843 B. A somewhat similar but less complex set of experiments by Mr. G. M. Smith was given in the Journal S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 318-20, as follows:-

Custom House, Amble, Northumberland, October 14th, 1892.

I have for many years been familiar with the usual modus operandi and results in table-tilting, but I have no sympathy with so-called Spiritualists as such. Recently, when reading Phantasms of the Living, I was struck with the experiment in table-tilting recorded there, vol. i. pp. 77-81,1 and I made arrangements with a few friends to meet in my house to experiment in table-tilting (a thing which none of them had ever seen) with the view of adding some of the novel features of the case referred to in Phantasms of the Living.

On September 9th last Mrs. Smith (my wife), three young men, and myself sat down with the palms of our hands on a small deal table in my house. In a few minutes the table commenced to tilt. What follows is copied from a note written immediately after the experiment and read over to all present at the sitting. I asked the questions, and in doing so, merely for convenience, used the language and phraseology peculiar among Spiritualists on such occasions.

Q. Will the influence which is controlling this table please tilt it once when "No" is meant and twice when "Yes" is meant? A. Yes (two tilts or raps). Q. Is it a spirit that is controlling this table? A. Yes. Q. Is it the spirit of a friend of any one at the table? A. Yes.

After a few more such questions and answers - Q. Will you please rap (tilt) the table when the letters of the alphabet are pointed to which spell out your name? A. Yes.

I then asked Mrs. Smith to withdraw from the table and sit in a corner of the room about six feet from the table, and to take a small book with the alphabet in it, and commencing to point at "A" to move slowly towards the end and back to "A" again, and so on, observing at what letters the table tilted. Although she was visible to all at the table, yet she was so placed that no one could form any idea of what letters were being pointed to. These preparations, which only took about a minute, being finished, we then continued.

1 The reference is to the experiments by Professor Richet, just quoted.

Almost at once the table commenced to tilt at irregular short intervals, and when it had tilted seven or eight times, I, being anxious to know whether anything coherent was being spelled out, asked Mrs. Smith what were the results, and she answered that the table had tilted at the letters H-o-w-e-y J-a. The name of a young man a few years deceased, and known by name at any rate to all at the table, was at once recognised, his name being James Howey. I then asked: Q. Is it the spirit of James Howey? A. Yes. Q. Have you met your mother since she passed out? A. Yes. Q. Is she with you now? A. Yes. Q. Does she wish to communicate? A. Yes. Q. With any one at the table? A. No. Q. With any of her family? A. Yes. Q. With Miss Howey? A. Yes. Q. Will she rap (tilt) the table when the letters of the alphabet are pointed to which spell out her communication? A. Yes. The table commenced to tilt again as before, but it was not interrupted, and when it had stopped I asked what had been spelled out, and Mrs. Smith replied: "Good and faithful" had been spelled.

Q. Do you mean that Miss Howey is good and faithful? A. No. Q. Do you mean it as an injunction to her to be good and faithful? A. Yes. Q. Do you wish to communicate further? A. Yes. Proceeding as before, the table at once commenced tilting, and when it had ceased Mrs. Smith said it had spelled out: "Mind father, and be sure of that." The experiment here ended, and the striking aptness of the latter communications was much spoken of by the sitters.

I should not have thought this worth writing out, but for the fact that Mrs. Smith, while pointing out the letters, sat away from the table and in such a position that no one at the table could form the faintest idea of what letters were being pointed to. These circumstances remove the case from the ordinary run of table-tilting experiments.

Of course I was aware of the imperfection of the arrangements, but they could not be improved at the time, and I at once arranged for a further and more testing experiment for the evening of September 13th. For this occasion I secured the assistance of two more young men, one of whom I intended should write down the letters rapped or tilted out, and the other to witness that such was done correctly. I also arranged for the sitters at the table to be in the room, and those with the alphabet just outside the door (which was almost shut) of such room. But I regret to say that, though the table tilted quite briskly, and though we made several changes of persons from the table to the alphabet, and tried for about an hour, yet there could not be found the least trace of coherence or intelligibility in the series of letters taken down as rapped out, although we tried them by inversion, anagrammatically, and by substituting neighbouring letters, as is done in the case referred to in Phantasms of the Living. I have not further experimented in this way.

George Main Smith.