Later she adds:—
"April 27th, 1891.
"Your letter of the 17th came to hand. I do not know the date, but it was about the middle of February, on a Wednesday evening. My little boy is six years old; he remembers it well, and often talks of it."
Mrs. Skene added, in answer to a question, that the boy did not know that the experiment was being tried on him. It should be added that Mr. Rasero, who was present, wrote, on the 30th October 1891, to confirm Dr. Wiltse's statement that nothing was said beforehand about trying an experiment of any kind.
The tiger in this experiment appears to have been a confused nightmare effect produced by the telepathic impression on the mind of the child percipient. In the next case, it will be seen, the percept appears to have been unusually clear and distinct.
No. 67.—From JOSEPH KIRK.[114]
Mr. Kirk has made several attempts to produce a hallucination of himself. Writing to us on the 7th July 1890, he stated that without the knowledge of his friend and neighbour, Miss G., he tried each night, from the 10th to the 20th of June, and once on the 11th in the afternoon, to induce her to see a hallucination of himself. From casual conversation, however, with Miss G. he gathered that no effect had been produced. But on June 23rd Mr. Kirk learned that the trial made on June 11th, the day and hour of which had been noted at the time, had completely succeeded. He thus describes the occasion:—
"2 RIPON VILLAS, PLUMSTEAD.
"... I had been rather closely engaged on some auditing work, which had tired me, and as near as I can remember the time was between 3.30 and 4 P.M. that I laid down my pencil, stretched myself, and in the act of doing the latter I was seized with the impulse to make a trial on Miss G. I did not, of course, know where she was at the moment, but, with a flash, as it were, I transferred myself to her bedroom. I cannot say why I thought of that spot, unless it was that I did so because my first experiment had been made there—i.e., on the previous night, the 10th June. As it happened, it was what I must call a 'lucky shot,' for I caught her at the moment she was lightly sleeping in her chair—a condition which seems to be peculiarly favourable to receiving and externalising telepathic messages.
"The figure seen by Miss G. was clothed in a suit I was at the moment wearing, and was bareheaded, the latter as would be the case, of course, in an office. This suit is of a dark reddish-brown check stuff, and it was an unusual circumstance for me to have had on the coat at the time, as I wear, as a rule, an office coat of light material. But this office coat I had, a day or so before, sent to a tailor to be repaired, and I had, therefore, to keep on that belonging to the dark suit.
"I tested the reality of the vision by this dark suit. I asked, 'How was I dressed?' (not at all a leading question). The reply of Miss G. was, touching the sleeve of the coat I was then wearing (of a light suit), 'Not this coat, but that dark suit you wear sometimes. I even saw clearly the small check pattern of it; and I saw your features as plainly as though you had been bodily present. I could not have seen you more distinctly.'"
Miss G.'s account is:—
"June 28th, 1890.
"A peculiar occurrence happened to me on the Wednesday of the week before last. In the afternoon (being tired by a morning walk), while sitting in an easy-chair near the window of my own room, I fell asleep. At any time I happen to sleep during the day (which is but seldom) I invariably awake with tired, uncomfortable sensations, which take some little time to pass off; but that afternoon, on the contrary, I was suddenly quite wide awake, seeing Mr. Kirk standing near my chair, dressed in a dark brown coat, which I had frequently seen him wear. His back was towards the window, his right hand towards me; he passed across the room towards the door, which is opposite the window, the space between being 15 feet, the furniture so arranged as to leave just that centre clear; but when he got about 4 feet from the door, which was closed, he disappeared.
"I feel sure I had not been dreaming of him, and cannot remember that anything had happened to cause me even to think of him that afternoon before falling asleep."