The popular name of _spiritual rapping_ gives a very poor idea of this
class of phenomena. On different occasions during his experiments, Mr.
Crookes heard blows of a delicate variety, such as might be produced by
the point of a needle; a cascade of sounds, as acute as those coming
from an induction coil in full activity; sharp blows or detonations in
the air; acute notes of a metallic variety; rasping sounds similar to
that heard from a machine with rubbing action; noises like scratching;
twittering chirps like a bird, etc.
“I have observed these noises,” says Crookes, “with the majority of
mediums, each of whom has a special peculiarity. They were more varied
with Mr. Home; but, for force and certainty of result, I have never met
a medium who approached Kate Fox. For several months I experimented,
it may be said, in an unlimited manner, and verified the different
manifestations induced by the presence of this lady, and I especially
examined the phenomenon relative to these noises.
“With mediums, it is necessary in general that they be methodically
seated for the _seance_ before noises are heard, but with Miss Kate Fox
it was sufficient to merely place her hand on any object, no matter
what, and violent blows were heard, like a triple sound of beating, and
sometimes so loud as to be heard at different pieces of furniture in
the room.
“In this manner, I have heard these noises on a living tree, on a
fragment of glass, on a membrane extended in a frame—for instance, a
tambourine—on the top of a cab, and on the edge of the parquet railing
in the theatre.
“However, effective contact is not always necessary. I have heard
the noise sound inside walls, when the hands and feet of the medium
were tightly held; when Miss Fox was seated in a chair; when she was
suspended above the platform; finally, when she had fallen on a sofa in
a dead faint.
“I have heard these same noises on the harmonica; I have felt them on
my shoulder and under my hands; I have heard them on a leaf of paper
held between the fingers by the aid of a wire passed through one corner.
“With a perfect knowledge of the numerous theories advanced, in
America principally, to explain these knocks or spirit rapping, I have
verified them by all methods I could imagine, so that I have acquired
a positive conviction as their objective reality, and the absolute
certainty that it was impossible to produce these sounds by artifice or
some mechanical means.
“An important question is here asked that deserves attention, _i.e._
‘_are these noises governed by an intelligence?_’[84]
“From the commencement of my investigations, I have recognized the fact
that the power which produced the phenomena, was not simply a fluid
force, but that _it is associated with an intelligence, or follows its
directions_.”
During the three years that I have experimented in psychology with Dr.
Puel and his friends, there has been no _seance_ where we have not
been able to determine more or less important phenomena of percussion.
An experiment I love to make is that of striking my fingers on the
table, either to imitate the music of a band with drum accompaniment
with some known air, and the same sound is immediately produced on the
under surface of the piece of furniture, with the same rhythm appearing
to be invoked by an invisible hand performing under the table. This
phenomenon is manifested sometimes spontaneously upon my demand or
that of my assistant. I observed it one evening at my own house for
more than a quarter of an hour from, the moment I entered the room;
in this case the noise was a rolling, which appeared to arise from
the metallic surface of a table. It was a member of my family who
called my attention to the abnormal noise, so much the more curious,
inasmuch as I could produce it at will, giving shades and variations
expressed by the movements of my hand. In order to respond in advance
to any objection, I will say it was two o’clock in the morning when
this phenomenon was produced, and there was no passing carriages in the
street to make any kind of a vibration.
These phenomena of percussion are sometimes produced with a most
extraordinary intensity, as in the observations of Kate Fox in the
house at Hydesville; these were probably only phenomena of percussion
similar to those observed at Louviers, in the home of Madame Gay,
under the mediumship of Francoise Fontaine, in 1591, manifestations
which were then attributed to the Devil, or later to a condition of
hallucinations, among the witnesses, according to the _materialistic
psychologists_ of the nineteenth century.