'Twixt two worlds : a narrative of the life and work of William Eglinton

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The "Blackburn Stances." 13
confirmed by Mr. A. A. May. It occurred at the close of these seances, at a meeting
which was devoted to the repetition of experiments previously conducted. Dr. Blake says :
" The medium's hands were firmly sewn to his trousers' knees, and placed outside the curtain
in view of all the company. After a short time, the voice of Joey ' ' being heard, hands were
shown at the aperture above the level of the medium's hands which were still in view, and
a hand was projected to a distance of more than eight inches from the limits of the medium's
elbows ; it moved the curtain forcibly, and subsequently rolled it up from the corner towards
Mr. Eglinton, showing nothing behind the curtain. With permission I, who was sitting at the
corner of the cabinet, to Mr. Eglinton's left, placed my hand therein, when it was clasped by
an object resembling two fingers and a thumb, the annulus and minimus fingers being absent.
The hand was distinctly a right hand. The curtain being again drawn towards the medium, I
distinctly saw a whole right hand lying transversely across Mr. Eglinton's forearm. A lady then
entered the cabinet and stated to me that she saw a hand projected in an upward direction from
Mr. Eglinton's knees. During that time, hands were several times freely projected from the
aperture. At the second part of the sc'ancc Mr. Eglinton's hands were sewn behind his back to
his coat. The ' Oxford chimes
'
placed on his knee, and a book placed on them, the
leaves of the book were often lifted, on one occasion a hand being seen lifting the cover and
leaves of the book in front of the medium, and with the curtains tightly drawn and pinned
between his mouth and the book. The seance shortly afterwards broke up, leaving upon the
minds of the visitors the conviction that the experiment (previously witnessed through Mr.
Eglinton's mediumship) of showing two visible and tangible hands, one being his own and one
being similar to his own, had been well and exactly repeated."
Few, except the hypercritical, will be disposed to question the value of such evidence.
The methods were sound, and the results do not rest upon a single experiment. The facts
were in many instances repeated, and results obtained at one seance verified over and over
again at subsequent meetings.