"'PARIS, July 8th, 1892, midnight.
"'MY DEAR HENNIQUE,—A friend came unexpectedly to dinner. At 10.30, looking through the open window at the blue sky under the full moon, I thought all of a sudden of the experiment planned by us, of the telepathic meeting that we had fixed for eleven o'clock this evening, and my brain received at the same time the impression of a puppet. It seemed to me that you were trying to show me a little cardboard man fitted with strings to make his arms and legs move.
"'Reminded by this impression of my telepathic duty, I said good-night to my friend, and at eleven o'clock I waited, with my eyes closed, in the darkness of the dining-room. Nothing happened till twelve or fifteen minutes past eleven, when there appeared to me for an instant a small black silhouette, a Chinese shadow, as if you had cut out a little black figure and placed it in front of a light; for the round part, which seemed to be its head, was surrounded by a bluish halo. It was mostly this little black sphere—which I thought was a head—that I saw; the body I rather deduced than saw. 'D.'
"M. Hennique replied to me as follows:—
"'RIBEMONT (AISNÉ), Sunday, 10th July 1892.
"'MY DEAR FRIEND,—It was a bottle full of water, surmounted by its cut-glass stopper, a large stopper, very bright, that served for our experiment. But the most curious part of the affair is that about four inches from the bottle there was actually hanging on the wall a nigger-doll, of the kind which you describe, belonging to my daughter. Was it reflected on the crystal? A mystery! For one second, but scarcely for a second, I had intended to telepathise the jumping-jack to you before choosing the water-bottle. It is certainly very odd!
"'LEON HENNIQUE.'
"M. Hennique added to this letter a water-colour drawing of the above-mentioned 'nigger-doll.' The head is a black circle, in which only the lips are red; the arms and legs are black; the chest is white, crossed with red; arms, thighs, and legs are jointed, and can be worked by a string.
"I wrote to my friend to ask him if, at 10.30—that is to say, at the moment when I had conceived of a jumping-jack, he had not, on his part, thought at the same moment, of the same object. He answered me:—
"'RIBEMONT, 14th July 1892.
"'No; at 10.30 I was not thinking in the least of the jumping-jack; but, if I remember rightly, once or twice last year I wished to make use of it. It was only at the moment of choosing a simple object for the experiment that for an instant the idea of that little man came into my head; it was, you see, before beginning our experiment. This puppet was not four inches, but only two inches away from the water-bottle. There is something very curious in it, a physical or psychical effect, which I can't account for. The more so that this doll, in cardboard mounted on strings, is always fixed to the wall, above the table from which I am sending you my good wishes. It must have been about 9 o'clock, while tidying the before-mentioned table, that I had the idea of transmitting to you the image of the jumping-jack.
"'LEON HENNIQUE.'"
No. 37.—By MR. JOSEPH KIRK and MISS G.
During the year 1890 and onwards, Mr. Joseph Kirk, of 2 Ripon Villas, Plumstead, has carried on with a friend, Miss G., a series of experiments in thought-transference at a distance varying from 400 yards to about 200 miles. Some account of these experiments will be found in the Journal of the S.P.R. for February and July 1891 and January 1892. There are 22[68] trials in the transference of diagrams, etc., there recorded. The object looked at by Mr. Kirk was generally a square or oblong card, or a white disc with or without a picture, diagram, or letter on it. The object was always illuminated by a strong light.