EUSAPIA PALLADINO

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 289, 26 August 1918, Page 7

EUSAPIA PALLADINO

'Die death, snys "The Times," is announced from Naples of the. famous medium, Eusapia l'alludino. About this remarkable woman a vast literature exists, and no name is better known in tho records of psychical research, on tho Continent, in England, and in America. Though it is proved that she practised fraud at times, the supor-normal character of certain physical phenomena which occurred in her presence has never been explained. She was a.complete puzzle to the scientific world, though tor more than 20 years she had been examined on many occasions by impartial and sceptical investigators.

Slio was born on January 21, 1851, in a village of La Pauille; her mother died in giving her birth; her father was assassinated by brigands when she waa about eight years old. Her circumstances worn humble and she began life as a kitchenmaid in Naples, where film happened to bo asked by tho family whom she served to join in a seance. The experiment was successful for she learnt after she l»:ul recovered from her trance that tho table, had risen from the floor, boobs untouched by anybody hud moved about, and a decanter had risen in tho air.

Tho records of her career relate of many such "levitations" witnessed and attested by the most scrupulous observers. Sin. attracted the attention of the scientific world in 1888, and in 1891 T,ombroso, with others, went to Naples to investigale ihe phenomena; nianv other investigations by other committees followed in Naples, 'Rome. Warsaw, Cambridge, Paris, Xsw York, and elsewhere; those who took part in them included Schiapnrelli. Richct, Sir Oliver I.oilce, V. W. H. Myers. M. and Mailamo Curie; indeed, many of the finest scientific intellisrenros of the nge were attracted to niul hnffled by lie.r. I.ombrnso. who has left behind a minute account of her physical Tieculinrities, confessed to a regret that ho had previously "combalod with eo much persistence the possibilities of the facts called spiritualistic." The phenomena observed in her presence included constant levitations of furniture, touches, raps, graspingd by livid hands, moving chairs, plates, and food moved without hands, water poured out, the playing of a music-box, and apparitions of the dead. In 20 seconds sho once lost 171b. weight; a cold breeze is said to have blown from a small ecar on her forehead; a tambourine jumped 3ft. from the floor; clay imwrwsions could bo taken of apnaritional hnn<ls and faces.

F.usnpisi generally exhibited her powers in the dark, but not always. She whs apparently not a woman of great intelligence, nor one who understand very well the phenomena which she provoked. If the attention which she attracted and the volumes which were written about her are Ihe test of jrrcnl.ncss. she wii=. perhaps, tho greatest of her kind. That she resorted on occasion to delibernic deception is notorious.