The phenomenon of elongation is a fairly common one at spiritualistic séances. It may be described as a stretching out of the medium's body, till his height is increased by from three inches to nearly a foot. The feat is ascribed to spirit agencies. There are accounts by witnesses of standing in the social and scientific world of elongations of Herne, Home, Morse, and other well-known mediums. These manifestations usually made their appearance only when the light was low, but there were several exceptions. In describing an elongation of Home, Lord Lindsay says: "Home looked as if he was pulled up by the neck, the muscles seemed in a state of tension. He stood firmly upright in the middle of the room, and before the elongation commenced I placed my foot on his instep." The same witness also declares that the increase in Home's height on this occasion was eleven inches. Most accounts describe a violent swaying motion on the part of the medium as preceding the elongation, which some critics have regarded as a convenient mode of covering the use of mechanism, which might be concealed in the medium's boots.

Elongation of the human body is by no means a modern psychical phenomenon. The Neo-Platonists observed it in the case of certain obsessed men. Jamblichus, writing on Divination, said: "The person of the subject has been known to dilate and tower to supernormal height." Gorres in La Mystique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique states that the blessed Ida of Louvain one night, as she occupied .a bed with a very devout nun, assumed monstrous proportions until she was lying in all but a very narrow strip of the bed. So great was the strain that the skin of one of her legs burst and she ever afterwards had the scar. Suddenly, her body began to diminish until at last it was reduced to an extremely minute size. The phenomenon was repeated as she returned from the church with her friend.

Among modern mediums it was D. D. Home who most often demonstrated it. The expansions and contractions of his body have been witnessed by 50 people at the very least. He felt exceedingly sick after elongations. His maximum growth was found by, the Master of Lindsay to be eleven inches. On being questioned by the members of the Dialectical Committee, he said: "The top of the hip bone and the short ribs separate." In Home they are unusually close together. There was no separation of the vertebrae of the spine; nor were the elongations at all like those resulting from expanding the chest with air; the shoulders did not move. Home looked as if he was pulled up by the neck; the muscles seemed to be in a state of tension Lord Adare saw Mr. Jencken, a taller man standing beside Home when the phenomenon took place. Home's feet remained fairly level on the ground. His unbuttoned coat showed a spade of about four inches between his waistcoat and the waistband of his trousers. Lord Adaire estimated the entire growth to be 6-8 inches. He appeared to grow also in breadth and size all over. A hand being placed flat upon his waist the observer felt the ' lower rib pass under his hand until it was some inches above it, the whole flesh and muscle apparently moving and stretching. On the contraction taking place he felt the lower rib come down until it pressed against the upper edge of his hand and moved into its proper position. After two elongations, at another time, he was shortened to less than his natural height. He could also elongate his arms. Lord Adare placed himself in front of him when he stood against the wall and made a pencil mark at the tip of his extended arms. First his left, then his right arm was elongated. By measuring the distance between the pencil marks it was ascertained the total elongation amounted to 91 inches. During this elongation Home's chest became greatly expanded.

H. T. Humphreys, a journalist, published in 1868 the following account: "Mr. Home was seen by all of us to increase in height to the extent of some eight or ten inches, and then sink to some six or eight inches below his normal stature. Having returned to his usual height, he took Lord Adare and the Master of Lindsay and placing one beside each post of the folding doors lay down on the floor, touching the feet of one with his head and the feet of the other with his feet. He was then again elongated and pushed both Lord Adare and the Master of Lindsay backward along the floor with his head and feet as he was stretched out, his arms and hands remaining motionless by his side." The distance-as measured by Mrs. S. C. Hall-was more than 7 feet.

H. D. Jencken in his account in Human Nature, 1869, also speaks of the elongation of Home's legs. He says: "The right leg of Mr. Home was then elongated about six inches, then shortened, the foot literally shrinking into the trousers. I carefully examined the leg from the ankle joint to the hip. The limb felt shrunk and withered and, gradually elongated, it felt as if it were being expanded by air being inflated. Whilst the leg was so shortened he walked about the room, proving that, though lessened in size, the function of the limb was unimpaired. The final and most satisfactory test, however, was the lengthening and shortening of the hand. I caused Mr. Home to place his hand firmly on a sheet of paper, and then carefully traced an outline of the hand, causing the pencil point to be firmly kept at the wrist. I am, I believe, rendering the first positive measurement of the extension and contraction of the human organism."

Home could impart the power of elongation to others. Miss Bertolacci, a medium herself, was once elongated together with him. The phenomenon was also witnessed in the mediumship of others.

"On one occasion in my quarters at the Sandown Hospital, Isle of Wight-writes John E. Purdon, M.D., in Light, May 10, 1902, p. 223-1 held the feet of Miss Florence Cook firmly against the floor, and can certify that there was no lifting of the heels, either with or without her boots, and that there was such an elongation that my brother-in-law, the late assistant surgeon, Mark A. Kilroy, whose hands were on her shoulders, cried out ' She is dragging me up to the ceiling.' As he was over five feet nine inches in height there could have been no posturing that would account for his experience. Further, I most distinctly remember Miss Cook coming back with a jerk to her normal stature. My wife, who was present and heard her brother make the above remark, fully endorses my statement."

Florence Marryat writes of a seance with Katie Cook in which the medium's arm, which she held, was elongated to such an extent that it reached the sitters on the other side of the table where it would have been impossible for her own much longer arms to follow it. She believes that the limb must have been stretched to thrice its natural length, and that in sight of everybody.

Frank Herne, J. J. Morse, Eusapia Paladino and, in her early career, Mrs. Thompson also demonstrated the strange gift of elongation. Frank Podmore, in Modern Spiritualism, quotes the Rev. C. J. M. Shaw for the account of the elongation of a professional clairvoyant, Peters, in his house. The arm of the medium grew six inches.

Pepito Ariola, the Spanish infant musical prodigy, when three and a half years old, sounded full octaves on the piano. His hands did not stretch more than five notes. It seemed to the onlookers that his hand increased during the time he played.

In the case known as The Great Amherst Mystery, Esther Cox's body repeatedly puffed out to an abnormal size. The physicians could do nothing to relieve her agony. She was screaming with pain. In a short time, however, the trouble always subsided. In the case of Mrs. Thompson the elongation was attempted to quiet an "angry nerve" as the medium complained from violent neuralgic pains. The attempt was successful and the Medium, on coming to herself, found all her pain gone.