Prof. Zollner and Slade
Prof. Zollner and Slade is a letter written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Freethinker on 8 february 1920.
Letter
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "FREETHINKER."
Sir, — I see that your contributor, E. J. D., accounts for the remarkable phenomena examined in the case of Mr. Slade by Zollner and his friends, by the assertion that Zollner was ill, that Fechner was blind, and that Weber and Scheibner were imbeciles. I have not yet found out what form of paresis I am myself suffering from, but as our opponents invariably affix some bodily affliction upon every one who believes the evidence in favour of psychic force, I have only to wait my turn.
As a matter of fact, I have always, perhaps unjustly, regarded Slade as one of those mediums who were morally weak if they were psychically strong, and who wanted very careful watching, as they might be tempted where psychic power fails, and it is notoriously intermittent, to substitute fraud. That he had psychic power in a very high degree is evident to anyone who reads the evidence. Bellachini, the well-known German conjurer (Court conjurer at Berlin), deposes upon oath at the very time of the Zollner experiments :—
- These phenomena with Mr. Slade have been examined by me with the minutest observation, and I have not in the smallest degree found anything to be produced by means of conjuring or by mechanical apparatus. Any explanation of the experiments which took place under the circumstances and conditions then obtaining by any reference to conjuring is absolutely impossible.
I suppose we shall now hear that Bellachini had a cataract in both eyes and was a congenital idiot.
Arthur Conan Doyle.
