Punch,  39 (1860), 53.

The Spiritual 'Hume'-Bug

Anon

Genre:

News-Commentary

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

[Trident], pseud.  [H R Howard] *

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Charlatanry, Experiment, Light, Instruments, Belief, Proof


    Incorporating into his title the name of the notorious medium, Daniel D Home, the author denies the claim of 'Giles Scroggins's Journal, or the Spiritual Magazine' that 'alleged spiritual manifestations' are real. Reports that one of Mr Punch's reliable friends attended a séance given by a 'low American' and by two female mediums, the latter being deemed 'rank impostors'. Denies the Spiritual Magazine's claim that Mr Punch is 'impugning what he knows to be the truth'. Insisting that the spiritualist periodical 'may believe that it believes in [spirit manifestations] when it really only wishes to believe them', argues that 'Spiritualists [...] do not seem to know what scientific demonstration is' because 'if they knew, they would not expect their miracles to be believed by any but the most ignorant of the vulgar [...] until performed before competent observers, and subjected [...] to the test of crucial experiment'. The illustration shows a wizard peering through a telescope at the hub of a stone wheel, evidently from a windmill near the top of the picture.



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