ing fabric on the clay is at first sight very similar to that which would be made by the medium's actual stocking impressing the clay, there is one important point of difference. It is as follows:

The psychic impression is altogether sharper than that which can be made by a stockinged foot. Any part of the latter, when pressed into the clay, leaves a good enough outline of the stocking fabric, but it is a dull, blunt outline owing to the solid foot behind the stocking exerting a squeezing effect, no matter how lightly it may be applied. The psychic impression, on the other hand, has little raised edges projecting upwards from the impression left by each thread, which effect, as many experiments have proved, it is quite impossible to obtain with the actual stocking. In short, a thorough series of tests shows that with a soft stocking no amount of juggling can get the actual sharp effect obtained by the real psychic structure. This effect, however, could be exactly obtained if a fine viscous material were to cover the stocking fabric and were then to harden or "set" on it somewhat, and the mould being pulled off were then to be pressed in the clay. This, indeed, is what actually happens. The mould after it has "set" is not nearly so pliable as the actual stocking fabric, with the consequence that when it is pressed into the clay it leaves a sharp, clear impression which cannot be obtained with the actual fabric. Thus, while the psychic rod end and the stockinged foot both leave in the clay an outline of the stocking fabric, the quality of the one is distinct from that of the other.

I am now going to describe an experiment which was carried out to see if I could get any information showing in what part of the medium's body the psychic rods had their origin. It was fairly obvious, of course, that some of these rods issued from the neighbourhood of the feet and ankles of the medium, for the character of the stockinged lining of the floor of many of the concave impressions showed that to be the case. Moreover, during rapping I have intercepted with my bare hand the space in front of the ankles and feet of the medium, and I have distinctly felt a cold kind of breeze issuing from the neighbourhood of her ankles and region just above her shoes: a kind of breeze which appeared to be caused by material particles of a cold, disagreeable, spore-like matter. There was no solid body whatever beyond her ankle where I intercepted the flow of these particles, but nevertheless they were an integral part of the rapping rod, for immediately I intercepted them the rapping ceased and could not be resumed for quite a long period of time (see R.P. P., p. 225). As a matter of fact, I shall show later, what I was really doing was to cut across the psychic structure close to the body of the medium: the part of the structure which was not heavily materialised, as the end is, but which nevertheless appeared to contain within it and in motion outwards from the ankles of the medium material particles of some kind.

In order to render the purpose of the series of experiments about to be described intelligible to the reader, it is necessary that I should summarise

what was already known and what was conjectured about the psychic rods which issued from the body of the medium, and which were the instruments employed to produce the phenomena. In the first place, each psychic rod in the neighbourhood of its extremity was solid, i.e. built up of matter solid to the touch, and therefore presumably of matter with which we are ordinarily familiar. At a few inches or less from its extremity this appearance of solidity vanished and nothing could be felt but a flow of what appeared to be material particles, if the line of the structure were intercepted by the hand of the experimenter. That is to say, from a distance only a few inches from its extremity right up to the body of the medium all appearance of solidity vanished, and nothing could be felt in the line of the structure but a flow of cold, spore-like particles. In other words, the solidity seemed to change to something resembling a gaseous state. Nevertheless-and let this be well marked and digested-the whole rod, apparently made up of a solid end and a gaseous body, operated exactly as if it were wholly solid from the body of medium outwards. It resisted pull, push, and shear stress of large magnitude. And in this sort of thing resides the chief mystery connected with the physical phenomena of spiritualism.

Each psychic rod structure is then to all intents and purposes a solid body at its free end (the end furthest from the medium). Also, the part of the rod connecting the body of medium to the solid end of the rod contains within it what appear to be solid material particles in a state of motion from

the medium outwards. So that each rod contains matter throughout which is cognisable by our senses. The question arises as to how and where, with reference to the body of the medium, the materialisation or solidity of the rod termination is effected. The rod moves straight into and out of the medium's body. Is the end materialised immediately it leaves her body, or is the structure first fully ejected and then materialised at the extremity afterwards? And when a developed rod, after producing phenomena, is pulled back into her body, is it pulled in integrally, or is the solid or materialised end first dematerialised; and if the latter is the case, is the dematerialisation effected far from her body, or just when the solid end reaches her body? As the free end is, for all practical purposes and for the time being, an ordinary solid body, and as it has been shown to possess adhesive and suction qualities, it is reasonable to assume that, if the opportunity were presented, particles of suitable substance would adhere to it if such were placed in contact with it. And furthermore, if, when the rod was pulled into the body of the medium, dematerialisation really occurred just before entering the body, that such foreign matter, adhering to the solid end of the rod, would, on dematerialisation, be deposited at the spot where it occurred, and give important data as to the point of issue of the rod.

The above was the method of reasoning upon which I proceeded to carry out the tests about to be described.

I bought a special pair of stockings for the

medium's use. In these I cut a series of small holes, on the left-hand side of each, round the heels, at the lower part of the ankles, and at the toes. The medium put on the pair of shoes used at Glasgow, and I saw that they were tightly laced and the laces tied in three knots. Then she placed her feet together on the floor, and I tied her ankles tightly together with three separate pieces of whipcord, and then tied the whipcord round her ankles to the back rail of the chair underneath it. I let her see what she could do in the way of getting her feet or her shoes loose, but she could do nothing. At the end of the séance her ankles were as tightly tied as at the beginning, and likewise the laces of her shoes..

I placed a box of clay under the table, and by direct measurement found that with the extreme amount of stretch the medium could not get her toes within 18 in. of the front of it.

Then I took a tin dish some 12 in. in diameter, filled with extremely soft clay, so soft that it was in a plastic condition and placed it under the table. The surface of this was approximately smooth at the commencement of the test. I asked the operators to make any marks on this they wished, to do, in fact, anything they liked with it so long as they did things that would be helpful to me in solving the problem of the rods. I asked them to give three raps when they were finished with their experiments. The operators worked at the clay in this dish for ten minutes or so, evidently finding its soft state to their liking. However, at the end of that time the three raps were given, and I