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[Illustration: This spirit-face is the realisation of a high ideal of
beauty, sweetness, and spirituality. The beauty of it we cannot now fully
comprehend; but, as we gaze on it, we may say in the words of Michael
Angelo:—
“Souls burn for souls—spirits to spirits cry,
I seek the splendour in thy fair face storèd;
Yet living man that beauty scarce can learn,
And he who fain would find it first must die.”
[_See page 92, tenth line._]
THE VEIL LIFTED.
MODERN DEVELOPMENTS OF
SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY.
With Twelve Illustrations.
A PAPER BY J. TRAILL TAYLOR
DESCRIBING EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY.
LETTER BY THE REV. H. R. HAWEIS, M.A.
ADDRESSES BY JAMES ROBERTSON, GLASGOW.
AND
_MISCELLANEA BY THE EDITOR_,
ANDREW GLENDINNING.
LONDON:
WHITTAKER & CO., WHITE HART STREET, E.C.
1894.
“Kant expressed himself favourable to the view that a world
of supersensuous beings environs this planet, and that the
establishment of communication with such beings is only a
matter of time.”—E. D. FAWCETT.
* * * * *
“Before many months are over, I think it will be admitted
by every candid mind that the persistence of the individual
after death, and the possibility of communicating with that
individual, has been as well established on a scientific basis
as any other fact in nature. That, you may think, is a bold
assertion. It is not an assertion; it is a prophecy, based upon
facts which are within my own knowledge, and of which I speak
with as much confidence as I do of anything which has ever
come within my own personal observation.”—W. T. STEAD, in _The
Review of Reviews_, Jan. 1893.
* * * * *
“Personally, we consider Spiritualism a valuable bulwark
against the inroads of Materialistic Atheism.”—SALADIN, in _The
Agnostic Journal_.
PREFACE.
The publication in the _British Journal of Photography_ of Mr. Taylor’s
Paper, with the proceedings of the meeting at which it was read, has
aroused a wide-spread and deep interest in the subject. The principal
portions of it, and, in some instances the whole of the Paper, together
with editorial comments, have subsequently appeared in newspapers and
journals in Canada, Australia, India, America, and other countries. As
his experiments will be a matter of historical interest, many scientific
men will be pleased to have his Paper in this book form, with the
reproductions of two of the psychic pictures which he obtained on his
photographic plates.
The term “spirit photographs” is generally used to describe photographs
of psychic entities who cannot be seen by ordinary persons, but can be
photographed by a medium, or with the help of a medium, and with the
co-operation of these unseen entities. Such portraits are obtained both
indoors and in the open air, with and without a background, by natural
light and by artificial light; and, in the case of “materialised” forms
at séances, which are visible to every person present, the portraits have
sometimes been taken by light produced by the spirits, the exact nature
of which is unknown.
The following may serve as a rough classification of what are called
spirit photographs:—
1. Portraits of psychical entities not seen by normal vision.
2. Pictures of objects not seen nor thought of by the sitter or by the
medium or operator; such as flowers, words, crosses, crowns, lights, and
various emblematic objects.
3. Pictures which have the appearance of being copied from statues,
paintings, or drawings. Sometimes these are busts or heads only. The
flatness in some photographs of this class is supposed, by persons who
have _not_ investigated the subject, to be proof that the photographs are
produced in a fraudulent manner.
4. Pictures of what are called materialised forms visible to normal sight.
5. Pictures of the “wraith” or “double” of persons still in the body.
6. Portraits on plates which developers have failed to bring into view,
but that can be seen and described by clairvoyants and by mediums when in
trance and whose descriptions agree, though made independently.
There are, also, portraits that cannot be classed as photographs, as
they have not been taken by the agency of a camera, or by exposing the
prepared plate previous to development of the image.
Those who desire further information than is contained in this volume on
the subject of spirit photography should read the following:—
A series of important articles by the late Mr. Stainton Moses (M.A.
Oxon), in _Human Nature_, Vols. VIII. and IX., 1874-75. The volumes
may be had on loan from the Library of the Spiritual Institution, 15
Southampton Row, W.C., or from the Library of the Spiritual Alliance,
2 Duke Street, Charing Cross. The subscription to either Library is a
guinea a year.
Article on “Ghosts and their Photographs,” by the Rev. H. R. Haweis,
M.A., in the _Fortnightly Review_, January, 1893.
_Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena
Invisible to the Material Eye._ By Miss Houghton. Illustrated by six
plates, containing fifty-four miniature reproductions from the original
photographs. E. W. Allen, Ave Maria Lane, 1882. Sold also by Jas. Burns,
15 Southampton Row, W.C. Price 10_s._ 6_d._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION 1
What led to the recent Experiments in Psychic Photography 1
Testimony relating to David Duguid 3
“SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY,” WITH REMARKS ON FLUORESCENCE. By J.
Traill Taylor 9
Origin of “Spirit” Photography 10
Some Investigators of the Subject 11
Photographing the Invisible 15
Fluorescence 17
A Lady’s Joke 20
Some Personal Experiments 23
How the Psychic Figures Behaved 31
The Stereoscopic Camera in Use 33
REMARKS BY MEMBERS AND VISITORS 37
Portrait obtained without Exposure in Camera 49
PRESS NOTICES OF MR. TAYLOR’S PAPER:—
From the “Practical Photographer,” April, 1893 53
From the “Review of Reviews,” April, 1893 57
From “The Morning” (Daily Newspaper), April 4th, 1893 59
From the “Medium and Daybreak,” March 24th, 1893 60
From “Light,” March 18th, 1893 63
From “Light,” March 25th, 1893 64
From “Light,” May 6th, 1893 67
From the “Two Worlds,” March 24th, 1893 69
GHOSTS AND THEIR PHOTOGRAPHS. By the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A. 71
“Will you Show me the Ghost?” 73
“Authentic” Ghost Photographs 76
The late Editor of “Light” 78
SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY. By Jas. Robertson, Glasgow 85
His Opportunities for Observation 89
David Duguid prevailed on to try Experiments 90
Experiments in Mr. Robertson’s Warehouse 91
John Page Hopps on Spirit Life 92
A beautiful Portrait obtained 92
Testimony by “Edina” 93
Portrait obtained in Edinburgh of a Child 94
Details of the Experiments to obtain it 95
MISCELLANEA. By Andrew Glendinning 111
How Abraham Lincoln’s Spirit Photograph was obtained 115
Experiments by Professor Crookes, F.R.S. 122
The beauty of Katie King described 123
Lecture by Arthur Maltby 128
Lantern Transparencies, by Mr. Acton 129
How a Portrait was obtained without a Camera 144
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
PHOTOGRAPH OF SPIRIT HEAD AND FACE BY DAVID DUGUID _Frontispiece._
PORTRAIT OF DAVID DUGUID 25
PHOTOGRAPH OF SPIRIT BY J. TRAILL TAYLOR 29
ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPH BY J. TRAILL TAYLOR 35
PHOTOGRAPH OF A LADY AND THE SPIRIT OF HER FATHER 79
PHOTOGRAPH OF MR. STAINTON MOSES, M.A., AND SPIRIT 83
PHOTOGRAPH OF HON. M. A. DOW AND SPIRIT OF MABEL WARREN 117
PSYCHIC PICTURE OBTAINED WITHOUT A CAMERA OR EXPOSURE OF PLATE
TO LIGHT 145
PSYCHIC FORM OBTAINED OCTOBER 21, 1893 149
MRS. GREEN AND SPIRIT 153
SPIRIT LADY 157
PSYCHIC FORM OBTAINED APRIL 29, 1892 160
“Stand upright, speak thy thought, declare
The truth thou hast, that all may share;
Be bold, proclaim it everywhere;
They only live who dare.”—LEWIS MORRIS.
* * * * *
“All great discoveries have at first been derided as ridiculous
and then denounced as impious, and lastly adopted as a matter
of course. Let us, then, as we have to learn to labour and to
wait, stand firm for the expansion of human faculty, increase
of human growth, accession to human knowledge, and welcome,
as all in the day’s work, even the silent apparition or the
gibbering ghost.”—Rev. H. R. HAWEIS, M.A.
* * * * *
“There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”—PAUL.
INTRODUCTION.
“Every new truth which has ever been propounded has, for a time, caused
mischief; it has produced discomfort, and often unhappiness.”—BUCKLE, in
_History of Civilisation_.
_WHAT LED TO THE RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY._
A number of test séances for spirit photography had been held with Mr.
David Duguid, of which no records have been kept, but in April and May,
1892, four séances were held under strict test conditions, notes of
which were made at the time, and signed by the various persons who were
present. These notes were printed for private circulation, and a copy
was sent, with some of the photographs, to Mr. Frederic W. H. Myers,
Cambridge, (Hon. Secretary Psychical Research Society).
He suggested that when there was another opportunity for a test séance,
the presence of a “scientific man,” and some one well acquainted with
photographic manipulations, be got to attend to watch the experiments.
One of the investigators induced Mr. Duguid to come to London to give a
séance under the strictest test conditions which could be devised; and
Mr. J. Traill Taylor, Editor of the _British Journal of Photography_, by
special request consented to take charge of the experiments, and to fix
the conditions under which they should be made.
Mr. Taylor combines in himself the special qualities named by Mr. Myers,
inasmuch as he is a “scientific man,” and an expert in photographic
chemistry, optical research, and all photographic manipulations.[1]
Mr. Taylor is the author of several works relating to the chemistry,
optics, physics, and practice of photography; and besides being a member
of Council of the Photographic Society of Great Britain, is an honorary
member of the Imperial Polytechnic Society of Russia, and of all the
leading Photographic Clubs and Societies in London, and of several in New
York.
_TESTIMONY RELATING TO DAVID DUGUID._
In a book recently published, entitled _The Rise and Progress of Modern
Spiritualism_[2] (consisting of a reprint of a course of lectures
delivered in Glasgow by Mr. James Robertson), the author gives the
following testimony as to Mr. Duguid:—
“For many years we have had resident amongst us one whose
name is world-wide, _and whose character is above reproach_;
go where you will, David Duguid is recognised as one of the
world’s mediums. From his lips have come forth volumes full of
wonderful information which he, the normal man, never gathered
of himself, but which is the product of intelligences who
have ripened in that other sphere of existence. The story of
the early life of Jesus, which is to be found in _Hafed_, the
glimpses of ancient peoples, their manners and customs, are a
valuable contribution to our knowledge. But he has been famous
as a medium for every phase of the subject, including those
marvellous direct paintings which have done much missionary
work, the direct voices, materialisation, perfumes, writings
in language utterly unknown to him, _and specially in the
conclusive evidence he has been the means of furnishing as
to the reality of spirit photography_. The striking story
contributed to _Light_ by ‘Edina,’ of how a picture of the dead
boy was got after patient waiting, is amongst the best-attested
phenomena. The early and close friend of D. D. Home, he has
revealed almost similar mediumistic gifts. One of the most
genial and retiring of men, he has ever reverenced his gifts,
and sought in his own modest way to give all and sundry the
benefit of their light.”
One of Mr. Glendinning’s private letters to the editor of a photographic
journal, with reference to an intended action for libel, contained the
following:—
“If my counsel wishes it, I shall produce such an array of
testimonials from men of position as to Mr. Duguid’s honesty
and uprightness as have seldom been read in any court.”
That would be an easy thing to do; but, when it is considered that Mr.
Duguid has for a long time been employed by Mr. Robertson in his bicycle
works; that Mr. Robertson, who is an active business man and a good
judge of character, is year after year in almost hourly contact with Mr.
Duguid; that he has been at many of Mr. Duguid’s séances, some of these
being held in his (Mr. Robertson’s) own house—when these things are borne
in mind, the value of the voluntary tribute given by Mr. Robertson to Mr.
Duguid’s honesty and uprightness will be the more fully appreciated.
For nearly thirty years has Mr. David Duguid been before the world as
a private medium for various descriptions of spirit phenomena. He has
given innumerable séances readily, without fee or desire for reward,
to clergymen, medical men, artists, teachers of science, lawyers,
journalists, merchants, and men and women in all ranks of life; he has
sacrificed time and money in the cause which is dear to his heart, and
upon which no act or word of his has ever brought a stain. These facts
are well known to many, nor would it be necessary to print them here
were it not for the efforts made to destroy public confidence in the
facts brought to light through his mediumship by writers in certain
photographic journals, and the artful insinuations of men who put
themselves forward on the plea of being anxious investigators.
_WHERE MR. TAYLOR READ HIS PAPER._
At a meeting of the London and Provincial Photographic Association, held
on March 9, 1893, Mr. J. Weir Brown in the chair, the following paper by
Mr. Taylor was read by him, and, with his consent, is reprinted from the
_British Journal of Photography_ (Vol. XL., No. 1715, March 17, 1893).
There was a large attendance of members, and several visitors were
present. Visitors were allowed to make remarks, a privilege of which
several availed themselves. Some members put questions to Mr. Taylor on
points of detail regarding his experiments, all of which he replied to
frankly and explicitly. In replying to one member, Mr. Taylor stated
that he had received a letter, asking him to bring a reasonable man
with him _to witness_ his experiments—in fact, he said, he had the
option of taking any one he chose. To another member Mr. Taylor replied
that he himself placed the sitters and the camera, and also arranged
the lighting of the room. Several members spoke highly of Mr. Taylor’s
qualifications to conduct such experiments; but as they could not accept
the spiritualistic hypothesis, and as the photographs had to them the
appearance of being copied from cut-out prints, or made by “stump-work,”
they concluded that therefore they could not be genuine, ignoring
entirely Mr. Taylor’s emphatic statements, which he had already given in
his paper, viz.:—
“_My conditions were entirely acquiesced in_”—that I “_should use my own
camera and unopened packages of dry plates, purchased from dealers of
repute, and that I should be excused from allowing a plate to go out of
my own hand till after development_,” and that “_I should dictate all the
conditions of operation_.”
As a matter of fact, everything connected with the experiments was
subject to Mr. Taylor’s entire control and approval.
“SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY,” WITH REMARKS ON FLUORESCENCE.[3]
_By_ J. TRAILL TAYLOR.
The presence of smoke may be considered as implying the existence of
flame. Spirit photography, so called, has of late been asserting its
existence in such a manner and to such an extent as to warrant competent
men making an investigation, conducted under stringent test conditions,
into the circumstances under which such photographs are produced, and
exposing the fraud, should it prove to be such, instead of pooh-poohing
it as insensate because we do not understand how it can be otherwise—a
position that scarcely commends itself as intelligent or philosophical.
If in what follows I call it “spirit photography” instead of psychic
photography, it is only in deference to a nomenclature that extensively
prevails, and not as offering a surmise from any knowledge of my own
as to what is matter and what spirit, or the distinction between mind,
spirit, and matter, for in truth I don’t know. I approach the subject
merely as a photographer.
Before I proceed, a few words on the origin of spirit photography may not
be out of place. In March, 1861, W. H. Mumler, the principal engraver in
the employ of Bigelow Bros. & Kennard, the leading jewellers of Boston,
when whiling away an idle hour as an amateur photographer, had a form
other than that of any one present developed on his collodion plate.
He surmised that it arose from an image having been previously on the
plate, and its having been imperfectly cleaned off. Subjected to a more
thorough cleaning, the form again appeared more strongly marked than
before, and he could offer no other explanation than the one given. It
got noised abroad through the press that a spirit had been photographed,
and although Mumler strove to suppress the misrepresentation, as he
regarded it, yet he eventually succumbed to popular demand, and took two
hours a day from his regular work, devoting them to photography. This he
had to extend to the whole of each day, entirely discarding his regular
profession. Many men of eminence sat to him, most of whom he did not know
at the time. He seems to have encouraged his sitters in the adoption
of such test conditions as they deemed satisfactory. The figures that
usually appeared on the plate with the sitters were, if I rightly infer,
those on whom the sitters’ minds had been set. That eminent portrait
photographer, Mr. Wm. Black, of Boston, so well known all over the world
as the inventor of the acid nitrate bath, undertook to investigate
the _bonâ fides_ of Mumler’s methods. Through a friend who had just
previously sat and obtained a figure, Black offered fifty dollars if
Mumler would operate in his presence and obtain a picture. Invited to
come, the acute Black critically examined camera, plate, dipper, and
bath, and had his eye on the plate from the moment its preparation
began until it was sensitised and locked in the dark slide, removing
it himself from the camera, and carrying it into the dark room, where,
on development, a figure of a man was seen leaning on B.’s shoulder.
Black was wonder-stricken, and got away the negative, no charge whatever
having been made. Mumler now claimed publicly to be a spirit-portrait
photographer, and as such he eventually opened a studio in New York,
having previously satisfied Silver, Gurney, and other photographers as
to the genuineness of his claims, never hesitating to operate in their
galleries if required, and with their apparatus and chemicals. Mumler
was arrested in New York; whether on the ground of witchcraft or of
endeavouring to obtain money under false pretences, I am at present
uncertain, but his trial was the sensation of the day, and numerous
witnesses were examined. He was honourably acquitted.
In this country, several who are amateur photographers have investigated
this subject with more or less success. These include some F.R.S.’s,
scientists, artists, and others. I question whether any have so
persistently done so as the late Mr. John Beattie, of Clifton, and his
friend, Dr. Thompson. Mr. Beattie was a skilled professional photographer
of the highest eminence who, some time prior to his death, had adopted
the views of the spiritualistic school. The figures he obtained on his
plates were much blurred in outline, some being misty in the extreme. I
possess some two or three dozen of these, taken by or in the presence
of, Mr. Beattie, whose intelligence, honesty, and powers of observation
no one would venture to doubt. Many such photographs are claimed to
have been produced by Hudson, a professional photographer, formerly of
the Holloway Road, and I submit for examination a work by the late Miss
Houghton, containing fifty-four of Hudson’s spirit photographs.
There are many ways by which, assuming the genuineness of only one of
all spirit photographs hitherto produced, the spurious article may be
made even better than any alleged real ones I have yet seen. A plate
secretly impressed previous or subsequent to being placed in the camera
fulfils the condition; so does one at the back of which is placed a
phosphorescent tablet in the dark slide. Pressure on the surface, such as
by that of a Woodbury relief film, also causes a developable image; in
short, trickery in a whole variety of forms may, and has been, impressed
into the service.
The higher department of fluorescence may with success be employed. Here
is something to which believers in the visibility of spirit forms to
a camera are quite welcome. At the time, and _àpropos_ of the Mumler
trial in New York, I wrote that a good many absurd things have been said
_pro_ and _con_ on the subject; but a writer in the latter category, who
asserted that anything that is visible to the eye of the camera, and thus
capable of being depicted by photography, must therefore necessarily be
visible to the human eye, was surely ignorant of that important branch
of physics popularly known as fluorescence. Many things are capable of
being photographed which to the physical eye are utterly invisible. Why,
for that matter, a room (visually dark) may be full of the ultra-violet
rays of the spectrum, and a photograph may be taken in that dark light.
Objects in a room so lighted would be plainly visible to the lens of the
camera—at any rate, they could be reproduced on the sensitive plate,
while, at the same time, not an atom of luminousness could be perceived
in the room by any person possessing ordinary or normal vision. Hence
the photographing of an invisible image, whether it be of a spirit or
a lump of matter is not scientifically impossible. If it reflect only
the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum, it will be easily photographed,
although quite invisible to the sharpest eye.
Again, Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., well known as one of the most eminent
of electricians, says (_Electric_, June, 1871), when passing a current of
electricity through a vacuum tube, the results of which were indicated
by touches of light about the poles:—“In one instance, although the
experiment was carried on in a dark room, this light was so feeble that
it could not be seen, and the operators doubted if the current were
passing. But photography was at work, and in thirty minutes a very good
picture was produced of what had taken place. This,” he says, “is a
remarkable fact; indeed, it borders on the wonderful, that a phenomenon
invisible to the human eye should have been, so to speak, seen by the
photographic lens, and a record thereof kept by chemical agency. It is
highly suggestive, and we may anticipate that it will be turned to good
account by practical philosophers.”
Some very striking phenomena in photographing the invisible may be
produced by the agency of fluorescence. Figures depicted upon a
background by one or other of certain substances I shall presently name,
although invisible to the eye, may become visible to the camera. Of
these, the best known, although not the most effective, is disulphate
of quinine. Such a solution, although to the eye it is colourless like
water, is to the camera as black as ink. Fill three phials respectively
with water, quinine, and common writing ink, and you have two whites and
one black; but photograph them, and you have two blacks and one white.
The camera has reduced the transparent quinine solution to the colour
of the ink. Those of you who may care to experiment in this direction,
please take notice that the quinine must be acidulated with sulphuric
acid, and that hydrochloric acid, even a small trace, will destroy this
property. Among other substances that are fluorescent, or that change
the refrangibility of rays of light, are mineral uranite, certain salts
of uranium, canary glass, alcoholic solution of chlorophyll, æsculine,
tincture of stramonium seeds, and of turmeric. There are others known
to be still better, but my experiments in this direction are yet too
incomplete to warrant my even indicating them.
Let me for a moment enter the realm of speculation, and assume that there
are really spirits invisible to the eye but visible to the camera and to
certain persons called seers or clairvoyants only. Might we not suggest
that there is some fluorescent compound in the eyes of such persons not
present in those whose eyes are normal, and that it is to this they owe
their seeing powers? Some of you may probably be aware that Dr. Bence
Jones and other philosophers have actually established the fact of such
fluorescent substances being found in some eyes. May this throw any light
upon the recognised fact of certain animals being able to see in the dark?
When the subject of fluorescence is more thoroughly investigated (it is a
discovery of Sir D. Brewster, who was followed by Herschel and Professor
Stokes, and is as yet but of yesterday), we may hope for a vast accession
to our knowledge of subjects as yet very slightly understood.
At the Bradford meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science, in 1873, Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S., demonstrated before the
Mathematical and Physical Section what I have said respecting invisible
drawings on white cards having produced bold and clear photographs when
no eye could see the drawings themselves, and I brought away back to
London these photographs, and, for aught I know, may have them still.
To prevent this disquisition from being too dry, I will here introduce a
fanciful sketch I wrote _àpropos_ of Dr. Gladstone’s demonstration at the
time mentioned:—
A mischievous young lady of scientific proclivities who attended the
meeting of the British Association, and who was addicted to practical
joking, listened attentively to Dr. Gladstone’s observations upon the
properties of quinine referred to, and having carefully noted the
discussion that followed, reasoned within herself thus: If solution of
quinine can make invisible marks upon paper, which will come out black
in a photograph, it ought to do the same when applied to the skin. So
she procured some of this solution, and upon her fair brow she painted
with it a death’s head and cross-bones. These, of course, were invisible
to human vision. Thus prepared, she went to a photographer to have her
portrait taken. All went right until the operator went an to develop
the plate, when she soon heard an altercation between the photographer
and the attendant boy, in which it was evident that the latter was being
charged with having coated an old or dirty plate.
A second negative was taken, with this result, that the operator, after
bestowing a puzzled, affrighted look at the lady, rushed downstairs to
the principal of the establishment. Both returned to the dark room, and a
third negative was taken, when it became evident that intense excitement
was being produced in the dark room. After an excuse to the lady about
there being electricity in the atmosphere, which had affected the
chemicals, she was requested to sit once more.
Scarcely had the plate been developed, when both photographer and
assistant rushed out from the dark room, pale and excited, and explained
that on the brow of the sitter in each negative was emblazoned the
insignia of the King of Terrors. The negatives were produced leaving no
doubt of the fact. What was to be done?
The sitter hinted something about not being disposed to be made a fool
of by one who she was satisfied was a spirit photographer, and that she,
for one, would not allow herself to become the victim of such absurdity.
This upset the equanimity of the photographer, who expressed his earnest
conviction that she was an emissary and personal friend of the common
enemy of mankind.
“I shall look in again to-morrow,” said the lady, in her sweetest tones,
“if you promise not to play any of your silly ghost tricks upon me.”
“Not for ten thousand worlds,” said the artist, “shall you ever set foot
within my studio again!”
“Oh,” she laughingly rejoined, “I shall drop in through the roof and
visit you some day when you are disengaged;” and with that she departed.
“I knew it!” gasped the photographer. “I felt a sulphurous odour the
moment I came near her. Send immediately for my friend, the Rev. ——, and
get him to offer prayer, and free the studio from the evil influences
remaining after a visitation from one whose feet, although clad in boots,
would, if examined, be found to be cloven.”
[Illustration: DAVID DUGUID.]
For several years I have experienced a strong desire to ascertain
by personal investigation the amount of truth in the ever-recurring
allegation that figures other than those visually present in the room
appeared on a sensitive plate. The difficulty was to get hold of a
suitable person known as a sensitive or “medium.” What a medium is,
or how physically or mentally constituted to be different from other
mortals, I am unable to say. He or she may not be a photographer, but
must be present on each occasion of trial. Some may be mediums without
their being aware of it. Like the chemical principle known as catalysis,
they merely act by their presence. Such a one is Mr. D. of Glasgow,
in whose presence psychic photographs have long been alleged to be
obtained. He was lately in London on a visit, and a mutual friend got
him to consent to extend his stay in order that I might try to get a
psychic photograph under test conditions. To this he willingly agreed.
My conditions were exceedingly simple, were courteously expressed to the
host, and entirely acquiesced in. They were, that I for the nonce would
assume them all to be tricksters, and, to guard against fraud, should use
my own camera and unopened packages of dry plates purchased from dealers
of repute, and that I should be excused from allowing a plate to go out
of my own hand till after development, unless I felt otherwise disposed;
but that, as I was to treat them as under suspicion, so must they treat
me, and that every act I performed must be in presence of two witnesses,
nay, that I would set a watch upon my own camera in the guise of a
duplicate one of the same focus—in other words, I would use a binocular
stereoscopic camera and dictate all the conditions of operation. All this
I was told was what they very strongly wished me to do, as they desired
to know the truth and that only. There were present, during one or other
of the evenings when the trials were made, representatives of various
schools of thought, including a clergyman of the Church of England; a
practitioner of the healing art who is a fellow of two learned societies;
a gentleman who graduated in the Hall of Science in the days of the late
Charles Bradlaugh; two extremely hard-headed Glasgow merchants, gentlemen
of commercial eminence and probity; our host, his wife, the medium, and
myself. Dr. G. was the first sitter, and, for a reason known to myself,
I used a monocular camera. I myself took the plate out of a packet just
previously ripped up under the surveillance of my two detectives. I
placed the slide in my pocket and exposed it by magnesium ribbon which I
held in my own hand, keeping one eye, as it were, on the sitter and the
other on the camera. There was no background. I myself took the plate
from the dark slide, and, under the eyes of the two detectives, placed it
in the developing dish. Between the camera and the sitter a female figure
was developed, rather in a more pronounced form than that of the sitter.
The lens was a portrait one of short focus; the figure being somewhat
in front of the sitter, was proportionately larger in dimensions. I
submit this picture (see opposite). It is, as you see, a lady. I do not
recognise her or any of the other figures I obtained as being like any
one I know, and from my point of view, that of a mere investigator and
experimentalist, not caring whether the psychic subject were embodied or
disembodied.
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF A PSYCHIC LADY.]
Many experiments of like nature followed; on some plates were abnormal
appearances, on others none. All this time Mr. D., the medium, during the
exposure of the plates, was quite inactive. After one trial, which had
proved successful, I asked him how he felt and what he had been thinking
of during the exposure. He replied that his thoughts had been mainly
concentrated upon his chances of securing a corner seat in a smoking
carriage that night from Euston to Glasgow.
If the precautions I took during all of the several experiments, such
as those recorded, are by any of you thought to have been imperfect or
incomplete, I pray of you to point them out. In some of them I relaxed my
conditions to the extent of getting one of those present to lift out from
the dark slide the exposed plate and transfer it to the developing dish
held by myself, or to lift a plate from the manufacturer’s package into
the dark slide held in my own hand, this being done under my own eye,
which was upon it all the time; but this did not seem to interfere with
the average on-going of the experiments.
The psychic figures behaved badly. Some were in focus, others not so;
some were lighted from the right, while the sitter was so from the left;
some were comely, as the dame I shall show on the screen, others not
so; some monopolised the major portion of the plate, quite obliterating
the material sitters; others were as if an atrociously badly vignetted
portrait, or one cut oval out of a photograph by a can-opener, or equally
badly clipped out, were held up behind the sitter. But here is the point:
not one of these figures which came out so strongly in the negative was
visible in any form or shape to me during the time of exposure in the
camera, and I vouch in the strongest manner for the fact that no one
whatever had an opportunity of tampering with any plate anterior to its
being placed in the dark slide or immediately preceding development.
Pictorially they are vile, but how came they there?
Now, all this time, I imagine you are wondering how the stereoscopic
camera was behaving itself _as such_. It is due to the psychic entities
to say that whatever was produced on one half of the stereoscopic plates
was reproduced on the other, alike good or bad in definition. But on
a careful examination of one which was rather better than the other,
and which is now about to be projected on the lantern screen for your
examination (see page 35), I deduce this fact, that the impressing of
the spirit form was not consentaneous with that of the sitter. This
I consider an important discovery. I carefully examined one in the
stereoscope, and found that, while the two sitters were stereoscopic
_per se_, the psychic figure was absolutely flat. I also found that the
psychic figure was at least a millimetre higher up in one than the other.
Now, as both had been simultaneously exposed, it follows to demonstration
that, although both were correctly placed vertically in relation to
the particular sitter behind whom the figure appeared, and not so
horizontally, this figure had not only _not_ been impressed on the plate
simultaneously with the two gentlemen forming the group, but had not been
formed by the lens at all, and that, therefore the psychic image might be
produced without a camera. I think this is a fair deduction. But still
the question obtrudes, How came these figures there? I again assert that
the plates were not tampered with by either myself or any one present.
Are they crystallisations of thought? Have lens and light really nothing
to do with their formation? The whole subject was mysterious enough on
the hypothesis of an invisible spirit, whether a thought projection or
an actual spirit, being really there in the vicinity of the sitter, but
it is now a thousand times more so. There are plenty of Tycho Brahes
capable of supplying details of observations, but who is to be the Kepler
that will from such observations evolve a law by which they can be
satisfactorily explained?
[Illustration: ABNORMAL PORTRAIT OF LADY]
In the foregoing I have confined myself as closely as possible to
narrating how I conducted a photographic experiment open to every one to
make, avoiding stating any hypothesis or belief of my own on the subject
generally, and it only now remains to exhibit the results, bad and
fraudulent-looking as they are, on the screen.
REMARKS BY MEMBERS AND VISITORS.
Having finished the reading of his paper, Mr. TAYLOR exhibited by the
aid of the lantern, slides from some of the negatives he had obtained.
A series of “Spirit Photographs,” the work of Mr. Hudson, formerly of
Holloway Road, and some French photographers, were also shown by Mr.
Maltby, a visitor, who was introduced by Mr. Taylor.
Messrs. Downey, P. Everitt, W. E. Debenham, F. A. Bridge, A. Cowan, A.
Haddon, J. S. Teape, A. Mackie, and others took part in the meeting, but
their remarks, for the most part, were characteristic of unacquaintance
with the subject.
Mr. A. GLENDINNING explained that it had originally been intended to
have had the photographs taken in the studio of a West-end photographer,
but that gentleman had withdrawn his consent owing to his religious
views, expressing the opinion that such experiments were dangerous, if
not wicked. The experiments were therefore made in the drawing-room of a
house in Dalston.
Mr. W. E. DEBENHAM asked if it would be possible to repeat the
experiments in the presence of the same medium and two members of the
London and Provincial Photographic Association.
[This question was answered at a later period of the meeting, when the
suggestion was made by the Chairman.]
Mr. GLENDINNING said he had been interested in the subject of psychic
photography for twenty-eight years, and he asked permission from the
Chairman to make a few remarks. This being readily and courteously
granted, he said, “Do the members of this Society, who are now present,
believe that Mr. Taylor is competent for the investigation which he
recently undertook? I do not mean, are you prepared to endorse his
statements regarding the results of his recent experiments? I do not mean
merely, do you consider Mr. Taylor an honest investigator? There are many
honest men who would not be considered qualified to watch with sufficient
care and accuracy experiments in photographic manipulations. There are
others who are honest and upright, and who are skilful in the ordinary
routine of photographic work, who may possess very little knowledge of
chemistry or of optics, in their relation to practical photography.
Others, again, may be honest men, skilful manipulators, and adepts in
chemistry and in optics, but too opinionative to conduct such experiments
as those under consideration. Well, then, gentlemen, looking at the
matter all round, I put it to you this way. My own belief, my strong
conviction, is this, that Mr. Taylor is well qualified in every respect
for the very important and, I would add, the very solemn task which he
undertook. A man with an open mind, prepared to—
‘Accept the truth where’er ’tis found,
On Christian or on heathen ground?’
possessed of shrewdness, tact, an eye like a hawk’s, watchful and
ready to detect the slightest attempt at trickery or fraud, with an
integrity of purpose and an independent outspokenness which would lead
him fearlessly to expose and denounce those who would so far forget
themselves as to trifle with the most sacred feelings of our nature,
by attempting to palm off as abnormal and strange that which is but a
miserable counterfeit of a grand reality. Gentlemen, do you uphold me in
my view that Mr. Taylor was the right man for the experiments to which
reference has been made? (Applause and expressions of approval.) I thank
you for this expression of your opinion. I do not wish to corner you;
I do not wish to trap you into a seeming acquiescence with views which
you have not considered. My desire is to be perfectly frank; but there
are reasons, into which I need not enter now, why I have put before
you the statements and the question to which you have responded. Well,
supposing for the moment that Mr. Taylor’s report of his experiments is
an accurate statement, that portraits have appeared on his plates, and
have been printed from his plates, which cannot be accounted for by any
known agency, it seems to me to be a fair conclusion to arrive at, that
there were other persons present at those experiments besides the ladies
and gentlemen who could be seen with the normal vision; that these
unseen visitors were exhibiting an active and intelligent interest in the
matter, and that they were aiding by their co-operation to produce the
abnormal images which appeared on the plates. Call these unseen visitors
by the name which may commend itself to you as most fairly descriptive;
call them spooks, or ghosts, or astrals, or elementals, or even, if you
prefer to do so, call them devils. I call them spirit friends—ex-carnated
human beings—that is what they profess to be, and that is what, in an
experience of such matters extending over a good many years, I have
always had good reason to believe them to be. Therefore I transfer
the name from the principal operators to the pictures themselves, and
I call the latter spirit photographs. Likewise, because the abnormal
portraits, so far as they have been recognised, are portraits of persons
who have cast off the earthly tabernacle, I claim that the name spirit
photographs, or photographs of spirits, is as near as we can get to
accuracy in the present state of our knowledge.”
Mr. F. A. BRIDGE said they were bound to believe Mr. Taylor’s statement;
but, as practical photographers, though the pictures shown _might_ be
spirit photographs, he thought they gave them the idea of cut-out prints,
but as to who cut them out he did not know and did not care. He, however,
did not for one moment wish to impute any complicity or dishonesty to
Mr. Glendinning in connexion with the experiments, for that gentleman
appeared (as he had said) merely to have been desirous of arriving at the
truth.
Mr. DEBENHAM quite agreed with Mr. Bridge as to Mr. Glendinning’s _bonâ
fides_ in the matter. He would propose, if possible, a committee be
formed to be present at some similar séance.
A MEMBER stated that Mr. Taylor’s experiments had been vitiated to some
extent by his not having the whole of the conditions under his own
control (a remark to which Mr. Taylor does not seem to have thought it
necessary to reply, as he had already distinctly stated that the _whole_
of the conditions were subject to his entire control).
Professor A. HADDON observed that if spirits gave out ultra-violet rays,
it would be advisable to use lenses made of quartz, as they would have a
far better way of rendering such subjects on the plate than with ordinary
lenses, which cut off ultra-violet. Again, had different eyes different
powers as regards the taking in and cutting out of different rays? Mr.
Friese Greene had shown how it was possible to allow an impression to be
made on the retina, and then to be transferred to a plate. Most probably
only certain people possessed this power, for it was curious no one had
repeated the experiment with success.
Mr. T. SHORTER said he had had some experience of the subject, and in
many instances such portraits had been distinctly recognised as those of
relatives and friends, and it was not by any means a peculiar experience.
The late Mr. Beattie, of Clifton, obtained portraits of this kind through
Mr. Hudson, to whom he went in a very sceptical spirit. Hudson allowed
him to go through all the manipulations himself; Mr. Beattie took his
own plates, and inverted them before they were exposed. On one picture,
after it was taken he recognised the portrait of his own brother. He (Mr.
Shorter) knew of a good many instances of a similar kind. For instance,
he said, Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace had had no hesitation in recognising
portraits so obtained. Of course there were many taken in this way that
could not be identified; but, on the other hand, there were many that
could. He could quote forty instances where people could identify them.
A MEMBER explained how a collection of portraits of deceased persons can
be made by professional photographers. He stated his firm sometimes
receive such portraits to copy, and at times when they deliver the copies
they pretend that the original pictures are lost or injured; so the
customers have nothing to compare the copies with. This brought forth the
rebuke from Mr. Maltby (a visitor) that the conduct of the firm might be
“smart,” but could not be considered honest.
Mr. ARTHUR MALTBY said the spirit forms which are photographed were
created from the aura that escapes from sensitive subjects. Some years
ago a gentleman went to a photographer to have a portrait taken, and,
instead of his portrait appearing, as he expected, that of a man who
had been abroad for many years, and of whom he knew nothing, appeared
on the plate. Some weeks afterwards a telegram came announcing that the
man, whose spirit photograph had appeared on the plate, was shot. Again,
during the last Austrian war, an officer who had never been photographed
in his regimentals appeared to a brother officer as a photographed
spirit. On one occasion the figure of a small child appeared in the
centre of a picture. The child had been dead nearly fifty years, but
was recognised after that lapse of time. He suggested that a photograph
could be taken to prove that fluid rays pass from a sensitive, like
photographic rays of light. This aura, which was the material emanating
from all parts of the body, was collected to form the portraits of those
who wished to prove the immortality of the soul.
Mr. J. WEIR BROWN (the chairman) said that although the pictures shown
that night by Mr. Maltby might be recognised as spirit photographs,
they had only to do with Mr. Traill Taylor’s experiments,[4] and he was
bound to say that some of the examples shown bore evidence of being
patchwork on the plates, and not similar to those that were shown by Mr.
Maltby. Mr. Taylor’s results were very mysterious; and, although Mr.
Taylor himself was very watchful, there was nothing to lead them to any
conclusion on the matter, so that it must remain a mystery. He suggested
that Mr. Glendinning should provide an occasion, if he could, for the
London and Provincial Photographic Association to send a small committee
to take part in similar experiments, and he was sure that they would only
send fair-minded men to represent them.[5]
Mr. GLENDINNING, in reply, said he would be willing to use his influence
to get such experiments carried on in the presence of the same medium
later in the year. (Hear, hear.) He said that his friend, the medium,
had so much confidence in Mr. Traill Taylor, that probably he would
carefully consider Mr. Taylor’s suggestions in the matter.
Mr. TAYLOR asked why they should expect Mr. Glendinning, who is not a
member of the society, to be at the trouble for them. He suggested that
the society appoint a committee to investigate the subject, and advertise
for the services of a suitable medium with whom to try experiments.
_PORTRAIT OBTAINED WITHOUT EXPOSURE IN THE CAMERA._[6]
Towards the close of the proceedings, Mr. Glendinning handed to the
chairman, and to some of the members sitting near him, a print of a
psychic portrait from a negative obtained without the plate being
exposed in the camera, or to light of any kind excepting that given by
a nightlight in a dark lantern to develop by. The experiment was made
in consequence of a conversation with Mr. Taylor (after his experiments
were concluded), and about an hour before the medium left for his return
journey.
An Ilford dry plate had been taken by Mr. Glendinning from a new packet,
put in clean paper, and held by the medium, in the dark room, between
the palms of his hands; Mr. Glendinning placed his hands above and
below those of the medium; he then took the plate and placed it in his
developing tray, when a full-length figure appeared, clear and distinct,
although without artistic effect. The negative was in Mr. Taylor’s
possession at the meeting.