C HAPTE R I

Spiritualism,science and thesu?€rnatural in rnid-Victo ri an Britain RichardlVoahes

INTRODUCTION

In December 186r, a few months after he published the first instalment of his supernaturalmasterpiece, A StrangeStory, the distinguishednovelist 'to Edward Bulwer L;'tton told his friend John Forsterthat h. *irhed make philosophersinquire into [spirit manifestations]as I think Bacon,Newton, and D"ty would haveinquired. There must be a naruralcause for them - if they are not purely irnposture.Even if that natural causebe the admission of a spirit world around us, which is the extremepoint. But if so, it is a most impartial revelationin Nature." Lytton thus expressedthe dilemma of many people in mid-Victorian Britain who had experiencedthe manifestationsof Spiritualism,undoubt- edlyone of the most controversialaspects ofVictorian culture,and one that wasreaching new heightsof popularity in the r86os.His remark implicitly representsthe Victorian associationof Spiritualismwith the sup.r*",.rr"i, but alsoproblematises that associationby identifting the Victori"n quesr for order behind phenomenapurporting ro come from - 'naturalisation the oth., *oild the of the supernatural'as it wascalled by one earlyhistorian of Victorian psychicalresearch.' \7hile some firmly b.ii.,r.d that manifes- tationswere opposedto every known natural law and were by definition supernatural,others upheld the possibilitythat such manifestations 'natural might derivefrom causes',whether thesewere well-known mental -.oh- anisms,new forcesassociated with the body, or intelligencesfrom the spirit world. Historiansand literary scholarshave long puzzled,overthe resurgenceof interest in the supernaturalin the Victorian^period.This period h", been calledrh: of science',a period of incr."sing belief "g. that the cosmoswas governedby immutable natural laws rather th"r, capricious supernatural agenciesor divine whim, and when supernaturalbeliefs were in.r."singly dismissed assuperstition.3 The .orrrtr,r.tion of empirically ground.d l"ws

1a L) 21 RICHARD NOAKES and was wid,el;vregarded as one of the highest.goalsof scientificendeavour - of celestial those ,rrorr,rrri.ntsof ord.eringphyr["l ph.nomena the laws to which all sci- mechanics- were upheld by Vi.torian scientists as the ideal were widely entific enterprises,irotrld aspire.Moreover, since natural laws practi- regardedas accountsof the natural world, scientific ",rthoritative generally tioners, whose empirical evidenceunderpinned such laws, were seenas the supremeauthorities on the naturalworld' believed As this .rr"y will show,Victorian investigatorsof Spiritualism to natural laws that the err"ti. phenomenaof the sdancecould be reduced However, and that their .r,.rprises could therebygain scientificcredibiliry. ques- this was a diffic.rlt go^l to achievesince many critics of Spiritualism that tioned the very polribiliry of a naturalisticapproach to phenomena t sciencesin were ostensiblyb.yond nature,and activelydefined the natural had oppositionto Spiritualism.For many Victorian scientists,Spiritualism the rapid to be banished from the natural enquiry becauseit threatened the scientific progressof the sciencesand the int.li..t,r"1 edifice on which CTty Foster, proF.rrionbased its claimsfor profcssionalauthoriry.a George Lorrdon physicsprofesso, evangelistfor.the new culturesof laboratory " "rrJ to building physicsteaching, spoke for many *ho had devotedtheir lives in 1894,he the intellectual and archite.,.rr"i spacesof the scienceswhen, 'is of askedthe psychicalresearcher Oli r.t Lodge not the whole progress that these things do not 'happen?'.tphysicsb"r.d on the assumption [Spiritualistic] In articlesin masscirculation periodicals, textbooks, in public popu- lecturesand. in classroomteaching, Victorian profcssionalisersand larisersof scienceenforced" th. .orrtrast betweenscience and Spiritualism, enquiry' and helpedrepresent Spiritualism as beyond the domain of natural Recent ,.hol"rship L", rightly argued that since the Victorian period over the witnessedsuch fiercescientifi., inr.llectual and theologicaldebates boundariesberween science and Spiritualism,science and pseudo-sc_ience, we cannor take such bound"ri., fo, granted.in our historical analyses'6 most Theseboundaries are the explanandumnot the explanans.One of the is it draws attention to the important benefits of this scholarship that shows .o-pl.xirF of the debatesour ofwhich theseboundaries emerged and over Spiritualismwere not, astraditional historiography that controversies 'science' 'pseudo-science', suggesrs,struggles between proponents of and b.it"figh6 b.rrilen ind.ividuals*ho disagreedon what counted asthe proper scientificapproach to the spirit world' The .r.* hirtoriography of the occult sciencesalso challenges the useof natural and supern"i,rr"l asunproblematic categories for analysingdisputes overSpiritualison, and prompi, .r, to understandhow boundariesberween Spirirwalism,science anc/ the supernAturalin mid-Victorian Britain zi natural and supernaturalemerged from disputesover spirit manifestations. Recentliterature on the supernatural,however, tesdfies to the continuing usefulnessand persuasivenessof classifiringSpiritualism as'supernatural'.7 While such a classificationrespecrs rhe categoriesused by historical char- acters,it is not sensitiveto the provisional,contradictory or other usesto 'supernatural' which wasput in Victorian Britain. Neither doesit represent the compi." natural irrt.ipretations of Spiritualisticmanifestations.s This essayattemprs ro recoverio*. of this complexiry of mid-Victorian con- troversiesover Spiritualism- the period of the most intenseand revealing of all such controversies.The following sectioncharts the problematic cul- ruresand claims associatedwith Victorian Spiritualism,and examinesthe ways in which Spiritualistssought to achievescientific credibiliry for their enquiriesby promulgating the argument that manifestationswould even- tually be found to be resultsof natural laws.This was exactlythe position taken by the mosr ourspokenVictorian opponentsof Spiritualism - phys- iologists,psychologists and medical practitioners- and my exarnination of their competing naturalistic explanationsof Spiritualistic phenomena showsthat the more intensedisputes over Spiritualism sprang from only subtledifferences of interpretation.I developthis approachin the third sec- tion, which Lrsesthe clarh., betweenrwo of th. most eminent Victorian scientific investigatorsof Spiritualism - \Tilliam Crookes and \Tilliam Benjamin Carpenter - to show that conflicts over the naturalistic prove- nanceof manifestationswere alsoconflicts overwhat constituted a proPer scientific authority on Spiritualism. In theseclashes, judgements on the interpretation of Spiritualisticmanifcstations were bound up with judge- menrson the appropriatenessand reliabiliryof the training, experienceand expertisethat informed this interpretation.Although the long-term impact of thesecontroversies on Victorian Spiritualism,the supernaturaland sci- encefalls outside the scopeof this essay,I concludeby suggestinghow the approachesdeveloped here can generatenew insightsinto old questionsof the ultimate trajectory of Victorian Spiritualism.

THE CULTURAL AND THE NATURAL IN VICTO RIAN SPIRITUALISM 'matter-of-fact In 18ij the lllustrated.London lVewsregretted that the June 'plunged peopleof the nineteenth century' were all at once into the bot- tomlessdeep of Spiritualism'.It continued:

Railroads,steam, and electriciry,and the indubitablewonders which they have wrought,have nor provedpowerful enough to supersedeand destroythat strong S 26 RI CHARD N OAKE

implanted in the human mind' innate love of the supernatural rvhich seems are turning tables, and obsti- Thousands of people in Europe and.America mechanical means are in any way nately ,.f.rrirrg io t.[.,r. that phyri."l and as well as the heads that wear connected. in the process.Hats, too, are turned, them. and Thousand.sof peopleseemed to be exploring.thetable-turning lpit- from America and the itualistic pheno-.n" that had arrived^inEngland by recentoutbreaks continent in late tg5z.In a country akeady*."kened 'epid.emic'of table-turning of Spiritualism had of mortal diseases,the "rt{ 'nor the educatedand the seized.on only the ignorant and the vul gtr, but refined,'like a'grtppeof th. .holera-morbus'.e Spiritualism The lllustrarcdLond.on lVews was not alone in comparing enlightenedage' to a recrudescenceof the supernaturalin an apparently was associ- Throughout the mid- to laie-Victorian period, Spiritualism supernaturalpht- ated with a wide range of ancient and contemporary sorcery,appariti?tt nomena, including cf,ristian miracles,witchc ruft and second sight. Nei- of the living and d.ead,haunted houses,fairies and Spiritualism to a ther was the lllustrarcd.London lYewsalone in likening its victorian h.y- d.iseaseor somethingsimilarly despised,and throughout the work of Satan,a sordid commer- d^y, spiritualism was condemnedas 'filth' 'business', and cial an'epid.emicdelusion, a'wretched suPerstition, hostile remarkswere humbug.roTh. ,r.h.-ence and frequen_cywith which Britain' By leveleJat Spiritualism reflect its plpulariry in mid-Victorian ro many,lamentable the r86osSpiritualism had becom.".orspicuous and, life, with its mediums, specialistnewspapers, f"r, of Victorian cultural public s6ances'"Its rapid pamphlets, trearises,societies and private Td much to widespreaci spread had manifol,Ccauses but ii ..rt"inly owed and the immortal- an4 long-established,preoccuparions about th. "ft.rlife nonconformiry iry of ,li. ,orrl, as*.fi pr.-existing culturesof religious ", notions as the and mesmerism (from *hi.h Spiritualistsborrowed such suPpos.dlr trans- magnetic fluids by which disemtodied intelligencewas much to the mitted). Its gro*irg presencein Victorian .trft,tt. also owed emotional, fact that it could servea wid.erange of religious,intellectual, furnished pow- and social interests.For example, spirit manifestations Christians whose erful empirical proofs of Scriptrrr"l miraclesfor those and startling faith had been undermined 6y Higher Biblical Criticism but mani- new biological and geological evidencefor human origins, for build- festationswere also ,i.d by in,i-clerical plebeian Spiritualists rich sourcesfor ing democraticalternatives to Christianiry,and furnished Spirintalism,science ancl the supernAturnlin micl-VictorianBritain 27

scientific researchinto abstrusephysical, psychological and physiologicai phenomena.tt Most people gained their experienceof Spiritualism in the domestic the of a Spiritualistmedium. Those attending i s6ance,rypically in presence {.g expectto experiencesuch * s6ancesin Britain during the early r8tos could F asclairvoyance, tables rapping out coded messages t remarkablephenomena F ievitationof objectsby'spirits'. t from prof.sied spiritsof the dead,and the g :i had been vastly ii early r87ts, however,the mediumistic repertoire T By thl the s6ance,direct $ enrichedwith suchfeats as mediums who levitatedaround E 'spirit' and.mediated writirg, and most spectacularof all, the materialisation of fully-formed spirits. The most controversialaspect of Spiritualism was undoubtedly the interpretation of suchmanifestations, whether the higher 'menral'or the cruder'physical'phenomena. Most Spiritualistsinsisted that manifesrarionsfurnished proof of one or more of the following claims: the independenceof spirit and matter,the survivaland immortaliry of the spirit following bodily death,the eternalprogress of all in the other world, and the possibiliiythat under certain conditions spirits of the dead could manifest to the living. For many enquirers,assent to theseinterpretations ih.-r.lves 'physical' was basedon an elimination of trick ery,self-delusion and other mechanismsas plausible hypotheses: although intellectuallymore difficult 'spiritual' 'facts' to accept,rhe theory was simply better at explaining the of the s6ance.'l While many used Spiritualism to support Christianity, and to combat atheism,agnosticism, materialism and rationalism, others believed Spir- itualist activitiesthreatened cherished Protestant beliefs. They lambasted Spiritualists'abolition of the boundary betweenthis world and the next, their rejectionof eternaldamnation, their exchangeswith spiritswho v/ere mostlikely to be evil, their useof crude mediums and vulgar spirits in mat- tersof pure faith and their subversionof scripturaland clericalauthority as morally perilousand unholy. It was the presenceof notoriously tricky and avariciousmediums, the questionablereliabiliry of witnessesand other contingenciesof the s6ance that many enquirersinto Spiritualismbelieved threatened the objectivere- tliry of spirit manifestations.Th e SaturdayReuiew spoke for many when, in r87r, it criticisedthe way in which Spiritualisticmanifestations only oc- 'in on demand, 'and,curred the most capriciousmanner' rather than appearing five yearslarer, it argued that spirit manifestationscould not be re- 'true' 'law 'never dueedto a of nature' becausethey were performed in a straightforwardopen way, like anyhonest experiment. They areeither done ZB RICHARD NOAKES in the dark, or onlr. beforeknown believersand confederates,or within a speciallyprepared place; and evenwhen they are done in the daylight, the operator is full of tricks to distract attention, and to produce mysterious bewilderment.'14 For many s6ance-goers,the only circumstancesunder which manifesta- tions appearedwere those that militated againstthe very idea of rational scientific enquiry. F{enry Dircks, 2r-reminent civil engineerand the co- 'P.pper's inventor of the popular theatricalillusion, Ghost', neadyexpressed this in fi72 in letters to The Timesthat developeda long-establisheddis- tinction betweenthe regulariqy,utiliqy and sanitisedwonder of enlightened scientificenquiry, with the caprice,gratuitousness and dangerousspectacle of earlymodern praeternaturalphilosophy.tt He contrastedscience, which 'always brings its miraclesto the light of day',which concernsreproducible 'wonders', 'certain and useful and which relatesto lawsof nature',with Spir- 'shrouds itualism, which not only itself in dark chambers,has its special 'practical mediums,and shunsthe light', but hasnot led to any results',con- 'an tains amazingamount of childish jugglery','relates to the supernatural, and is opposedto every/known natural law'.'6 The views of Dircks and, aswe haveseen, Lytton, illustratethe central- ity of questionsof natural and supernaturalin debatesover Spiritualism. In many ways, thesedebates intersected with the much wider intellectual 'supernatu- and theological controversiesover the meaningsof the terms 'natural ral' and law', the plausibiliqyof biblical miraclesand the bearing 'modern of the claims of science'on other Christian teachings.Neverthe- less,a survey of books, pamphlets and articleson Spiritualism from the mid-Victorian period underlinesthe lack of consensuson the provenance of Spiritualistic manifestations,with works upholding a range of natural and supernaturalexplanations including evil spirits, angels,conscious acts of trick erf, unconsciouspsychological and physiologicalmechanisms or hitherto unknown forcesassociated with the human body. A senseof the complexiryof the debateis evidentin an 1859work on natural law and rev- 'Broad elation by Baden Powell, the eminent Oxford mathematicianand Church' clergyman. Anticipating the remarks of Dircks quoted earlier, 'In Powellinsisted that: so far as [spiritualphenomena] are allegedto be of a supernaturalkind, not referableto some physicallaws, they must be ab- solutelydiscarded from all philosophicalenquiry."T But having allowedfor the possibiliry that spirits might be miraculous,Powell was confident that 'be "'spirit-rapping", table-turning and the like' would ultimately found perfectly conformable to some great determinatelaws, which the science of the future will elicit'.'s Spiritualism,science and the supernaturnlin micl-VictorianBritain 29

Although Poweliwas hostile to Spiritualismand favouredthe physiologi- 'spirits' cal theoriesof advancedby mid-Victorian medicaipractitioners, his naturalisticinterpretation of spiritsclosely resembles the positionsadopted by British and American Spiritualiststo defend their activities from the kinds of criticism representedby the Saturc/ayReuieut and Henry Dircks.'e The views of Robert Dale Owen, Alfred Russel\7allace and \Tilliam Henry Harrison powerfully illustrate how leading Victorian Spiritualistsargued for the ultimately iaw-like nature of manifestations,and thereforesought ro persuadesceptical Victorian audiencesthat Spiritualismwas a subjectfit 'philosophical for what Powell called enquiry'. In his widely-read Foofalls,on the Bounclaryof Another World (186o), Orven, a radical American politician who had been converted to Spiri- 'modern tualism in the late 18yos,lamented the fact that in an agewhere science'had subsurnedmost phenomenaunder generallaws of the universe, 'evidence the tendencywas to reject for a modern miracle' becausethese allegedoccurrences violated natural laws and thus what could be taken as possible.'oLike many Victorian Spiritualists,Owen engagedwith the 's eighteenth-centuryphilosopher David Hume notorious argumentagainst miracles,which insistedthat it wasmore likely that witnessesto suchevents 'firm were mistaken than the laws basedon and unutterable experience' 'no had beenviolated. Owen retorted that since experiencers unalterable' 'world in a all over which is stamped the impressof progress',then ex- perienceand the laws built from experiencewere only provisional and not reliableguides to what was naturally possibleand impossible.He also 'an dismissedHume's argument that miracleswere effectof the specialin- 'His terventionof God' becausewe could haveno conceptionof thoughts' 'employing and what we took to be rniraclesmight be God natural causes and generallaws to effectHis object'." For Owen, therewas enoughwell- attestedevidence for hauntings, apparitions of the living and dead, and 'ultra relatedspontaneous spectral occurrences to suggestthat they were mundanephenomena. . . governedby lawsyet unknown or obscurelydis- 'thorough, cerned'but which deserved searching,sedulously accurate, and in the strictestsense of the term impartial' enqury." Alfred Russel\Wallace undoubtedly agreed.In 1866this eminent natu- ralist and co-inventor of the theory of evolution by natural selectionwas so impressedwith his experiencesin s6ancesthat he followed Owen's ex- ampleof buttressinga philosophicalargument for the naturalisticstatus of strangespectral phenomena with the testimony of putatively trusrworthy 'no 'modern witnesses.'l\Tallace admitted that miracleshad place' in sci- 'a ence'whichhad engendered firm convictionin the minds of mosrmen of -)n RICHARD NOAKES and immutable laws',but ed.ucation,that the universe is governed bv wide 't/te"d?pdr€nt may be d,ueto someund'is- emphatically warned that miracle \wallace further than owen, however, couered.lnru of natttre'.'t wenr much miraclesof disembodied becausehe held that miracles ?er se and"thealleged within the bounds of modern scientificen- spirits could.be accommod",.d 'acquainted anybody with the quiry. There was no reason,he argued'why of modern science'should latest d.iscoveriesand the high.rtipeculations 'porribility' of invisible intelligent beings capa- deny the of the existence 'those structureless ble of acting on marte^The discoveryof Foraminifera, of the higher phenomenaof gerantinousorganisms which exhibit so many parts' deemedessential for animal lifc without any of that differentiationof 'senrient unrecognisableby our life, mad.epossible the existenceof beings 'grandest of modern science'- senses,.Similarly, one of the gene ralisations 'all universal forces of nature' the attribution of the most po*.ifrrl and ,minute 'almosr attenuated form of to the vibrations' of th. infinitely .spacefilling - the action of immaterial matter,, the ether' made possible 'ponderable spiritson bodies''" historrcal testimony Like -nrry Spiritualists,owen and \Tallace used evidencefrom con- of spectralphe nomena and"the ongoing observational there was order behind temporary s6ancesto support the'-"rgr;-ent that Few Spiritualistsarticulated the apparent capriceor rpirit manifcltations. Spiritualism more this position its i-pli."tions for the progresr 9f "rra Henry Harrison, ,ti.rttific journalist who in vigorously than \filli^- " successfulof all Victorian fi69became the founder ed,itorof one the most were apparent from the spiritualist periodicaLs,the spiritualisr.His views op.tirrg .dftorial, which boastedthat:

is necessaryto learnthat Not much observationof the phenomenaof Spiritualism mental laws, though t:ty of the manifestationsare governedby 'syr,.-atic, physicd !w ""a researchapplied to Spiri- theselaws are ar presentknown. scientific valuableresults, by-clearing away tualism would therefore. . . be sureto give very berweenthis world and the next' much of the mysreryoverhanging th. b"orderland enablespirits to communicate''6 and by strengtheningthe.o.r-di,ions which now 'the "miracle" and "supernatural" Harrison believed that abolishing word.s male such phenomena asapplied, to spiritualistic ph.noLemd would help alsofulfrl the crucial legitimatesubjects for'scientific research',and would 'the Spiritualismwas a base- goal of prev.*irrg public' from believingthat be true arebased upon lesssupersrition o-, th"t",h. phenomenawe know to that made the the sameevidence as that *^hi.h . . . satisfiesthe Jews Joshua 'naturalistic'Spiritualists also tended sun stand still' .'7 Frarrisonand other Spiritualisru,science nnd the supernAturAlin micl-VictorianBritain 3r 'spiritual' ro Llse analoguesto electricaland magnetic forcesin explana- tions of how spirits manifestedthemselves, attempting to turn sdancesinto scientific sitesfor probing connectionsbetween the known physical and 'spiritual' 'scientific the unknown forces,and hoping that their new reli- gion' would become a branch of existing scientific discipiinesincluding psychology,physics and physiol ogy.'r 'supernatural' How.,,.r,^,tr. argumerrtth"t the phenomenaof Spiritual- ism could be redr-rcedto natural causeswas sharedby those popular con- 'really jurors who sought to show how mediumistic featswere done' with legerdemainand concealedmachinery.'e Moreover, this interpretationwas fiercely upheld by medical practitioners,physiologists, psychologists and other scientistsand intellectualswho sharedthese conjurors' profound hos- 'altered' tiliry to Spiritualism.Drawing on studiesof mentalstates, empirical researchin human physiologyand much older philosophicaland psycho- logicalworks, theseexplorers of Spiritualismalso naturalised spirits, but did 'spiritual so by rejectingthe theory' and promulgating argumentsthat well- known psychologicaland physiologicalcauses were sufficient to explain what happenedin the s6ance.loFor physiologistsand medical practition- 'Spiritualistic' ers, phenomena werewell known asconsequences of agencies within the body. Their extensiveknovrledg. of mental disorders,includ- irg insaniqy,hysteria and somnambulism, underpinned this naturalistic interpretation. The anti-Spiritualist position was vigorously upheld in periodical ab ticles, public lecturesand textbooks by William Benjamin Carpenter, a distinguishedVictorian physiologist,medical practitioner and zoologist, whoseinfluential interpretationsof Spiritualismare fairly representativeof the mid-Victorian medicalresponse to Spiritualism.3'A staunchlJnitarian, Carpenterbelieved that the lawsof the materialuniverse were direct expres- sionsof God'swill and that natural laws could not be broken without His will. Carpenterhad strong metaphysicalgrounds, therefore,for doubting the plausibility of supernaturalphenomena and for locating them within the known laws of the universe.Building on the researcheson bodily and mental reflexesby such early Victorian physicians as Marshall Hall and Thomas Laycock,the associationistpsychology of David Hartley, and his own extensivestudies of mesmerisrn,table-turning, spirit-rapping, som- nambulism and hysteria,Carpenter developedthe notion that all mental activiry was, in the first instance,automatic or spontaneous,and that the more developedthe species,the more unconsciousmental reflexescould 'epidemic be regulatedby the will. For Carpenter, delusions'were prop- 'dominant agatedby individuals who, under the influence of erroneous 1a ),(- RICHARD NOAKES ideas'from within or suggestionsfrom without, had becomethe sorry vic- tims of their automatic mental reflexesand thus experiencedsensations and motor responsesthat were entirely dependenton falseideas and stirn- uli. \7hi1e maintaining that witnessesto such extraordinaryand unlikely 'spirits' phenomenaas were honest in reporting what they experienced,he disagreedon their interpretationsof the phenomena.Their interpretations could not be trusted becausethey usuallyentered s6ances already possessed 'dominant by the idea' of disembodiedspirits, a strong expectationthat severelyweakened tLreir abiliry to control unconsciousmental and physical responseswith educatedjudgement, and thus made them highly suscepti- ble to self-delusion,Iapses of memory, hallucination, observationalerrors 'so-called and mediumisticjugglery. Accordingly, Carpenter argued that the spiritual communications come from uithin, not from withour, the indi- vidualswho supposethemselves to be the recipientsof them' and that such 'laws communications were governedby of mental actlon'.3t Like others who participatedin the lengthy mid-Victorian debatesabout national edu- cation, Carpenter'ssolution to suchworrying examplesof public ignorance as Spiritualism was, unsurprisingly,proper mental training, becausesuch disciplinewould control mental reflexesand enablepeople to make sound judgementsabout the sensoryworld automaticallyand thus avoid the mis- takesmade by s€ance-goers. This did not, however,perturb thosewho deniedthat physiologistsand medical practitioners had the requisite s6anceexperience to make these apparentlyauthoritative claims, and who rejectedthe claim that their evi- dencefor extraordinarymanifestations could be reducedto the unconscious actionsof mind and body. For example,they deniedthat unconsciousmus- cular action could explainthe levitation of bodieswith which s6ance-goers had no contact. It was to explore the alternativelaws of spirit, mind and body suggestedby their own s6anceexperiences that Spiritualistsand other enquirerslaunched organisations such as the PsychologicalSociery of Great Britain (f. fi7) and the Soci.qFfor PsychicalResearch (SPR, f. 188z).

SENSE oR SENSns? CoNTESTING THE NATURAL AND THE AUTHORITATIVE IN VICTORIAN SPIRITUALISM

In fi77 Carpenter concluded a public lecture on Spiritualism by warn- 'we ing that when assessingthe extraordinaryphenomena of the s6ance, should trust rather to the evidenceof our sens€rather than to that of our sens€s'.Carpenter thus reiteratedhis belief that common sense,achieved through proper mental education,was the ultimate court of appealfor Spirintalism,science anc/ the supernAturAlin micl-VictorianBritain ii 'liable sensoryexperience, r,vhich was to many fallacies'resulting from the unconsciousoperations of the mind, It was for this reasonthat we earned 'the right to reject the testimony of the most truthful and honest wit- 'Laws nesses'regarding phenomena that violated common senseand the of Natu re'.33 Carpenter's claim neatly illustratesthe intimate connections betweenwhat was sensedregarding Spiritualism and who had the senseto judge manifestations.Victorian disputesover the interpretation of Spiri- tualistic manifestationswere thereforealso disputesover authoriry. Thus, the conflictsthat we havedescribed berween Spiritualists and medicalprac- 'naturalistic' titioners stemmed not simply from differing interpretations of spirits, but from rival notions of what constituted the mental training, 'scientific' experienceand expertiseneeded to make such interpretations authoritative. This section showshow this approachcan illuminate the controversies surroundingthe researchesof one of the most celebratedof all Victorian in- 'supernatural', vestigatorsof the \X/illiam Crookes.saThroughout the r87os Crookes'sresearches sparked heated exchanges in a wide rangeof public and privateforums, notably with Carpenter.\Wt might seethe conflict berween Crookes and Carpenter as a straightforwardcontest berweenon the one hand, the pseudo-scientific,the Spiritualisticand the supernatural,and on the other hand, the scientific,the psychologicaland natural.However, there was agreementas well as disagreementbetween Crookes and Carpenter" Both promoted non-Spiritual theoriesof manifestationsand both sought control of the s6ance,but their different notions of the natural causesof manifestationsand of authority sparkedbitter and prolonged exchanges. By r87o, the year that he first publicly announced his intention to conduct a scientificinvestigation of Spiritualism,Crookes had established himself as a leading analyticalchemist and respectededitor of severalspe- cialist scientific periodicals.He was also known as the discovererof the elementthalliuffi, an achievementbased on his skill in the new technique of spectrum analysis.As editor of the QuarrerlyJournal of Science(Q/S), Crookes encouragedcontributions that discussedthe startling new fron- tiers of scienceand emphasisedthe crucial role that scientificpractitioners could pl^y in the solution of such social problems as food adulteration, water pollution and disease.In tBTo Crookesused his periodical to con- fiont another subjectthat was a socialproblem containing potentially rich scurcesfor extendingthe authoriry of science- Spiritualism. Crookes ap- pearsto have begun investigating in 1867, and while this move may have been prompted by a family bereavement,it probably owed more to the positive s6anceexperiences of closescientific colleagues, and the example S 11 Ri c HARD N OAKE ser by Michael Faraday,Robert Hare and other scientific investigatorsof Spiritualism, who had made Spiritualism a legitimate sceneof scientific enquiry. Moreover, Crookes saw the s6anceas a potential site for solving probl.*s of the natural order.'New Forcesmust be found', he explained 'o, in r37r, mankind must remain sadlyignorant of the mysteriesof nature. \Weare unacquaintedwith a sufficientnumber of forcesto do the work of the universe.'35Crookes had evidently had enough s6anceexperiences to 'cannot convincehim of the existenceof phenomenathat be explainedby anypresenr law at presentknown'. Accordingly,in his first Q/Sarticle on Spiritualism,he insistedthat a proper scientificinvestigation of the s6ance 'a would establish classof facts. . . upon which reliancecan be piaced' and 'drive would the worthless residuum hence into the unknown limbo of 'pseudo-scientific magic and necromancy'.36 Crookes was satisfiedthat the Spiritualist',with his sloppy s6anceprotocols and vague physicalthe ories 'investigations ol-"nifestations, could not undertake which so completely 'thorough baffle the ordinary observer';rather, this task was for the scien- 'care tific man' who was trained in and accuracy'and skilled in using the sensitiveinstrumenrs needed to produce, under test conditions and inde- pendently of spiritual or anyother theory, decisiveevidence of the physical manifestationsof the s6ance.)7 By the time QIS readersCigested this pronouncement on the proper authorities on Spiritualism, Crookeswas alreadytrying to implement his ideasin an extensiveseries of s6anceswith the celebratedmedium Daniel Dunglas Home. Over the next few months, Crookes becameincreasingly impressedby the medium's apparentabiliry to levitate objects and relay spiiit communications, and his willingness to submit to close scientific investigationand insistenceon holding s6ancesin the light. For Crookes, a medium of this power and apparentprobiry was exacdythe resourcehe neededfor his investigations,and in the summer of t87t he constructed severalmechanical instruments for registeringthe power that seemedto emanatefrom Home's body, and then usedthem in test s6ancesconducted with the assisranceof the asrronomer\Tilliam Huggins and other scientific colleagues.Satisfied that Home had not secretlymanipulated the apparatus or performed any other trickery, Crookes was confident that his apparatus 'new had registeredthe existenceof a force, in some unknown manner 'Psychic connectedwith the human organisation', a capricious Force'which produced kinetic and audible effectsbeyond the body of the medium.rs Although Crookes failed to convince highly scepticalRoyal Socieryref- ereesof the merits of his research,his decision to publish rePortson the experimentsin the Q_ttSwon him a much largeraudience than he would Spiritualism,science and the supernAturAlin micl-VictorianBritain i5 havegained through Royal Societypublications. Indeed, according to one 'set report,Crookes's reports all London on fire, and the Spiritualistsrabid with excitement'.leThe responsewas certainly mixed. Severalcommen- tarorsaccused Crookes of giving scientificrespectabiliqy to a disreputable subjecr,of being taken in by mediumistic jugglery and of making fatal experimentalblunders, while otherswere startledby the researchand saw it asa sign for a decisiveinvestigation of Spiritualism.aoSpiritualists were alsodivided. Many congratulatedCrookes for providing weighry confirma- tion of their firesides6ance experiences, but othersargued that his research showedthat scientificmen had nothing to show Spiritualiststhat they did not alr eadyknow through their own experience.None was more critical than Burns, the leading plebeian Spiritualist, journalist and pub- James 'the lisher,who denied that Crookes had explained nature of the power which producesthe phenomend and earlier challengedthe very basisof 'Could the chemist'sclaims to alrthoriry in the s6ance. all the parapherna- lia of Mr. Crookes'sworkshop', he asked,'revealto him the presenceof a spirit?',and proceededto explain that the individuals best able to discern 'laws the and conditions for the regulation of the phenomena'and the ul- 'a timate psychologicalcause of spirits were not the victims of "long line 'senses of learnirg"' but thosewho possessed and forms of consciousness' 'plane'. adaptedto the psychological It was these individuals who were 'science building the of Spiritualism. Like many Spiritualists,Burns agreed 'material that physical scientistscould indeed illuminate the phenomena developedby spirit power', but their mental training made them inferior to Spiritualistsin discerningthe psychologicallaws of the s6ance.4' While Crookesappears to haveignored theseattacks on the authority of physicalscientists on Spiritualism,he certainly did not dismissthe hostile responsesfrom fellow scientists.Penetrating criticism from the physicist GeorgeGabriel Stokes,for example,prompted him to attempt to display psychicforces independently of mediums and thereforethe disreputable milieu of Spiritualism, and for this he turned to highly sensitivevacuum apparatushe was developingto explorean apparendyanomalous force as- sociatedwith radiation. However, no criticism hurt Crookes more than that of \Tilliam Benjamin Carpenter, who published a scathing article in the Quarterly Reuiewin late r87r which angrily reiterated the psycho- physiologicaltheories of spirits he had been promulgating for over twenry 'powers years,and castigatedscientific witnessesto unknown to men of science'as unprofessional,self-deluded and poorly educatedconverts to 'Such 'under Spiritualism. scientific amateurslabour', h. argued, a grave disadvantage, in the want of that broad basisof generalscientific culture, )5 RICHARD NOAKES which alone can keep them from the narrowing and perverting influence of a limiteci specialism.'Crookes's want of the disciplining effectsof a broad scientificeducation was apparentfrom the fact that he had seeminglyen- tered his investigationsalready prejudiced in favour of the objectiverealiry 'acquainted of Spiritualisticphenomena and was not with what had been previouslyascertained in regardto the realnature of kindred fSpiritualistic] phenomena'.Carpente r wasclearly annoyed that Crookeshad not deferred to the authoriry of thosewith greaterexperience of psychologicaldisorders 'special- (notably himself and the physicianThomas Laycock)because this ist of specialists'would have trusted medical common senserather than his own senses,guarded himself againstself-deception and other sources of error and recognisedthat psychicforce was nothing more than known mechanicalforces cunningly exertedby Home out of sight of the experi- menters.The caseof Crookesdramatically illustrated how'a man may have acquireda high reputation asan investigatorin one departmentof science, and yet be utterly untrusrworthy in regardto another' .4' Thus Carpenter, like his Spiritualistenemies, denied that expertisein the physicallaboratory meant expertisein the s6ance,but unlike the Spiritualists,believed that the only forcessuggested by Crookes'sinvestigations were those psychological forceswhich clouded Crookes'sjudgement. Predictably,Crookes was furious and presentedhis first retort rn Psychic Forceand Modern Spiritualism(r87r), xo explosivedefence of his scientific credibiliqf and a denial of Carpenter'sclaim that he was a Spiritualistic convert.Although Crookeswas clearlydissatisfied with Carpenter'sexpla- nations of Spiritualism and irritated with Carpenter'sapparently delusive attachmentto his pet theories,he wasstruck by the similariqyberween him- self and Carpenter. He emphasisedthat both he and Carpenter believed 'a in new although Carpenterwas apparentlyresisting attempts to force', 'unconscious 'ideo- displacethe forcesassociated with cerebration'and the motor principle' with psychicforce - a forcethat, in the opinion of Crookes and his allies,was better than rival psychologicaltheories at explainingthe rypesof Spiritualisticphenomena they had encountered.a3But what infu- riated Crookeswas Carpenter'sgeneral critique of his experimentalabilities and particular dismissalof specialisttechnical expertiseas a qualification for authoriry on Spiritualism.Crookes retorted that sincethe production of 'broad, tangible,and easilydemonstrable facts' about Home's allegedpower 'question turned on the of apparatus'used to registersuch powers, then 'who it was preciselyone is trusrworthy in an enquiry requiring technical knowledg.' who could best undertake this task.aaAccordingly, Crookes was baffled by the implication that the technical knowledg. that had Spiritualism,science and the supernAturalin micl-WctorianBritain 37 earliergiven scientists confidence in his claimsabout the capriciousphysical phenomenaof spectrallines alsoweakeneC their trust in his claims about the no more capriciousphysical manifestationsof psychic force.at Like Carpenter,Crookes was at this time participatingin the largerdebates about scientific educationin British schoolsand universities,and ase ditor of sci- entific periodicalshe regularlychampioned the virtues of a specialistrarher than generalscientific training. \fhile Carpenterbelieved that a'broad basis of generalscientific education' furnished Britons with the soundestmental disciplineand the bestweapons against popular fads,Crookes retorred that the very specialisttechnical skills that apparentlythreatened his authoriry 'just on Spiritualismwere thoseof the highestvalue in this country. What has chiefly placed England in the industrial position she now holds but technicalscience and specialresearches?'a6 This was by no means the end of the controversy.Between t87z and t877Crookes and Carpenterpublished a streamof articlesin specialistand 'natural' generalistperiodicals in which their rival solutionsto the problems of Spiritualisticphenomena were bound up with their competing claims to authoriryin the s6ance.Thus, rnt876, Carpentercriticised Crookes in away that assertedthe plausibiliqyof his psycho-physiologicaltheory of alleged manifestationsand againimplicitly representedCarpenter and his medical alliesas the authorities on the thorny subject.Like mosr other witnesses 'supernatural', 'honest' to the Crookeshad undoubtedly been in reporting manifcstations,but his reportagewas still unreliablebecause he had been 'strong influencedby "prepossession"to believein the creationsof " [his] own visual imagination'.a7 Nthough Carpenteridentified Crookes as one 'supernatural', of the many deluded witnessesto the his main problem was Crookes'sattempts to smuggle apparentlybogus new natural forces into elite scientific forums, forceswhich threatenedto displacehis own. Thus, in articles and correspondencein lVineteenthCentury and AIature, Carpenter compared Crookes'sresearch on a new radiation force ro his work on psychicforce. In his opinion, both showedCrookes ro have been the sorry victim of the automatic actions of his mind - engenderedby ^ delusionabout new forces- although the subsequenthistory of Crookes's 'evinced radiation experimentsshowe d the chemist to have the spirit of the true philosopher' and eventuallycorrected his erroneousinferences in line with common-sensekinetic theoriesof gases.a8 In the context of such damagingcritiiism, it was crucial for Crookes to defend his reliabiliry asan experimenterand to distancehimself from dan- gerousassociations with supernaturalismand Spiritualism.Thus, tn tBTq he representedhimself to Q/Sreadersas a scientific'rraveller'inthe land of Irr I I *I &r

E 38 RI C HARD NIOAKE S * $ 'Phenomena 'endeavoured the calledSpiritual', a travellerwho had to rrace the operation of natural laws and forceswhere others have seenonly the agenq/of supernatllralbeings' and upheld his conviction that mediums and 'a indeed,everybody at s6ances)possessed force,power, influence, virtue or 'intelligent 'produce gift' which beings'use to the phenomenaobserved'. This was distinct from the supernatural becausethe force proceeded 'nerve somehowfrom organisation'- and Spiritualism:while advocatesof 'as psychicforce held that therewas yet insufficientproof' that the forcewas 'Intelligence directedby spiritual agentsrather than the of the Medium', rhe Spiritualistsbelieved in such agentswithout proof.aeBut like Carpenrer's theory,Crookes's naturalistic interpretation of Spiritualisticmanifestations continued to dependon a particularidea of the mental educationand skills that would qualift somebody as an authoriry on Spiritualism. Thus, in 'a 1877Carpenter insisted that knowledge of the physiolo$/ and pathol- ogy of the Human Mind, of its exrraordinarytendenq/ ro self-deceprion in regard to matters in which its feelingsare interested,of its liabiliry to place undue confidence in personshaving an interest in deceiving, and of the modes in which fallaciesare best to be detectedand frauds ex- 'genuine posed' enabled him to reliably discriminate the from the false' in Spiritualism.In the sameyear, Crookes, basking in the warm scientific receptionaccorded to his researcheson a new radiation force, maintained 'man that the of disciplined mind and finished manipulative skill' was 'unanticipated best able to investigate phenomena that appearedto d.ft 'new common sense,but which formed the basisof elements,new laws, possibly even of new forces'.toThe implication was that those skilled in manipulating instruments could be trusted to produce evidencefor new forces- psychic,radiative or otherwise- and thus extendthe boundariesof science. Although Crookes and Carpenternever resolvedtheir diffcrences,they did not engagein any direct public fights after tB7B,a developmentthat owes much to the fact that by this time, Crookes was devoting most of his researchto radiation and vacuum phenomenararher than Spiritualism, although his dwindling explorationsof Spiritualism owed more to a wanr of time and reliablemediums than a lack of interestin Spiritualismper se. His first publication on Spiritualism, in fact, appearedfive years after Carpenter'sdeath in the SPR Proceedingsfor r889-9o, and consistedof his noteson the Home s6ancesof the earlyr87os.5'In manyways, the'psychic force' interpretation that Crookes maintained for theseinvestigations fit- ted well with the theories developedby the intellectualsand scientists who dominated the SPR, of which Crookes was a loyal member and Spiritualism,science ancl the supernAtwrAlin micl-VictorianBritain 39 president.Keen to maintaina respectablescientific front, thesepractitioners worked hard to rid their enterprisesof the intellectuallyand theologically conrroversialassociations with the supernaturaland Spiritualism.Accord- 'supernormal' 'supersensory' ingly, they promulgated such terms as and as more accurateand saferways of interpreting the telepathic,Spiritual- istic and other strangepsychological phenomena on which they worked, a developmentinformed by their belief that, in the words of its leading 'by 'are researcher, far the larger proportion of Spiritualistic phenomena due to the action of the sdll embodied spirit of the agent of the percipient himself'.tr This collapseof spiritsinto the body did not, of course,please Spiritualists,who upheld the abundant evidencefor spiritual intelligences beyond those of s6ance-goersand mediums, and either fiercely criticised or resignedtheir membershipof the organisationthey hoped would have provided them with crucial support.t3However, like other controversies 'opposing' and positionsin Victorian Spiritualism,the differenceswere not simplematters of natural and supernatural,but of competing and, in many cases,irreconcilable versions of what could be taken to be natural.

CONCLUSION

This essayhas demonstrated the complexiryofVictorian controversiesover Spiritualismand the needto be more sensitiveto the terms in which these controversieswere conducted.It is tempting to reducethese controversies 'science 'science to simple matters of versusSpiritualism , versuspseudo- 'natural 'law science', versussupernatural', versuscaprice', not least be- causemany participantsin thesecontroversies used thesekinds of binary oppositions. Closer analysisof severalSpiritualistic controversies,however, suggests that matters were not so straightforward. \fhat was at stakewere rival no- tions of the scientific,the natural and the lawful, with participantsagreeing implicitly that spiritswere natural and lawful, and that their own approaches werethe most scientific,but fiercelydisagreeing over what exactlycounted as natural and lawful, and who counted as scientific. Far from providing straightforwardresolutions to mid-Victorian problems of spiritual mani- festations,these terms were as much the subject of dispute as the realiry of manifestationsthemselves. Although this essayhas, for reasonsof space, not exploredthe impact of thes. rr.glriations on the long-term traj..,ory of Victorian Spiritualismand on its relationshipswith the sciencesand the supernatural,it hassuggested that one of the most fruitful waysof address- ing such important questionswill be through a deeperunderstanding of 49 RICHARD NOAKES the ways in which Victorians distinguished,related and negotiated such terms asnatural, supernatural,law and authoriry.Systematic studies of the changingVictorian usesof this potent languageare long overdueand will greatlyadvance historical debateson the culturesand naturesof Victorian Spiritualism and the Victorian supernatural.

N OTES I would like to thank Louise Henson, GeoffreyCantor and the editorsfor their help in the preparationof this essay.Permission to quotefrom manuscriptmaterial hasbeen granted by University CollegeLondon Library.

r EdwardBulwer Lytton to John Forster,3 December186r, cited in Earl of Lytton (Victor Alexander George Robert Lytton), The Life of E&.uard.Bultuer Qttton, FirstLord Lytton,z vols.(London: Macmillan and Co., r9ry),vol. u,p.47. z Frank Podmorc, T/telYaturalisation ofthe Supernatural (New York and London: G. P.Putnam's Sons, r9o8) 3 David M. Knight, TheAge of Science(Oxford: Blackwell,r986). 4 Frank M. Tirrner, ContestingCuitural Authority: Essaysin Victorian Intellectual Lxfe(Cambridge: Cambridge Universiqy Press, r9%), pp. r3r-228. GeorgeCarey Foster to Oliver Lodge,25 October 1894,Oliver Lodge Papers, lJniversiryCollege, London, MSS. Add Sgln Foster'semphasis. 6 Roger Cooter, The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science:Phrenologt and the Or- ganisation{ Consentin lYineteenth-CenturyBritain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1984); Logie Barrow,Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and the EnglishPlebeians, t85o-r9., ll-ondon: Routiedg. K.g"r Paul,1986); Alison "rd Vinter, Mesmerized:Pouters of Mind in Victorian Britain (Chicago: University 'Telegraphy of Chicago Press,1998); Richard J. Noakes, is an Occult Art: Cromwell Fleerwood Varley and the Diffusion of Electriciqy to the Other '$7orld' , British Journalfor theHistory of Science32 (rggg), 4zr-r9. For examples 'pseudo-sciences' of revisionisthistorical and sociologicalapproaches to other seeH. M. Collins and T. J. Pinch,Frames ofMeaning: TheSocial Construction of Extraordindry/Science (London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, ry82).Examples of traditional historiographyinclude Frank Podmore, Modern Spiritualism:A His- tory and a Criticism,z vols., (London: Methuen and Co., rgoz);Thevor H. Hall, The Spiritualists. The Story 0f FlorenceCooh and William Crookes(London: Gerald Duclcrvorth and Co., 196z); Janet Oppenheim, The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Researchin England, 185o-rgr4 (Cambridge: Cambridge Universiry Press,rgSl); Gordon Stein, Tlte Sorcererof Kings: the Caseof Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes(New York Prometheus Books,r9%). 7 One recentexample is D. J. Enright (ed.), The OxfordBooh ofthe Supernatural (Oxford: Oxford lJniversiry Press,1994). Spirinralisrn,science ancl the supernaturalin mid-Victorian Britain 4r 'supernatural' For a conremporarydiscussion of the diverseuses of seeDuke of Argyll (GeorgeDouglas Campbell) , TheReign of Law, rgth edn (London: Murray, l89o), pp. r-i4. John 'The Anon., Mystery of the Tables', IllustratedLondon I[eus, 18June 18tJ, 48t-z; p. 48r. IO N. S. Godfrey, Tizble-MouingTested., and Prouedto be the Result of Satanic 'The Agency(London: Sealeys,18ll); CharlesDickens, Spirit Business', House- 'The h;td Wrds 7 (tSll) , zr7-zo; LeslieStephen, Scepticismof Believers', \X/illiam FortnightlyReuiew zz (r8l), 3rt-76; P. lll; Benjamin Carpenter, 'Mesmerism, Odylism, Table-Turningand Spiritualism,Considered Histor- ically and Scientifically',FrAser's Magazine 15 G8Z), ry5-r7,382-4ot; P. 136; 'Six \Tilliam Thomson, Gatewaysof Knowledge [1883]'in Popular Lectures andAddresses, 3 vols., znd edn (London: Macmillan and Co, r889*94, vol. I, pp. ztj-99; p. 258;P. T. Barnum, Humbugsof the World:An Accountgf the I{r*brgt, Delusions,Impositions, Deceits, and. Deceiuers Generally, in all Ages (New York: Carleton,1866). II For overviewsof Victorian Spiritualism seePodmore, Modern Spiritualism, vol. rr; Oppenheim, Other World; Brian Inglis, l,latwral and Supernatural:A History of the Paranormalfrom Earliest Timest0 rgr4 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, r97z),pp. r99_4tr. 12 Alan Gauld, TheFounders {Psychical Research(London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1968);Oppenheim, Other World.;Barrow, Ind.ependent Spirits. IJ See,for example,A. B.' [Augustusde Morgan],'Preface'in'C.D.' (Sophia de Morgan) , From Matter to Spirit: TheReswlt of TbnYears' Experience in Spirit Mantfestations(London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, 1863),p. vi. 'spiritualism' r4 Anon., , SaturdayReuieut, zr Octoberr87r, 5r8-r9;p. tr9;Anon., 'The British Associationand Spiritualism', SaturdaltReuieu, 16 September r876, , p. J4j-7 346. 'Preternatural ry On this distinctionsee Lorraine Daston, PhilosoPhy'rn Biogra- phiesof Scienttft Objects,ed. Lorraine Daston (Chicago:Chicago Universiry Press,zooo), pp. r4-4r. 'science fi Henry Dircks, versusSpiritualism' , The Times,z7 December1872, p.ro; Henry Dircks,'spiritualismand Science',The Times,z January1873, p.n. 17 B"den Powell, The Order of lVature Consid.eredin Referencem ilte Claims of Reuelation(London: Longman, Brown, Green,Longmans, & Roberts,1859), P'z6l' 18 Ibid.,pp. z6r, 269. 19 R. Laurence Moore, In Search0f White Crous: Spiritualism, Parapsychologt, and American Cultwre(New York: Oxford university Press,1977), pP. i-i9. zo Robert Dale Owen, Footfalk on the Boundary of Another World (London: Trtibnerand Sons,186o), pp. 42, 43. zr lbid., pp. 46, 44,,o, t7. zz lbid., pp. xi, xii, 25. +/-A' RI CHARD T{OAKES

zi For \Whllace and Spiritualism seeMalcom JayKottler, Alfred Russel\fallace , the origin of Man, and Spiritualism',Isis 65 Ggz), rqt_-g.z;Frank M. Tirrner, BetweenScience and Religion: TheReaction to ScientzfcIVaturalism in Victorian Britain (New Haven: Yaleuniversity press,1974), pp. 68_.ro3. 24 Alfred Russel \Vailace, The Scientifc Aspeo tf $i Supernarural(London: F. Farrah, t866), pp. r-2. z, Ibid., pp. 4-t. 'Opening z6 William Henry Harrison, Address',Spiritualist r (r8 6g), 'Miracles', S. 27 \7i11iamHenry Harrison, Spirituatistt (rg7o) rr7. 'The , zB Citation from JamesBurns, Philosophyof the Spirit Circle', Medium anclDaybreab r (r87o), 3o8. For Spiritualists'use of pitysi.al forcessee, for 'Philosophy' tR,rles example,Burns, and Emma Harding., to be Observed for the Spirit Circle',Human lVaturez (r8 68),485r. For examplesof s6ances 'Proi.ssor as laboratoriesfor testing spiritual laws seeJames Burns, Tyndall and the Spiritualists' , I{uman lVature z (1868) 'The , 4j4-6 and \7illiam H.rry Harrison, ScientificInvestigation of Spiritual Phenomena, Spiritualist r (1869),.5: examplesof_Spiritlalist .orr.r"ctions berween their ent.rpris.s lot 'SJ.n.. and establishedscientific disciplines see Emma Hardinge Britten, SpiritualitT', Spirirualis t (r87o) ild'Spiritualism', , rz4-7; William Henry Harrison, Spiritualist3 GBZ), .o6. 29 E,dwin A. Daw es,Tbe Greatlllusionists (Secaucus, NJ: Charrwell Books, 1978), pp. rit-68, r84-zoz. 'spiritualism 30 For examplesof the medicalresponse see Anon., Tested',British Medical Journal, ry JuIy r87r,7r-z; p. 7r; Henry Maudsl ey,'r%il.IVatura/ Causes and SupernaturalSeemings [1886] (London: \fatts and Co., For discussion 'Physicians of this reaction seeS. E. D. Shortt, and nr/Ji.s: The Anglo- American Responseto Spiritualism, r87o-r8 90', Journal for fie Histoiy of Medicine39 G984), ly19-tr. 'Charles 3r For Carpentersee \fin ter,Mesmerized, pp. 276-0 j; LouiseHenson, Dickens,Elisabeth Gaskell and Victoria.r S.i..rce',PhD thesis,Universiry r of Sheffield(zooo),pp. 46-u7. 'spiritualism 3z Villiam Benjamin Carpenter, and its LatestConverrs', 'Mesmerism' Quarterly Reuieuryt (t87r), p.3o8; carpenter, 'Mesmerism',3or-fi; , p. 5o6. 33 Carpenter, p. 4oj. 34 Richard J. Noakes, "'Cranks and Visionaries":Science, Spiritualism, and Transgressionin Victorian Britain', PhD thesis,Universiry of Cambridge (tyq8),pp. rr7-zzr. William Crookes, 'Quar- 3t lsychic Forceand Modern Spiritualism:A Rtpb to the ter[t Reuiew'andot/ter Critics (London: Longrir"rr, Green, io., r87r)]p. 'spiritualism "rd t. 36 William Crookes, Viewed by the Light of Modern Science', p.tlrterly Journal of Science7 (r}7o),3t6-zr; pp.3r/,3rr. 37 Ibid., pp. 3r8-r9. 'Experimental 38 \X/illiam Crookes, Investigation of a New Force', euarterly Journal {Science, newseries r (r87r), T9-49; pp. 3J9,347. Spiritualism, scienceand. the supernaturalin micl-VictorianBritain 43 'spiritualism )9 The editorof the BirminghamMorning l,leus cited in Anon., and the NewspaDers',Spiritualist, r (r87i),r89. 'Psychic 10 Anon., Force', SattrdayReuieut, 18 July r87r,8r-3tAnon.,A Scientific Testingof Mr Home' , Spectator,B Jrrly r87r,827-8. B,rmr, About Scientific Spiritualism',Medium and'Daybreak t Q87o), 4r James 'spiritualism zor-z;p. zor; JamesBurns, and Science', Meclium and Daybreah r (r8zo),to8. 'spiritualism', 42 Carpenter, pp. 327,34i,342,,J+o. 43 Crookes, PsychicForce, p. 6. 44 Ibid., pp. D-r3. 4t \Tilliam Crookes to \Tilliam Huggins, t6 June r}7r, cited in E. E. Fournier D'Albe , The Ltfe of Sir William Crookes(London: T. FisherUnwin, rgzi), pP.zo9-ro. $ Crookes, PsychicForce, pp. rz-r3. On Carpenter'scontribution to the educa- tion debatessee \finter, Mesmerized',pP. 3oo-to4- 'On 47 Villiam Benjamin Carpenter, the Fallaciesof Testimonyin Relationto the Supernatural', ContemPoraryReuiew 27 G8Z6),279-9t; P. z8r. 'The 48 \Tilliam Benjamin Carpenter, Radiometerand its Lessons' , Alineteent/t Centuryr (fiZZ), z4z-56; zt4. 'Notes P. 49 \Tilliam Crookes, of an Enquiry into the Phenomenacalled Spiritual, During the Yearsr87o-r87/, QitarterlyJournal af Science,Second Series, 3 (tBZD, pp. 77, 96, 97. 77-97;'Meimerism 'Another to Carpenter, , p.ri7; William Crookes, Lessonfrom the Radiometer', AlineteenthCentury r $877), 879-87; p. 886. 'Notes tr William Crcokes, on S6anceswith D. D. Home', Proceed'ingsof tbe Societyfor PsychicalResearch 6 (1889-9o), 98-t27. 5z Frederick\Tilliam Henry Myers, Human Personalityand its Suruiualof Bodily Death,editedand abridgedby S.B. andL. H. M. (London:Longmans, Green and Co., r9z7),p. 7. tj On the controversiesberween Spiritualists and the SPRsee John Cerullo, Tbe Secularizationof rhe Soul: PsychicalResearch in Mod.ernBritain (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues,r98z), pp. 70-84-