Declining the Combat: Querying Scientific Authority in the Pall Mall Gazette

Abstract:

When the Pall Mall Gazette published an editorial about the fraud case brought against spiritualist medium D. D. Home in May 1868, the editor likely anticipated letters about the legitimacy of spiritualism—a topic of considerable media attention. Instead, he received multiple letters scrutinizing the discourse of scientific authority as asserted by its most renowned figures. This article analyzes that month-long sequence of letters and commentary to parse the criticism of authority on the unexpected grounds of language itself, illuminating how PMG correspondents resisted the reification of scientific objectivity by suggesting that even esteemed scientific investigators conveyed personal prejudice.