Death of Eusapia Palladino

Levin Daily Chronicle, 25 July 1918, Page 3

Death of Eusapia Palladino

A REMARKABLE WOMAN.

The death is announced from Naples of the famous medium Eusapia Palia_iiio.

About tiis remarkable woman ;i '• nst literature exists, and 110 usune is i;uo\vn in the records of psychical research on the Continent, in Englnru;, and in America. Though it is proved that she practised .fraud at times, the ■supernormal character of certain physical phenomena which occurred in her .presence lias never been explained. She was a complete puzzle to the scientific v.-orld, though for more than 20 years bhe had been examined 011 many occasions by impartial and sceptical invest'gators. She was born 011 January 21, 185-1, in a village of I-a Pouille; her mother died in giving her birth; her father was assassinated by brigands when she was about eight years old. Hrr circumstances were humble and she began life as a kiteheninaid in Naples, where she happened to be asked by the family whom she served to ,ioin-in a seance. The experiment was successful, for she learnt, after she had recovered from her trance, that the table had risen from the floor, books untouched by anybody had moved about, and a decanter had risen in the air.

The records of her carocr relate oj I many such "levitations" witnessed and attested by the most scrupulous ob- I servers. She attracted the attention of the scientific woiHd in ISBB, and in 1S!)1 T.onibroso, with others went to Tv'aples to investigate the phenomena; many other investigations by j>tlier committees followed in Naples, Rome, Warsaw, Cambridge, Paris, New York and elsewhere; those who took part in them included Schiaparelli Eichet, Sir Oliver Lodge, F. W. H. Myers, M. and Madame Curie; indeed many of the .finest scientific intelligences of the age were attracted to and baffled by her. Lombroso, who has left behind a minute account of her physical peculiarities, confessed to a regret that he had previously "combattod with so much persistence the possibility of the facts called spiritualistic." The phenomena observed in her presence included constant levitntions of furniture, touches, rans. graspings by livid hand*, moving chairs, plates and food moved without h;uids. water poured out. the playing of a music box. and apparitions of the dead. In 20 seconds sh" men lost ]7Tb weight: a cold breeze is Said fq have blown from a small scar on ' her forehead; a tambourine, jumped 3ft from Ihe floor; clay .impressions could be taken of appai-itioiial hands and faces. Eusnpia generally exhibited her powers in the dark, but nol always. Rho was apparently not a vionuin of great intelligence, nor one who uml'TStood very well fhn phennm«:i:i v hich -he p-o----yoked. If the attention which sh n attracted and the volumes which were written about Ivr atv the test. of grrntness. she wan, prrhaps, the greatest r f her lei ml. That she resort ed on oncasion to deliberate deception is notorious.