An interesting correspondence between Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., and some of
the other Fellows of the Royal Society, on the sub- ject of a paper by Mr. Crookes on "Psychic Force," offered to the society by Mr. Crookes in February last, and refused by the oom- mittee of the society,—a very unusual course in relation to papers offered by a Fellow,—appeared in the extra sheet of the Daily Telegraph of Monday. It does not show on what grounds Mr. Crookes's paper was refused, but it does show on what grounds it was in some quarters supposed to have been refused, and that those grounds were imaginary. On the whole, the correspondence impresses us,—less from anything it says, than from what it avoids saying,—with the notion that the Fellows of the Royal Society are so susceptible to a possible charge of engaging in investiga- tions that may have ridicule attached to them, that they do not give Mr. Crookes fair-play. It is perfectly evident, for in- stance, that an objection made to an old experiment of Mr. Crookes's,—an objection to which Mr. Crookes himself maintains that even that old experiment was proved not to be open,—was spoken of and publicly announced by another F. R. S. as the reason for rejecting a paper in which no such fault as was formerly alleged could have discovered at all. Mr. Crookes cer- tainly comes out of this correspondence better than his corre- spondent*. Science can be as unduly Conservative as faith.
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