coincidence, apart from the extraordinary way in which the picture was obtained. Neither sleight-of-hand nor transference of plates could have any bearing upon such results as those. Their full significance was not realised until I had made enquiries, but after that time I felt it impossible to doubt the supernormal nature of the powers which had produced such effects.
It might perhaps be argued that as Archdeacon Colley’s writing was familiar to Hope, he had, in spite of his disabilities, made some special effort to master and reproduce it. As a matter of fact, however, this case does not stand alone, and many evidential writings have been obtained at Crewe, notably those of W. T. Stead and of the late Dr. Crawford. The latter is a recent incident, and I would take it as my next example, since it illustrates this phenomenon of writing, and is again free from the bogey of transposition.
Upon June 30 of this year (1922) three delegates from Belfast, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Gillmour and Mr. Donaldson, were coming over to the London Spiritualists’ Conference. They broke their journey at Crewe in order to have a sitting with Mr. Hope, who was in deep distress at the time on account of the attack made upon him in Mr. Price’s report. It is worth noting that Mrs. Crawford, the widow of Dr. Crawford, had come over with them on the boat, and that Dr. Crawford’s affairs had been under discussion, though Hope had no means of knowing it. Under good fraud-proof conditions, on their own specially-marked plate, the visitors obtained a message in Dr. Crawford’s handwriting, which runs thus, I supplying the punctuation:
“Dear Mr. Hope,
“Needless to say I am with you where psychic work is concerned, and you can be sure of my sympathy and help. I know all the difficulties and uncertainties connected with the subject. I am keenly interested in your circle and will co-operate with you. Regarding your enemies who would by hook or by crook dispose of the phenomena, leave them alone. I, W. J. Crawford, of Belfast, am here in Crewe on Friday, June 30th.
“W. J. Crawford.”
Each word is on its own little patch of ectoplasm, or upon its own pad of cotton-wool, if the critics prefer it, though it would puzzle them, I think, to reproduce the effect which is given in Figure 3. The plate alongside (Figure 4) shows a reproduction of an actual note of Crawford’s which will enable the reader to judge the extreme similarity of the script. Once more we confront the critic with this fact and ask him to face the difficulty and to tell us whence this writing came; whether it is a production of Mr. Hope’s, or whether the theory of a private forger upon the premises can be sustained.
Apart from these cases of the reproduction of handwriting, copies of documents have appeared upon the plates at Crewe which could by no means have got there in a normal fashion. A case in point is given in detail by the Reverend and venerable Professor Henslow on p. 217 of his Proofs of Spiritualism. In this case, the truth of which is vouched for by the Professor, although it did not actually occur to him, the plates were held between the hands of the sitters in the manner already described, but the packet had not been opened and was as it had come from the chemist. When the packet was opened and the plates developed there was found impressed upon the fifth plate a number of Greek characters, which proved to be a copy of four lines of the Codex Alexandrinus, a rare Greek text kept in a glass case in the British Museum. The interesting point appears that the two documents are not facsimiles, and that there is some slight difference in the formation of the letters, thus meeting the objection that the text photographed might have been got from some facsimile of the original Codex. The photographs of the original Greek and of the Crewe reproduction are given in Professor Henslow’s work. Here, again, we may well ask the critic to face the facts and give us some feasible explanation as to how this Greek text was precipitated on to a plate in a sealed packet under the mediumship of an unlearned carpenter at Crewe.
CHAPTER III
EVIDENTIAL TESTS AND THEIR RESULTS
We will now turn to the reproduction of faces, and I will give an instance where all the stock theories about changing or superposition of plates become untenable. At the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, I being present, a photograph of the members was taken in the normal way as a souvenir. As Hope was present, it was suggested that a second photograph be taken by him in the hope that we might get some psychic effect. The plate was taken from an unopened packet in the pocket of the secretary, and some fifteen of us were witnesses of the whole transaction. Hope had no warning at all, and could have made no preparation. The plate was at once developed by one of our own members, and a well-marked extra, amid a cloud of ectoplasm, appeared upon the picture. This extra was claimed by one of our members as a good likeness of his dead father. This result, which is illustrated by Figure 5, was obtained before an audience of experts, if any men in this world have a right to call themselves experts upon this subject. How can it be explained by fraud and how can such a case be lightly set aside? Granting for argument’s sake that the sitter may have been mistaken in the recognition, how can the actual psychic effect be accounted for?
It happens, occasionally, that these ghost-faces which appear upon the plates retain some remarkable physical peculiarity which prove beyond all question who they represent. One such case has been handed to me by the Countess of Malmesbury, whose own account is so clear and condensed that it could not be bettered:
“I sat with Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton on Friday, December 9th, 1921, and was accompanied by ‘Val L’Estrange,’ a lady professional photographer, who watched the proceedings on my behalf, as I do not understand photography. She states that from first to last she could not detect any fraud. As I sat for the photograph the wish just crossed my mind that I might obtain a photograph of J. H., who died in 1880, and that I could receive a definite sign that it was genuine.
“J. H. died as the result of an operation for the removal of the lower jaw, which had been seriously injured. No one saw him after this terrible misfortune except five persons, of whom I am the only survivor, and I need not say that no photograph was then taken of him.
“I showed the photograph to Dr. Fielding Ould, who at once recognised it as that of a man who had had his lower jaw removed. This opinion was confirmed by several of his medical friends, to whom he showed the picture.
“I should add that the plates were bought by ‘Val L’Estrange’ direct from the manufacturer, and that we brought them with us. The exposure was forty seconds. The plate which produced the portrait was manipulated by Mr. Hope under the supervision of ‘Val L’Estrange.’ We both superintended the development and fixing of the negative.
“As an impartial investigator of psychic matters I have stated exactly what took place, without comment.
(signed) “Susan, Countess of Malmesbury.”
It must be admitted that this case, so exactly recorded, would be a difficult one to explain away.
I would now quote the case furnished by Major Spencer, who is an experienced and careful observer, and has given much attention to psychic photography. In this experiment he used his own camera, his own carriers and his own plates. What could be more drastic than that! He says, if I may abbreviate his account:
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