"On referring to my diary for the month of October 1886, I find the following entry:—'19th. Berta startled us all after dinner, about 8.30 last evening, by saying she saw the figure of a woman pass across the dining-room, and that it was Mrs. Evans. This morning we hear the poor woman is dead.' On inquiring at the cottage we found she had become wandering in her mind, and at times unconscious, about the time she appeared to Berta, and died towards the morning.
"ANNIE ROSS."February 25th, 1890."
In this case the apparition, it will have been observed, was mistaken for a real person. We should not be justified, however, in concluding that the sensory effect produced was comparable in intensity to that which would have been caused had a real figure walked across the room. Perception is so largely a psychical process that it is difficult in any particular case to assign a definite value to the sensory element. And in a case of this kind, where, as appears to be generally the case with telepathic hallucinations, the vision is of brief duration, the difficulty is, of course, increased.
The hallucination in this, as in the previous case, occurred some hours before the death, and the evidential value of the coincidence is so far lessened. But it is perhaps worth while pointing out that we have no warrant in theory for concluding that in a case of death after prolonged illness the actual moment of dissolution is more favourable for the initiation of a telepathic impulse than any moment in the hours or days of illness preceding death; nor, if due allowance be made for the tendency to exaggerate the closeness of coincidence, is it clear that there is sufficient evidence at present to support any such conclusion. On the other hand, in cases of accident or momentary illness, we have more than one case where the impression is shown, on good evidence, to have occurred within, at most, an hour of death.[117] In the narrative which follows, the vision, it will be seen, took place some days before the actual death, during the crisis of a serious illness, of which the percipient was not at the time aware.
No. 74.—From MRS. MCALPINE, Garscadden, Bearsden, Glasgow.
The following account was enclosed in a letter, dated April 12th, 1892. We had previously received a somewhat briefer account, dated May 7th, 1891, which agrees in all essential particulars with the one printed below:—
"On the 25th March 1891 my husband and I were staying at Furness Abbey Hotel, Barrow-in-Furness, with a friend of ours, the late Mr. A. D. Bryce Douglas, of Seafield Tower, Ardrossan. He was managing director of the 'Naval Construction Armament Company,' and had resided at Furness Abbey Hotel for some eighteen months or more. He had invited us, along with a number of other friends, to the launch of the Empress of China. We breakfasted with Mr. Bryce Douglas on the day of the launch, the 25th, and afterwards saw the launch, had luncheon at the shipyard, and returned to the hotel. He appeared to be in his usual health and spirits (he was a powerfully-built man, and justly proud of his fine constitution). The following day (Thursday) he left with a party of gentlemen, to sail from Liverpool to Ardrossan, on the trial trip of the Empress of Japan (another large steamer which had been built at his yard).
"We remained on at the hotel for some days with our son Bob, aged twenty-three, who was staying there, superintending work which Mr. McAlpine was carrying on at Barrow.
"On the Monday night, the 30th, I went upstairs after dinner. On my way down again I saw Mr. Bryce Douglas standing in the doorway of his sitting-room. I saw him quite distinctly. He looked at me with a sad expression. He was wearing a cap which I had never seen him wear. I walked on and left him standing there. It was then about ten minutes to eight. I told my husband and Bob. We all felt alarmed, and we immediately sent the following telegram, 'How is Mr. Bryce Douglas?' to Miss Caldwell, his sister-in-law, who kept house for him at Seafield. It was too late for a reply that night. On Tuesday morning we received a wire from her; it ran thus: 'Mr. Bryce Douglas dangerously ill.' That telegram was the first intimation of his illness which reached Barrow. As will be seen in the account of his illness and death in the Barrow News, he died on the following Sunday, and we afterwards ascertained from Miss Caldwell that he was unconscious on Monday evening, at the time I saw him.
"My husband and son can corroborate this, and I have also letters which bear out my statements."
Mrs. McAlpine enclosed a copy of the Barrow News for April 11th, 1891, containing a memoir of Mr. Bryce Douglas, and a full account of his last illness and death. It appears from this account that he left Barrow on Thursday, March 26th, to join the steamer Empress of Japan. He was noticed by his friends to be far from well on Wednesday, the previous day, on the occasion of the launch of the Empress of China, and was advised to go home. He did not do so, however, until the Sunday, when he was put ashore at Ardrossan, and walked home to Seafield—a distance of nearly two miles. His medical man was sent for the same day, and the case was considered serious from the first, and on the following Thursday the doctors pronounced it hopeless. He died on April 5th, at about 5 A.M.
From the evidence which follows it seems clear that if any anxiety as to his health was felt before he left Barrow, as suggested in the newspaper report, Mrs. McAlpine knew nothing of it.
Mr. Myers writes:—
"I discussed the incident connected with the death of Mr. Bryce Douglas with Mr. and Mrs. McAlpine and Mr. McAlpine, Jun., on February 24th, 1892. I believe that their evidence has been very carefully given. Mr. McAlpine knew Mr. Bryce Douglas intimately. Mr. Bryce Douglas was a robust and vigorous man, and disliked ever to be supposed to be ill. Mr. McAlpine therefore felt great unwillingness to telegraph to him about his health, but from his previous knowledge of phenomena occurring to Mrs. McAlpine, he felt sure that her vision must be in some sense veridical."