritualist containing Mr. Crookes' experiments. This is highly probable, but we venture to doubt if Dr. Carpenter has any authority to state it as a fact; while even if she did, that article does not, any more than the fac-simile letter, justify Dr. Carpenter's allegations. It contains not one word about the 'Spiritualistic nature of her manifestations,'—it does not state that he 'in common with other Fellows of the Royal Society had satisfied himself of their genuineness'—it does not say that he 'willingly gave her the benefit of his attestation.' It is a detailed account of a beautiful scientific experiment, and nothing more. Yet Dr. Carpenter still maintains (in his letter now before me) that his statements are correct, 'except on the one point—one of form not of substance—that of the address of the letter in which Mr. Crookes attested the genuineness of the mediumship of Eva Fay!'

It thus appears that, when he wrote the article in last month's Fraser, and the letter in Nature of October 25, Dr. Carpenter had not seen either the fac-simile letter or the account in the Spiritualist, and there is nothing to show that he even knew of the existence of the latter article; yet on the strength of mere rumour, newspaper cuttings, or imagination, he gives the supposed contents of a letter from Mr. Crookes, emphasising such obnoxious words as 'Spiritualistic' and 'manifestations,' which Mr. Crookes never once employed, and giving a totally false impression of what Mr. Crookes had really done. So enamoured is he of this accusation, that he drags it into a purely scientific discussion on the Radiometer, and now, in his very latest communication, makes no apology or retractation, but maintains all his statements as correct 'in substance,' and declares that he 'cannot see that he has anywhere passed beyond the tone of gentlemanly discussion.'