vendor of articles exposed for public sale, such as a hatter, who
after selling a hat to Lord Salisbury, might complain that he had been
induced to provide headgear for a Conservative. At the same time, both
Colonel Taylor and his friends were well aware, from a vexatious
experience, that phenomena of the kind found at B---- are very often
associated with private matters, which the members of a family
concerned might object to see published, just as they might object to
the publication of the results of an examination of some object--say,
old medicine-bottles--found in the house let by them to a strange
tenant.

Acting upon this knowledge, it has been the general rule of the
Society for Psychical Research to publish the cases investigated by it
under avowedly false names, as private cases are published in medical
and other scientific journals. Out of a courteous anxiety that nothing
should occur which could in any way annoy any member of the S----
family, no one was admitted to the house for the purpose of observing
the phenomena, except on the definite understanding that they were to
regard everything as confidential, and it was always intended that any
publication on the subject was to be made with all names and
geographical indications avowedly fictitious.

As certain points of Gaelic orthography were found to be involved, it
was decided to mention the house as standing in a bi-lingual district
upon the borders of Wales, and Lord Bute arranged with Sir William
Lewis to have these linguistic points represented by Welsh instead of
Gaelic.

The affairs of the inquiry, and of any phenomena which might occur,
were thus protected, it was believed, by a confidence even more