Occultism and Common-sense

Occultism and Common-sense is by Beckles Willson, with an Introduction by Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S. The contents list names chapters, among others, The Hypnotic State, Phantasms of the Living, The Dowsing or Divining Rod and Mrs Piper's Trance Utterances. A note says the chapters, together with Professor Barrett's comment thereupon, which now figures as an Introduction, originally appeared in the columns of The Westminster Gazette.

The text says that Faraday, besought to give his opinion, wrote, 'They who say they see these things are not competent witnesses of facts.' The text says Professor Carpenter called spiritualism 'a most mischievous epidemic delusion, comparable to the witchcraft delusion of the seventeenth century.' The text chronicles a case that took place in Dublin in 1885, in which Mr Waldron, a solicitor, sued his next-door neighbour, one Kiernan, a mate in the merchant service, to recover £500 for damages done to his house. Kiernan, in the case chronicled, altogether denied the charges, but asserted that Waldron's residence was notoriously haunted.