tter does.
Naturally also, various explanations were soon alleged, two being,
either that the plates had been used before, and had been imperfectly
cleaned, or that the results were produced by deliberate artifice and
fraud on the part of the photographer. There is no doubt that artificial
results can be obtained in a variety of ways, which are extremely
difficult, if not impossible to distinguish from the professed genuine
article. It may therefore be said that no examination of a professed
"spirit photograph," or as we should prefer to call it, a "psychic
photograph," is sufficient to determine its nature and origin. The true
test must be sought for in the conditions under which the photograph was
taken. Very few of those who have had to do with "spirit photography"
have possessed the necessary technical knowledge, and also been
sufficiently careful, in the various stages of the process. The result
is that scarcely any of the photographs shown as "spirit photographs"
possess any evidential value. In common with several other alleged
phenomena, but little attention has been given to the subject by
scientific men, or by trained experimenters.

The most notable exception to this which I am able to quote is that of
the late Mr. J. Traill Taylor, who was for a considerable time the
editor of the _British Journal of Photography_. The following quotations
are from a paper on "Spirit Photography" by Mr. Taylor. It was
originally read before the London and Provincial Photographic
Association in March 1893, and was reprinted in the _British Journal of
Photography_ for 26th May 1904, shortly after Mr. Taylor's death.

"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 in
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.... I approach the subject merely as a photographer."

Mr. Traill Taylor then gives a history of the earlier manifestations of
"Spirit Photography," and goes on to explain how