Professor Thompson: I made that statement in regard to both of the
responses.

Mr. Sellers: The statement, then, was, that neither of the responses
answered the question. Whereupon the Medium at once obliterated the
question from the slate, and remarked, 'Well, that is the best they can
do,' or something of that kind, or, 'They cannot understand that.' The
fact was that the Medium did not understand the question himself, as it
was purposely a somewhat involved question.

Professor Thompson: The fact appears to have been demonstrated that the
Medium seemed to have no difficulty in catching the purport of questions
of simple construction at a glance, and that a question of more than
average length, which he could not perceive the sense of, or which was
somewhat misleading in its terms, was not answered intelligently.

Professor Thompson here further explained that, when writing the
question spoken of, he concealed his hand from the observation of the
Medium. Mr. Sellers here imitated the motions of the body of the Medium
and the position of his hands at the time--the left resting on the
table, and the right hand beneath the table, near the slate--after which
the writing was displayed.

Mr. Sellers next presented the minutes of the meeting of January 24th,
as follows:

The Committee met on January 24th, 1885, at the Girard House,
Philadelphia, in Room 24.

There were present: Dr. Leidy, Mr. H.H. Furness and Mr. Coleman Sellers,
with the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade. Dr. Leidy occupied the position
previously held by Professor Thompson, to the right of the Medium;
Messrs. Sellers and Furness were seated as at the former sittings.

Slates were produced and held as at the previous seances. Upon one slate
the following interrogatories and responses were recorded:

'Spirits, are you ready to work?' Answer: 'Soon,'

'Will you write for the gentlemen?' Answer: 'We are trying to do so.'

At this point the Medium substituted another slate for the one which he
had held in his hand, and almost immediately thereafter, upon the new
slate being placed under the table, the sound of writing began and was
carried on with little interruption. The writing continued for a very
long time, during which the Medium, removing his hand from the hands of
the other gentlemen, said, 'You see that if I take my hand away from the
circle and thus break the circle, the sound of the writing ceases; if I
place my hand back again, the writing is repeat