"Do you swear that in all consultations you will be of the ancient opinion, whether it be good or bad?"—"I swear it."—"To never make use of any remedies except those of the learned faculty of medicine, even should the patient burst and die of his disease?"—"I swear it."—Trans.
[56] "Les Tables tournantes," considérés au point de vue de la question de physique générale qui s'y rattache. Genève, 1855.
[57] The dynamic force necessary to produce this uplift, if we admit that it was developed and accumulated during the five or ten minutes of playing that preceded the phenomenon, would not, on the other hand, be beyond the strength of the child; it would remain even much beneath the limit of his powers. In general, the force expended, in these phenomena of the tables, if one may judge by the degree of fatigue experienced by the operators, much surpasses what would be required to produce the same effects mechanically. There is, therefore, in this respect, no reason for admitting the intervention of a force foreign to the boy's own nature.—(Thury.)
[58] In the first experiments of Thury, eight persons remained an hour and a half standing, and then seated, around a table, without obtaining the least resulting movement. Two or three days after, on their second trial, the same persons, at the end of ten minutes, made a centre-table revolve. Finally, on the 4th of May, 1853, at the third or fourth trial, the heaviest tables began to move almost immediately.
[59] In the case of difficult tests, when they took place on cold days, a warm spread was stretched over the table, and removed at the moment of the experiment. The operators themselves, before acting, held their hands open for a moment before a stove.
[60] Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, London: 1871.
[61] In one vol. 8vo. Paris: Leymarie, 1900.
[62] See, for example, the January number, 1876: Sidereal Astronomy.
[63] Especially at Nice, in 1881 and 1884. Home died in 1886. He was born in 1833, near Edinburgh.
[64] Sir William Huggins, an astronomer well known for his discoveries in spectrum analysis.