ABSTRACT
Alas, John King melted away in the candlelight before proper scientific procedures of verification could be carried out. Fortunately, however, other, later apparitions were made of sterner stuff and evidently agreed to remain in material form long enough for various physical tests, indeed photographs, to be taken. In a photograph taken by the President of the Royal Society, Sir
William Crookes, the very respectable Dr James Gully can be seen recording the pulse of the newly materialised Katie King. All of Dr Gully’s physical tests showed that Katie King was a real individual, and quite separate from the ‘medium’, Miss Cook, who had conjured her into existence. That much seems sure. (Quite a looker, too!) Later, writing in that esteemed journal Researches into the
Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism, Sir William tells us that, actually, photography is ‘as inadequate to depict the perfect beauty of Katie’s face as words are powerless to describe her charms of manner’. He continues: ‘Photography may, indeed, give a map of her countenance; but how can it reproduce the brilliant purity of her complexion, or the ever-varying expression of her most mobile features.’ Perhaps it is as well, then, for scientific neutrality, that we have
the additional evidence of Dr. Gully. His ‘comments on recording Katie King’s pulse’, are faithfully recorded in ‘The Proof Palpable of Immortality’ by Epes Sargent. Here, Epes explains that the good doctor, formerly of Great Malvern, England, is ‘a thoroughly experienced physician and a careful investigator’, and that, in regard
to this remarkable ‘materialisation’, after two years’ examination of the facts and numerous séances, had ‘not the smallest doubt, and have the strongest conviction, that such materialisation takes place, and that not the slightest attempt at trick or deception is fairly attributable to anyone who assisted at Miss Cook’s séances.’ Indeed, Dr Gullible continues:
Most remarkable of all:
Only one question is left hanging in the air …
Did Mrs Crookes know about what Sir William and the lovely Katie were getting up to in those darkened rooms?
