whose principal characteristics are intense enthusiasm,
resourcefulness of wit, and intellectual fearlessness. As everybody
knows, his experiences with Mrs. Piper led him to unite with Hodgson and
Myers in regarding the spiritistic hypothesis as the only one capable of
explaining all the phenomena encountered. But he is none the less able
and eager to expose fraud wherever found, and if only from the police
view-point his society will undoubtedly do good work. Associated with
him are many of the American investigators formerly identified with the
English society; some of whom, notably Prof. William James of Harvard,
the dean of psychical research in the United States, also keep up their
connection with the parent organization.

Summing up the results of the really scientific ghost hunting of the
last twenty-five years, it may be safely said that if the hunters have
not accomplished their main object of definitely proving the existence
of a spiritual world, their labors have nevertheless been of high value
in several important directions. They have exposed the fraudulent
pretensions of innumerable charlatans, and have thus acted as a
protection for the credulous. They have shown that, making all possible
allowance for error of whatever kind, there still remains in the
phenomena of apparitions, clairvoyance, etc., a residuum not explainable
on the hypothesis of fraud or chance coincidence. They have aided in
giving validity to the idea of the influence of suggestion as a factor
both in the cause and the cure of disease. They have given a needed
stimulus to the study of abnormal mental conditions. And, finally, by
the discovery of the impressive facts that led Myers to formulate his
hypothesis of the subliminal self, they have opened the door to
far-reaching reforms in the whole sociological domain,--in education, in
the treatment of vice and crime, in all else that makes for the
uplifting of the human race.

FOOTNOTES:

[R] Gladstone's words were--"Psychical research is the most important
work which is being done in the world--by far the most important."

[S] For details of the Hodgson "manifestations" the reader may consult
Professor Hyslop's recently published book "Psychical Research and the
Resurrection"--particularly Chaps. V-VII.

[T] A new work by Mr. Podmore is announced for immediate publication,
with the characteristic title of "The Naturalization of the
Supernatural." It is said to contain a detailed an