The percipient in this case described his experience to Professor William James, of Harvard, who writes as follows:—
"Mr. Krebs (special student) stopped after the logic lesson of Friday, November 26, and told me the facts related in his narrative.
"I advised him to put them on paper, which he has thus done.
"His father is said by him to be too much injured to do any writing at present.
"WM. JAMES.
"December 1, 1886."
From MR. F. H. KREBS.
"On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 24, I was very uneasy, could not sit still, and wandered about the whole afternoon with little purpose. This uneasiness was unaccountable; but instead of wearing away it increased, and after returning to my room at about 6.45 it turned into positive fear. I fancied that there was some one continually behind me, and, although I turned my chair around several times, this feeling remained. At last I got up and went into my bedroom, looked under the bed and into the closet; finding nothing, I came back into the room and looked behind the curtains. Satisfied that there was nothing present to account for my fancy, I sat down again, when instantly the peculiar sensation recurred; and at last, finding it unbearable, I went down to a friend's room, where I remained the rest of the evening. To him I expressed my belief that this sensation was a warning sent to show me that some one of my family had been injured or killed.
"While in his room the peculiar sensation ceased, and, despite my nervousness, I was in no unusual state of mind; but on returning to my room to go to bed it returned with renewed force. On the next day (the 25th), on coming to my grandfather's, I found out that the day before (the 24th), at a little past 12, my father had jumped from a moving train and been severely injured. While I do not think that this warning was direct enough to convince sceptics that I was warned of my father's mishap, I certainly consider that it is curious enough to demand attention. I have never before had the same peculiar sensation that there was some being besides myself in an apparently empty room, nor have I ever before been so frightened and startled at absolutely nothing.
"On questioning my father, he said that before the accident he was not thinking of me, but that at the very moment that it happened his whole family seemed to be before him, and he saw them as distinctly as if there.
F. H. KREBS, JUN.
"November 29, 1886."
From MR. CHAUNCEY SMITH, JUN.
"I, the undersigned, distinctly remember that F. H. Krebs, Jun., came into my room November 24 and complained of being very nervous. I cannot remember exactly what he said, as I was studying at the time, and did not pay much attention to his talk.
"On the 25th he came into my room in the evening, and made a statement that his state the evening before was the consequence of an accident that happened to his father, and that he had the night before told me that he had received a warning of some accident to some one dear to him. This I did not contradict, because I consider that it is extremely probable that he said it, and that I did not, through inattention, notice it.
"CHAUNCEY SMITH, JUN."
The present case well illustrates the difficulties attendant on any efforts to procure reliable contemporary evidence for psychical events. Even when, as here, the percipient himself took the right course, from the standpoint of psychical research, his forethought was to a great extent frustrated by the shortcomings of his friend.
With this narrative may be compared three cases given in Phantasms of the Living (vol. i. pp. 280 et seq.) of the occurrence of exceptional distress to one twin at the time of the death of the other. Mr. Leveson Gower has sent us an account of a similar marked fit of depression, accompanied by "a vivid sense of the presence of death," which coincided with the quite sudden and unlooked-for death of a near relation, the late Lady Marion Alford. (Journal S.P.R., May 1888.) Professor Tamburini records an analogous case. A lunatic died in the asylum at Reggio on the 21st May 1892. A letter of inquiry, dated the 22nd May, was received at the asylum from the husband, who had not previously written for more than a year; and it was ascertained that he was prompted to write the letter by a feeling of "great discomfort, as though some misfortune were about to befall him," experienced on the previous day, the day of the death.
No. 49.—From Dr N., of New York State.
The next case is specially interesting, because the emotion which was felt in the first instance was succeeded by a visual impression of a detailed kind. This case again comes to us from America (Proc. Am. S.P.R., pp. 397-400). Dr. N., the percipient, writes to Professor Royce as follows:—
[Postmarked Aug. 16, 1886.]
"In the convalescence from a malarial fever during which great hyperæsthesia of brain had obtained, but no hallucinations or false perceptions, I was sitting alone in my room looking out of the window. My thoughts were of indifferent trivialities; after a time my mind seemed to become absolutely vacant; my eyes felt fixed, the air seemed to grow white. I could see objects about me, but it was a terrible effort of will to perceive anything. I then felt great and painful sense as of sympathy with some one suffering, who or where I did not know. After a little time I knew with whom, but how I knew I cannot tell; for it seemed some time after this knowledge of personality that I saw distinctly, in my brain, not before my eyes, a large, square room, evidently in a hotel, and saw the person of whom I had been conscious, lying face downward on the bed in the throes of mental and physical anguish. I felt rather than heard sobs and grieving, and felt conscious of the nature of the grief subjectively; its objective cause was not transmitted to me. Extreme exhaustion followed the experience, which lasted forty minutes intensely, and then very slowly wore away. Let me note:—
"1st. I had not thought of the person for some time and there was no reminder in the room.
"2nd. The experience was remembered with more vividness than that seen in the normal way, while the contrary is true of dreams.
"3rd. The natural order of perception was reversed, i.e., the emotion came first, the sense of a personality second, the vision or perception of the person third.
"I should be glad to have a theory given of this reverse in the natural order of perception."
The agent, M., is well known to both Professor Royce and Dr. Hodgson. In the report it is stated that "there can be no doubt of his high character and general good judgment." He writes as follows:—