Moreover, Harnack's great confidence in the veracity of the lady and her husband is merely subjective, and does not fully prove their truthfulness.

I have good authority for stating that this lady, who is supposed to be able to deflect the magnetic needle, is the very same person as the spiritist medium called the femme masquee, about whom Wilhelm Winkler has written in his work, Zur Reform des sogenannten Spirilismus, Leipzig, 1905. I have experimented on her on three different occasions during the last eleven years. These opportunities have also enabled me to follow up the "evolution" of the lady's powers. I first of all investigated the "raps" which caused such a stir in the spiritistic world. A feuillelon of the Hamburger Nachrichten, of March 29th, 1905, contains an account of one of the sittings I then held with this lady; it was written by Eugen Reich el, who was present. The experiments were made in my house, and a number of vigorous and loud raps were heard as long as the lady wore her boots, but directly I got her to wear list-slippers the sounds were gentle and dull, and when I held her feet down there were no sounds at all. There can be no doubt that she made the raps with her feet, toes, etc., etc. I again experimented with her about three or four years ago.

At that time the question investigated was the supposed deflection of the magnetic needle, and also whether other objects, such as wooden ones, or a ring suspended by a thread, would move in her presence without any mechanical aid. A whole series of sittings that I held with the lady - who, moreover, came to me most willingly and charged no fee - gave none but negative results. I now come to the third period in which I experimented with this lady. In the years that had intervened she had greatly improved as a medium. She could see spirits, and there are numbers of photographs of spirits extant, of spirits whom she is said to have materialized by means of her mediumistic power. She was now also said to be able to remove objects from cases that were firmly fastened and sealed, without any mechanical assistance. Unfortunately, when this experiment was tried in my house, it proved a complete failure; even the spirits did not appear, though the voices of a few supposed spirits were heard. I have never doubted for one moment that this was nothing but ventriloquism on the part of the medium, who may, or may not have been in a trance.

Test experiments - i.e., experiments carried out under strictly scientific conditions, which the husband had promised I should have the opportunity of making, were not made after this. Indeed, Mr. X. wrote to me and said that it was generally thought that I was quite unable to provide a proper milieu in my house for the occurrence of occult phenomena. I can only hope that the lady's spouse, who put me off to some later date, will not defer the fulfilment of his promise ad Calendas graecas. In any case, Harnack must admit, that if spirits appear to a lady, and her presence is said to render solid substances penetrable - the experiment failed when tried before me - we ought to be particularly cautious when dealing with experiments made with the magnetic needle.

I have expressly given a somewhat detailed account of this case, as it affords a warning against the naivete and credulity with which scientists so often enter a domain of research that is new to them. On this point I refer to what was said on page 482. It is an unfortunate necessity, but men of science must always mistrust persons who are strangers to them.

I am not for one moment asserting that it is utterly impossible for human beings to deflect the magnetic needle without the aid of contact or friction. A priori negation is an error often committed in scientific circles, unfortunately. There can hardly be any question of impossibility where science is concerned. Only, we must demand the most exact demonstration where such far-reaching assertions are made. And we will do so in this case to prevent discredit falling on the extremely interesting experiments Harnack has made on himself. It is necessary that Harnack should experiment on others, and only under the strictest conditions.

The greatest caution is necessary for the very reason that occultists and magnetopaths are only too ready to put their own interpretation on all such things. As a matter of fact, magnetopaths certainly obtain no support from the experiments which Harnack made on himself. For if we consider the capacity for generating electricity a proof of the existence of curative magnetism, Harnack must be a very good healing magnetizer, but then the magnetopaths would first of all have to prove that they possess this capacity. Apart from this, we can quite easily generate the same quantity of electricity by means of the electrical machine, which means that persons possessing magnetic power are quite superfluous.

I have hitherto only discussed the mental relations between human beings and mineral magnetism. But it has been asserted that certain special relations subsist between hypnosis and mineral magnetism. I have already spoken of the application of the magnet for inducing hypnosis (p. 46), as well as of the action of the hypnoscope (p. 48). But the magnet is also said to produce special effects during hypnosis. The phenomena of transference must first be mentioned here. According to the school of Charcot, transference means that certain phenomena, influenced by some aesthesio-genetic expedient, particularly the magnet, change the place of their appearance. Charcot says that such phenomena occur in hysterical patients. Thus, contractures on the right side can be transferred to the left, so also can anaesthesias. But most experimenters supposed that the subject's expectation produced the effect, and not the magnet. They also found that sealing-wax, bones, etc., produced the same result, provided only that the subject expected it (Westphal). The school of Charcot say that phenomena of transference, similar to those observed in the case of hystericals, also take place in hypnosis.