he sitting would not be a very good one. A brief, general
conversation followed, and then, complying with a direction of the
Medium, all present joined hands upon the table. Thereupon the Medium
abruptly started back, and, remarking that he had received a very severe
shock of some kind, inquired whether the gentlemen present had not
experienced a like sensation. The responses were in the negative.

The Medium next proposed to give an exhibition of "Spiritism" through
the agency of communications invisibly written upon the apparently blank
surface of one of the slates. At this point Mr. Sellers asked that the
table be examined, and, with the assent of the Medium, an examination
was accordingly made by the Committee; the only noteworthy result of
which was the discovery immediately beneath the table-top of openings
or slots into which the bars supporting the table leaves entered when
turned to permit the lowering of the leaves.

(Mr. Sellers here continued, without reference to notes):

These slots and the use to which I ascertained they might be applied are
worthy of special comment, as they played a very important part in all
the expositions that were made of the Medium Slade's manifestations. The
slot under the table into which the vibrating bar passed when the leaf
was lowered was an inch and a-quarter in depth. At a later period of the
meeting, when the opportunity was afforded, I took the slate in my hand,
and, from the table side at which I was seated (the one directly
opposite the Medium's position) passed it into the slot, allowing it to
rest there diagonally. Upon removing my hand the slate remained
suspended in its place, and in a position in which it could conveniently
be written upon. I may add that this arrangement of the slate is said to
be an essential feature of Slade's favorite method of writing. The
Medium did not fail to notice my experiment of passing the slate into
the slot, and, upon the occasion of my second attendance at the
"manifestations" (which was at the third meeting of the Committee),
having dispensed with the table I have described and prepared another,
he somewhat ostentatiously called attention to the fact that the table
then produced contained no slots such as those of which I have spoken. I
have a memorandum of the size of the slots. The dimensions of the table
last referred to are given in Mr. Fullerton's report.

(Mr. Sellers, referring again to his notes):

Taking a slate in his