She was a particularly refined woman for one of her class, sweet, gentle, with delicately cut features, religious and conscientious to a remarkable degree. She was a marked example of those who, in the trance condition, could not be induced by suggestion to do a wrong or a mean act, or one which she would consider wrong in her normal state. In her sleep she was anæsthetic, felt herself quite on an equality with the operator, always spoke of herself as “we,” and of her normal self as “that girl.” The following instance of her clairvoyance was furnished by Dr. F., who knew her well for many years, and is from notes taken at the time:—
On the morning of the day fixed for the experiment the doctor arranged with a patient in a neighboring village that he should be in a particular room between the hours of 8 and 10 in the evening. The patient was just recovering from a severe illness and was weak and very thin and emaciated. This gentleman and the doctor were the only persons who knew anything of the arrangement or the proposed experiment.
After having secured the proper somnambulic condition in the subject, Dr. F. directed her attention to the house where his patient was supposed to be awaiting the experiment, as arranged. She entered the house, described correctly the rooms passed through, in one of which she mentioned a lady with black hair lying on a sofa, but no gentleman. The doctor’s report then goes on as follows:—
“After a little she described the door opening and asked with a tone of great surprise:
“‘Is that a man?’
“I replied, ‘Yes; is he thin or fat?’
“‘Very fat,’ she answered; ‘but has the gentleman a cork leg?’
“I assured her that he had not, and tried to puzzle her still more about him. She, however, persisted in her statement that he was very fat, and said that he had a great ‘corporation,’ and asked me whether I did not think such a fat man must eat and drink a great deal to get such a corporation as that. She also described him as sitting by the table with papers beside him, and a glass of brandy and water.
“‘Is it not wine?’ I asked.