it is agreeable reading, for the style is generally vigorous and not infrequently brilliant." Podmore who considered most mediums fraudulent, was open minded about the telepathic hypothesis for Leonora Piper's séances. However, Ivor Lloyd Tuckett had "completely undermined" this hypothesis for Mrs. Piper. Podmore was critical of Helena Blavatsky and her claims of Theosophy. He evaluated poltergeist cases and concluded they are best explained by deception and trickery. Rationalist author Joseph McCabe stated that despite Podmore's "highly critical faculty" he was misled in the Piper case by Richard Hodgson. This was based on a letter he saw in the 2nd edition Spiritualism and Oliver Lodge by Dr. Charles Arthur Mercier, from a cousin of George Pellew to Edward Clodd, alleging that Hodgson claimed that Professor Fiske from his séance with Piper was "absolutely convinced" Piper's control was the real George Pellew, but that when Pellew's brother contacted Fiske about it, he replied it was "a lie" as Piper had been "silent or entirely wrong" on all his questions. However, Alan Gauld, referring to this letter as published by Clodd, stated that it was "wholly unreliable", noted that Hodgson in his original report wrote that Fiske had a negative attitude, and that Hodgson himself considered the Fiske sittings to be of no evidential value. Podmore's text Mesmerism and Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing received a positive review in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which referred to it as "an excellent account of this interesting and important subject." Podmore defended the validity of telepathy and ghosts, the latter of which he believed to be "telepathic hallucinations." Works Podmore's publications include: Phantasms of the Living. (1886, written with Frederick Myers and Edmund Gurney). The Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour. (1886). Apparitions and Thought-Transference. (1892). Studies in Psychical Research. (1897). Modern Spiritualism (1902). Reprinted as Mediums of the 19th Century. (1963). Robert Owen A Biography. Volume 1; Volume 2. (1906). The Naturalisation of the Supernatural. (1908). Mesmerism and Christian Science. (1909). Telepathic Hallucinations: The New View of Ghosts. (1909). The Newer Spiritualism. (1910). See also Eusapia Palladino References External links Edward R. Pease, The History of the Fabian Society. Andrew Lang, "The Poltergeist and his explainers" (Appendix B), The Making of Religion, London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1900, pp. 324–339. Alice Johnson. (1903). Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 17: 389–403. 1856 births