See letter to G. J. Romanes, 21 September [1878]. A letter in the Spiritualist, 20 September 1878, p. 133, described the finding of false beards, muslin, ribbons, phosphoric acid, and an instrument for writing on sealed slates on the persons of the mediums Charles E. Williams and Mr A. Rita at a séance in Amsterdam. CD presumably reversed the words ‘Medium’ and ‘Spiritualist’ in his first sentence in error. The Medium and Daybreak, another spiritualist newspaper, ran a story about the affair on 27 September 1878, but they supported Williams and Rita and included statements from the two men claiming that they had been entrapped.