[126] M. Octave Houdaille.
[127] Annales des Sciences Psychiques, vol. i. pp. 98, 99.
[128] She was, however, unable to find it.
[129] It should be explained that this account was written on a "census" form, in the limited space provided for answers to our printed questions.
[130] See, for instance, Nos. 47, 75, 87, etc.
[131] Those desiring to study further the evidence on this subject are referred to the paper on "Phantasms of the Dead," Proc. S.P.R., vol. iii., by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, and the papers on "Recognised Apparitions occurring after Death," and on "Phantasms of the Dead," by Messrs. Gurney, Myers, and the present writer respectively, in Proc. v. and vi., and the "Record of a Haunted House," in Proc. viii. Many cases of the kind are also printed in the monthly journal of the Society; and there are one or two striking cases in the Annales des Sciences Psychiques.
[132] For instance, Gregory and others record that the clairvoyant subjects of a certain Major Buckley were able to read the mottoes enclosed in nuts (the equivalent of the modern Christmas crackers) purchased at random from a confectioner's shop, and still unopened. The recent evidence of the kind is quite inconsiderable, and is perhaps hardly sufficient to allow of the existence of a faculty of independent clairvoyance being treated as an open question. Experiments with Mrs. Piper in this direction have yielded negative results, and Professor Richet's trials with Madame B. (Proc. S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 77 and 149) are neither sufficiently numerous nor sufficiently striking to justify any conclusions being drawn from them. Some curious results have, however, been obtained by M. J. Ch. Roux (Annales des Sciences Psychiques, vol. iii. pp. 198 et seq.), and somewhat similar results have been obtained in this country by two Associates of the S.P.R. But it is possible that all these instances may be susceptible of another explanation. See, however, Mr. Myers' article on "Sensory Automatism," Proc. S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 436 et seq.
[133] The definition of clairvoyance given in the text differs somewhat from that adopted by Mrs. Sidgwick (Proc. S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 30)—viz., "A faculty of acquiring supernormally, but not by reading the minds of persons present, a knowledge of facts such as we normally acquire by the use of our senses." Whether such a faculty exists or not, it is certain that the phenomena which suggest it occur under the same conditions and inextricably mingled with others which can, with some plausibility, be explained as due to thought-transference from the conscious or unconscious memory of persons actually present. And as the two sets of phenomena are found together in fact, it seemed best as a matter of practical convenience that they should not be separated in discussion. Moreover, the suggested application of the word finds ample justification in popular usage.
[134] It should be added that during the progress of similar investigations in the United States of America, Dr. Hodgson employed private detectives to shadow Mr. and Mrs. Piper for some weeks, and that nothing was discovered to intimate that any steps were taken by either, whether by personal inquiry or by correspondence, to ascertain facts relating to the history of actual or possible sitters. Mr. Piper did not accompany his wife to this country.
[135] Independently of the fact that "Dr. Phinuit" is as obviously untrustworthy as Mrs. Piper in her natural state is apparently the reverse, the inquiries which have been made have entirely failed to corroborate the accounts, in themselves not always concordant, which "Dr. Phinuit" has given of his birth, his education, and other circumstances in his "earth-life." His knowledge of his native language is confined to a few simple phrases and a slight accent, frequently found useful in disguising a bad shot at a proper name; and the careful investigations conducted by Dr. Hodgson into Mrs. Piper's antecedents as a "medium" have made it almost certain that "Dr. Phinuit" is an invention, borrowed from the person through whose agency Mrs. Piper first became entranced, and who purported himself to be controlled by a French doctor named Albert Finnett (pronounced Finné). It should be added that "Dr. Phinuit" possesses apparently no knowledge of the medical names of drugs, nor any more intimate acquaintance with their properties than could be gathered from a manual of domestic medicine. (Vol. viii. pp. 47, 50, 51, etc.)