The Spirit Land

by Samuel B. Emmons

"Professor Loomis visited these dwellings, (see Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1851, page 129,) and observed these phenomena. He perceived the flash whenever the hand was brought near to the knob of the door, also to the gilded frame of a mirror, the gas pipes, or any metallic body, especially when this body communicated freely with the earth. "In one house," says this scientific gentleman, in his description before the American Scientific Association, at New Haven, "in one house, which I have had the opportunity to examine, a child, in taking hold of the knob of a door, received so severe a shock that it ran off in great fright. In passing from one parlor to the other, if the lady of the house chanced to step upon the brass plate which served as a slide for the folding doors, she received an unpleasant shock in the foot. When she touched her finger to the chandelier, there appeared a brilliant spark, and a snap." After a careful examination of several cases of this kind, Professor Loomis came to the conclusion "that the electricity is created (excited) by the friction of the shoes of the inmates upon the carpets of the house." "If the professor is correct in his conjecture, it would follow that every house," says Mr. Rogers, "with similar carpets, should become electrized, and exhibit similar phenomena, in which case we should have observed their appearance at a much earlier period, and the occurrence would have been presented much more frequently and extensively. Yet the phenomena is every whit electrical; hence we are led by them to see, that when local circumstances are favorable, an agent may be developed in our midst, which may play the most singular pranks, which, it is more than probable, may be attributed to supernatural, and even to SPIRITUAL powers, if the witnesses should be ignorant of those characteristics which identify them with a well-known agent. Had the characteristics in the above been contrary to those of any known agent, although the phenomena had been entirely physical, how many would have leaped to the conclusion, without a moment's thought or investigation, that the force was a power of the invisible spirit world? With regard to the phenomena of the present day, reason has been entirely set aside; hence the precipitate conclusion concerning them, even by many who lay great claim to its use and application to all other subjects. We have been truly astonished at the course of such persons."

"We shall now present a few cases that bear a closer analogy to electricity, perhaps, than those we have been considering. The first we shall speak of is that of the two Smyrna girls, who visited France in 1839, and exhibited what was called their electrical powers, in moving tables without contact. The account was published in the Boston Weekly Magazine, of December 28, 1839. The two girls landed at Marseilles, about the first of November, 1839. In hopes of realizing a splendid fortune, they intended to exhibit themselves in France, and other parts of the continent. Immediately on their arrival, several persons, including several men of science and professors, visited them, and ascertained the following phenomena:—

First. "The girls stationed themselves, facing each other, at the ends of a large table, keeping at a distance from it of one or two feet, according to their electrical dispositions.

Second. "When a few minutes had elapsed, a crackling, like that of electric fluid spreading over gilt paper, was heard, when,—

Third. "The table received a strong shake, which always made it advance from the ELDER to the younger sister.

Fourth. "A key, nails, or any piece of iron placed on the table instantaneously stopped the phenomena.

Fifth. "When the iron was adapted to the under part of the table, it produced no effect upon the experiment.

Sixth. "Saving this singularity, the facts observed constantly followed the known laws of electricity, whether glass insulators were used, or whether one of the girls wore silk garments. In the latter case, the electric properties of both were neutralized." Such was the state of matters for some days after the arrival of the young Greeks; but,—

Seventh. "The temperature having become cooled, and the atmosphere having loaded itself with humidity, all perceptible electric virtue seemed to have deserted them. One may conceive the melancholy of these girls," the writer continues, "and the disappointment of the two Greeks, their relations, who came with them to share their anticipated wealth."

"In this case we have the "manifestation" of a force greatly analogous to that often witnessed at the present day. In one important respect it acted differently from electricity, in that it was broken by simply laying a key or a small piece of iron on the object the agent had acted upon, &c. "It must be admitted, however," says Mr. Rogers, "that the fact of the influence of glass insulators and the silk dress, causing a cessation of the phenomena, shows that the agent that acted upon the table was, in some way, a form of electricity, though greatly varying, in its laws of action, from that usually known to science. We have," says Mr. R., "some curious facts relating to this modified agent, to present from Matucci and others," (in the second number of our work.)