demonstrate nothing. Muscles can move the
table, muscles can apparently act without the consciousness of their
owner, therefore the movement is caused, or may be irrefutably said
to be caused, by unconscious muscular action.

M. de Gasparin, of course, was aware of all this; he therefore aimed
at producing movement _without_ contact. In his early experiments
the table was first set agoing by contact; all hands were then
lifted at a signal, to half an inch above the table, and still the
table revolved. Of course it will not do this, if it is set agoing
by conscious muscular action, as any one may prove by trying. As it
was possible that some one might still be touching the table, and
escaping in the crowd the notice of the observers outside the
circle, two ladies tried alone. The observer, Mr. Thury, saw the
daylight between their hands and the table, which revolved four or
five times. To make assurance doubly sure, a thin coating of flour
was scattered over the whole table, and still it moved, while the
flour was unmarked. M. de Gasparin was therefore convinced that the
phenomena of movement without mechanical agency were real. His
experiments got rid of Mr. Faraday's theory of unconscious pressure
and pushing, because you cannot push with your muscles what you do
not touch with any portion of your body, and De Gasparin had assured
himself that there was _no_ physical contact between his friends and
this table.

M. de Gasparin now turned upon Dr. Carpenter, to whom an article in
the Quarterly Review, dealing with the whole topic of abnormal
occurrences, was attributed. Dr. Carpenter, at this time, had
admitted the existence of the hypnotic state, and the amenability of
the hypnotised person to the wildest suggestions. He had also begun
to develop his doctrine of 'unconscious cerebration,' that is, the
existence of mental processes beneath, or apart from our
consciousness. {312} An 'ideational change' may take place in the
cerebrum. The sensorium is 'unreceptive,' so the idea does not
reach consciousness. Sometimes, however, the idea oozes out from
the fingers, through muscular action, also unconscious. This moves
the table to the appropriate tilts. These two ideas are capable, if
we admit them, of explaining many singular psychological facts, but
they certainly do not explain the movements of tables which nobody
is touching. In face of M. de Gasparin's evidence, which probably
was not before him, Dr.