817 D. From the Journal S.P.R., vol. v. p. 136. The following account was sent to me by Lady de Vesci in May 1891. Whether the impulse to telegraph was really connected with the dying lady's condition we cannot, of course, say, but the coincidence was certainly remarkable.

May 24th, 1891.

Madame X. was a very remarkable woman, and I was most deeply attached to her. She had had great troubles and difficulties in her life, an unhappy marriage, and two sons who were entirely educated by her. When they came to London as clerks in the city she followed them to make a home for them there; but as one was soon sent out to work at Hong-Kong and the other to a business at Bahia, she sought employment for herself in London and came to us as governess in 1864. In 1869 she became ill, and spent the winter alone at Bournemouth. She and I wrote constantly to each other, and when she moved to Norwood for the summer of 1870 my eldest brother and I went often to spent long afternoons with her. He died that summer, and although she had not left her sofa for months she came at once to see me when she heard of our great sorrow; the doctor said he had never seen such an indomitable spirit as she showed through her illness, and when in the spring of 1871 Sir J. Burrows told her that she had not many months to live she resolved to go out to Hong-Kong and see her eldest son once more. It was not thought that she would survive the voyage. Our deep love for each other was unchangeable, and this final farewell was a great grief to us both.

She reached Hong-Kong and spent the last eighteen months of her life with her son there. I heard from her by every mail.

In 1872 I married, and shortly afterwards we were quartered at the Curragh. It was from there that I sent the telegram which she received less than twenty-four hours before her death. Until two years ago I had in my possession a few faint lines written by her on blue foreign paper, saying she had received my message and that her "fever dreams" were filled with memories of our happy days together at Cannes and elsewhere. Her son is now dead. He came to see me in '76, and told me that my telegram had made his mother very happy.

The impulse that made me communicate with her on that particular day was a very strong one. It came to me suddenly and not in consequence of any increased anxiety from news received. On the contrary, the accounts were quite satisfactory. I had heard from her by the mail a few days before. I asked my husband to go with me to the Curragh Post-Office as I wished to find out the cost of a telegram to China, and he accompanied me to the Post-Office, and we were told it would cost £5 to send twelve words or so, I think. I at once wrote and sent the message containing a few words of loving greeting. These words she received and acknowledged only a few hours before her death.

Evelyn de Vesci.

Lord de Vesci adds:-

I certify that the account given by Lady de Vesci is correct and accurate.

De Vesci. June 2nd, 1891.

818 A. From a paper by Mrs. Verrall, entitled "Some Experiments on the Supernormal Acquisition of Knowledge," in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. p. 191.

In these cases a piece of information not consciously possessed at the moment is conveyed to the conscious intelligence by means of an apparent mechanical difficulty, which on examination turns out not to exist The information thus obtained is usually negative; that is, this apparent mechanical difficulty prevents my doing something unnecessary or undesirable, which I should know to be such if I thought about it, but which from thoughtlessness I am on the point of doing. An illustration will make my meaning clearer.

Constantly, when using my typewriter, it has happened to me to find a difficulty in pressing a key, so great a difficulty as to oblige me to look to see what is wrong. I then see that what is wrong is that my finger was on the wrong key, but there is, in fact, no difficulty whatever in depressing the key if I determine to do so. The effect of this apparent mechanical difficulty is to draw my attention in time to the mistake I am on the point of making. . . .

[Again,] I wrote, in the afternoon, five letters, and then stretched out my left hand to the stationery case to take the necessary envelopes. I wanted five, and as I can usually take a small number without error expected to take five. But I did not get enough; I found that I only had three, and tried to take a couple more. But one of these two slipped through my fingers, and I only held one. I was quite vexed at my maladroitness, gave up a further attempt for the present and proceeded to fold my letters, put them into envelopes, and address them. When I came to the fifth letter, I remembered that I had an envelope ready addressed for this letter, as I had written the night before, but torn up the letter after receiving a letter by the late post, which decided me to wait for fuller information. I had kept the envelope, and it was actually lying on my table while I was trying to take the five envelopes. I may have seen it, but if I did, it was unconsciously; it was only when I found that I could not get five envelopes that I discovered that I did not require more than four.

818 B. From the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 344.

The following is a case in which, as I conceive, the subliminal self has observed what the supraliminal has failed to notice, and has generated a hallucination, in order to check the mistaken action to which that inadvertence was leading. In this case, all that needs correction is a mere act of distraction - a failure to look carefully at an object fully in sight.

From Mrs. E. K. Elliott, wife of the Rev. E. K. Elliott.

About twenty years ago I received some letters by post, one of which contained £15 in bank notes. After reading the letters I went into the kitchen with them in my hands. I was alone at the time, no one being near me, except the cook, and she was in the scullery. Having done with the letters, I made a motion to throw them into the fire, when I distinctly felt my hand arrested in the act. It was as though another hand were gently laid upon my own, pressing it back. Much surprised, I looked at my hand, and then saw that it contained not the letters I had intended to destroy, but the bank notes, and that the letters were in the other hand. I was so surprised that I called out, "Who is here?" I called the cook and told her, and also told my husband on the first opportunity. I never had any similar experience before or since.

Statement by Rev. E. K. Elliott.

I remember my wife describing the above adventure to me at the time, and also that she was nearly fainting from the excitement caused by it.

E. K. Elliott.