Hardy, Mary M. (ca. 1875)
Boston, Massachusetts, medium through whom, in 1875,
the first paraffin casts of hands of spirits were obtained. Hardy
gave séances in public halls before hundreds of spectators. On
the platform there was a table, the cloth of which reached to the
ground. Two vessels, containing liquid paraffin and cold water,
were placed under the table. The lights were turned down, but
spectators were able to see the medium sitting motionless. After
about a quarter of an hour raps were heard and a paraffin mold
was found floating on the water.
Hardy was investigated by William Denton, who conducted
many careful experiments.
In 1875 Hardy visited Europe and gave séances in England
and on the Continent. For an account of a séance in 1876
under rigid test conditions, during which molds of spirit hands
were produced, see the British periodical The Spiritualist (1878,
p. 168).
