662 C. From Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 35. In the case just quoted, the vision hardly suggested a real external object, and further stages remain, on the path to the final one of natural solid-looking externality. In the following case the image appeared with a sort of apparent relief, but certainly not yet as co-ordinate in any natural fashion with the real objects in view. The account is from Mr. Richard Searle, barrister, of Home Lodge, Heme Hill, who tells us that he has had no other experience of a hallucination.

November 2nd, 1883.

One afternoon, a few years ago, I was sitting in my chambers in the Temple, working at some papers. My desk is between the fireplace and one of the windows, the window being two or three yards on the left side of my chair, and looking out into the Temple. Suddenly I became aware that I was looking at the bottom window-pane, which was about on a level with my eyes, and there I saw the figure of the head and face of my wife, in a reclining position, with the eyes closed and the face quite white and bloodless, as if she were dead.

I pulled myself together, and got up and looked out of the window, where I saw nothing but the houses opposite, and I came to the conclusion that I had been drowsy and had fallen asleep, and, after taking a few turns about the room to rouse myself, I sat down again to my work and thought no more of the matter.

I went home at my usual time that evening, and whilst my wife and I were at dinner, she told me that she had lunched with a friend who lived in Gloucester Gardens, and that she had taken with her a little child, one of her nieces, who was staying with us; but during lunch, or just after it, the child had a fall and slightly cut her face so that the blood came. After telling the story, my wife added that she was so alarmed when she saw the blood on the child's face that she had fainted. What I had seen in the window then occurred to my mind, and I asked her what time it was when this happened. She said, as far as she remembered, it must have been a few minutes after 2 o'clock. This was the time, as nearly as I could calculate, not having looked at my watch, when I saw the figure in the window-pane.

I have only to add that this is the only occasion on which I have known my wife to have had a fainting-fit. She was in bad health at the time, and I did not mention to her what I had seen until a few days afterwards, when she had become stronger. I mentioned the occurrence to several of my friends at the time. R. S.

Mr. Paul Pierrard, of 27 Gloucester Gardens, W., writes as follows: -

4th December 1883.

It may be interesting for special observers to have a record of an extraordinary occurrence which happened about four years ago at my residence, 27 Gloucester Gardens, W.

At an afternoon party of ladies and children, among whom were Mrs. Searle, of Home Lodge, Herne Hill, and her little niece, Louise, there was a rather noisy, bustling, and amusing game round a table, when little Louise fell from her chair and hurt herself slightly. The fear of a grave accident caused Mrs. Searle to be very excited, and she fainted.

The day after, we met Mr. Searle, who stated that in the afternoon of the preceding day he had been reading important cases in his chambers, No. 6 Pump Court, Temple, when a peculiar feeling overcame him, and he distinctly saw, as it were in a looking-glass, the very image of his wife leaning back in a swoon, which seemed very strange at the moment.

By comparing the time, it was found that this extraordinary vision was produced at the very same instant as the related incident.

We often spoke of the case together, and could not find any explanation to completely satisfy our minds; but we registered this rare fact for which a name is wanted. Paul Pierrard.

Here there was more than the mere representation of the agent; she was represented apparently in the aspect which she actually wore, but in which the percipient had never seen her, and in which she would hardly be consciously picturing herself. We are scarcely driven, however, in this case, to the difficult conception of "telepathic clairvoyance"; for it is possible to suppose that the idea of fainting, impressed on Mr. Searlés mind, worked itself out into perception in an appropriate fashion.

662 D. From Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 37. The stage of visualisation in the next case is particularly interesting. The narrator is Mrs. Taunton, of Brook Vale, Witton, Birmingham.

January l5th, 1884. On Thursday evening, 14th November 1867, I was sitting in the Birmingham Town Hall with my husband at a concert, when there came over me the icy chill which usually accompanies these occurrences.1 Almost immediately, I saw with perfect distinctness, between myself and the orchestra, my uncle, Mr. W., lying in bed with an appealing look on his face, like one dying. I had not heard anything of him for several months, and had no reason to think he was ill. The appearance was not transparent or filmy, but perfectly solidlooking; and yet I could somehow see the orchestra, not through, but behind it. I did not try turning my eyes to see whether the figure moved with them, but looked at it with a fascinated expression that made my husband ask if I was ill. I asked him not to speak to me for a minute or two; the vision gradually disappeared, and I told my husband, after the concert was over, what I had seen. A letter came shortly after telling of my unclés death. He died at exactly the time when I saw the vision.

E. F. Taunton.

1 This refers to a few other experiences of a different character, one of which, how ever, involved a hallucination of sight.

[The signature of Mrs. Taunton's husband is also appended].

Rich. H. Taunton.

[We find from an obituary notice in the Belfast News-Letter that Mr. W. died on November 14th, 1867].

The phantasm here was perfectly external, and is described as "perfectly solid-looking "; yet it certainly did not hold to the real objects around the same relation as a figure of flesh and blood would have held; it was in a peculiar way transparent. This feature is noticeable, as it is one which occasionally occurs also in hallucinations of the purely subjective class.1 It may thus be taken as one of the numerous minor indications of the hallucinatory character of telepathic phantasms (see Phantasms, chap. xii. § 10).

The "Report on the Census of Hallucinations" (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x.) gives further examples of what are there called " incompletely developed hallucinations," and discusses in chapter iv (Sleep). the distinction between mental images, including what Kandinsky2 calls " pseudo-hallucinations," and fully externalised sensory hallucinations. Examples of figures gradually developed out of a mist or glow of light are given on pp. 117, 120, and 293, and examples of transparent figures on pp. 117, 119, and 143 of the "Report".

1 Of many subjective hallucinations, it has been specially noticed that they hid whatever was behind the place which they appeared to occupy; and the rule seems to be that when the percept is completely externalised, it is solid-looking. But exceptions are not infrequent. Whitish transparent figures were a feature in a pathological case first published in the Phrenological Journal and Miscellany (Edinburgh), No. vi. p. 290, etc, and described in the well-known article on " Spectral Illusions " in Chambers's Miscellany. Wundt (Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie, vol. ii. p. 357), records the experience of an overseer of forests, who saw heaps of wood all round him in his house, but also saw the furniture and carpet just as usual. (Cf. case 193.) Miss Morse, of Vermont, a careful observer, who has had hallucinations at rare intervals during a good many years, tells me that at first" they seemed to be pictured just within instead of before my eyes." Lately, however, "they have usually been projected into space; but however real the apparitions at first appear, a close inspection reveals that they have no solidity - that objects can be seen through them." Another of my informants, who on waking had a hallucination of a tall female figure, noticed that he could see a towel through her; and similarly in one of my cases of persistent dream-images. Professor Goodwin reports that with him they " retain an appearance of solidity for some seconds after waking, the furniture of the room being distinctly recognised through these figures, like a dissolving view." Another correspondent describes such images as seen " as it were with one eye asleep, the other awake." In one of Paterson's cases (Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for Jan. 1843), the phantasm appeared as though seen through gauze.

I may also refer to the telepathic phantasms which gave the impression of being formed from mist {Phantasms, chap. xii. § 3, cases 315, 518, and Mrs. Deanés experience, p. 237). I have mentioned that the disappearance is occasionally through a stage of increased tenuity and transparency. - E. G.

2kritische und klinische Betrachtungen im Gebiete der Sinnestduschungcn, Berlin, 1885.