In a private letter received by me from A. N. Aksakoff, Counselor of State in the private Chancellery of the Emperor of Russia, at St. Petersburg, and a circular—“Appeal to Mediums”—both sent by me to the Consul-General of Russia in New York for verification and certification, I, the undersigned, am entrusted by A. N. Aksakoff to select several of the best American mediums for physical manifestations and other phenomena, and invite them to St. Petersburg, with the object to have the Spiritual Phenomena investigated by a special committee of scientists, appointed by the Imperial University of St. Petersburg, under the presidency of the Chief Professor of the said University, D. I. Mendeleyeff. The investigations are to take place twice a week and during no less a period than six months.
All the expenses of the mediums who will accept the invitation are to be defrayed by the said committee, and terms by those of the mediums, who will be selected here and accepted as genuine, to be sent to St. Petersburg, to the President of Committee, Professor Mendeleyeff.
Therefore, I appoint and name as my sole deputy at Boston, for the selection of such mediums, E. Gerry Brown, Esq., Editor of the Spiritual Scientist, and beg of him to take the necessary steps for it immediately.
H. P. Blavatsky,
Philadelphia, June 22nd, 1875.
[Note: the above was followed by H.P.B.’s translation of a letter from A. N. Aksakoff in the July 8 Spiritual Scientist, along with the a notice signed by herself and Col. Olcott.]