Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/209

Rh would be written at the time by means of a thimble pencil. The experiment would then be temporarily intermitted, first to allow of the unlocking of slate A, secondly to allow of the cleaning of that locked slate, and the preparation of another trial with the same (the record of this—experiment c—is omitted, as containing no new feature). What ultimately happened was that the two slates on one of which the red chalk message was already written were placed under the table, and then by means of substitutions, and reversals of position, the opportunity for which was afforded by the breaks in the experiment, the under of these two slates was eventually found to contain on the upper surface the message quoted in the text.

The explanation of experiment (d), which so profoundly puzzled the sitter, was even simpler. Mr. Hodgson's comment on the experiment is as follows:

I do not recall with certainty what the coin was. Let us suppose it was a shilling. Mr. Davey beforehand wrote the date of a shilling of his own in locked-slate A, placed this shilling in an envelope and sealed it up, and placed this envelope also in locked-slate A, which at the beginning of the experiment he had concealed about his person. He then requested the sitter to take a shilling from his pocket without looking at it, to place it in an envelope and seal it up, place it in the locked-slate B, etc. The sitting was at Mr. Davey's house, and Mr. Davey provided the envelope, from the same packet, of course, as the one already containing Mr. Davey's shilling in locked-slate A. The sitter was requested not to look at his coin, ostensibly, I believe, on the ground of precluding thought-transference, but really so that the sitter