623 A. The following account of optical effects observed in her crystal visions is given by Miss Goodrich-Freer {Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 485).

These experiments have been for the most part unsatisfactory, as it is almost impossible to say how far the results are due to mere expectation. In no case thus far have I obtained an optical result which surprised me, nor a result capable of such exact measurement as to prove that it was either optically wrong, or more exactly right than my general knowledge could have made it. I mention a few experiments.

1. Distortion

If I look in a spoon I see the image distorted in the familiar way. But I cannot say whether it is distorted precisely as a real image would be. For in the first place the picture does not always appear to be on the surface of the spoon or other speculum. For instance, in a globular crystal, or semi-globular ring-stone, the picture appears as on a flat surface. In the second place, I could not, at any rate in the short time allowed, draw the distorted picture accurately enough to admit of subsequent comparison with the reflection of the real object itself in the spoon.

2. Reflection

If I see a picture under circumstances which suggest that it is a reflection, I see it reversed as in a mirror. Thus, in a railway carriage, I experimented with a small crystal and small mirror, both hanging at my châtelaine. I easily reproduced in the crystal pictures (not real reflections) of the advertisements on the carriage walls, and just as Lanés Egyptian magician told him that the crystal "made left appear right," so were these pictures reversed, and the print appeared as Spiegel-schrift. But I could then reflect the imaginary picture from the crystal into the mirror, and there the letters, "Compton's Hotel," appeared set right again, and legible in the ordinary way.

On the other hand, I once suddenly entered a drawing-room where there was a large mirror, and saw a name for which I had been hunting in vain printed as though on a visiting-card fastened on the wall, and not reversed, in the middle of the mirror, which thus acted as a speculum. But note that when I saw the word I had for the instant forgotten that there was a mirror there, and I took the reflected wall in the mirror, for a real wall. So that the picture conformed to my erroneous conception, and not to any true optical law.

3. Magnification

I have used the magnifying-glass eleven times, and it has always appeared to magnify. In one case already recorded (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. p. 513) the apparent enlargement of the picture enabled me to read significant letters, without which the picture would have been meaningless. But this,.of course, may be classed as merely one form of the picturés development; that is to say, the letters might have become visible without the magnifying-glass, although they seemed to be vanishing and to be only just caught. I have three times used a bogus glass of similar size and appearance, and that glass did not magnify. However, I have never felt sure that I did not in some way distinguish between the true and the false magnifier even in the act of carrying them to my picture.

4. Double Refraction

I once tried a flake of Iceland spar, an object which I had never before handled. I knew, however, its property of double refraction, so that the duplication of the picture which followed may have been. due to expectation, although it looked to me rather more curious than I consciously anticipated.

5. Colour Contrast

It is my impression that there is retinal fatigue, and consequent sequence of complementary colours, from gazing at crystal pictures as much as from gazing at real objects. I never doubted this until the question was put to me, although I now find it difficult to prove that unconscious expectation may not account for this also.

I will first mention spontaneous and then experimental instances.

I received one day a visit from a friend in a rather striking blue gown, which, some hours later, the crystal reproduced. This picture was followed by another of the lady's little boy, whom I had not seen lately, dressed in a bright orange garment, which I feel sure he does not possess.

Again, one afternoon some one was talking about Palissy ware. I was not specially addressed, and was staring aimlessly at a dark green, almost black glass scent-bottle. I observed in it a picture, all in pale green, of a man hastily tearing up some wooden garden palings; and before I had time to wonder what this meant, it was followed by another picture, all in red, of the corner of the library where as a child I kept my books, including one distinctly recognisable, which I have not seen these fifteen years, called The Provocations of Mme. Palissy. Then I remembered that one of this lady's provocations consisted in the fact that her husband fed his furnace with the household furniture, or even the fixtures of the house itself.

These are the only spontaneous colour-sequences which I can recall, as the pictures do not usually show any one predominating colour. By experiment I find that if I tire the retina by staring at a red flower, I see a green one in the crystal; and conversely that if I summon up (as I sometimes can do) a red flower in the crystal, I then see a green patch on the wall. If I use two crystals there is a similar change of colour between the first picture and the second. Or if I merely desire a change of colour in a crystal-picture I find that blue is followed by orange, yellow by purple, green by red. But this may, of course, be due to unconscious self-suggestion, although I am not so familiar with the sequence of colours that I could without hesitation name the complement of any given colour.

The same result would occur if my blue picture were merely conjured up with closed eyes. On being transferred to the crystal - I, as it were, remaining entirely passive - it would appear as orange. When I first discerned this fact it was distinctly to my own surprise, and it required a moment's thought to assure myself that this was in the natural course of events. It may be worth noting that a distinct effort is required to convert a scene - lighted, for example, with red - to its natural colouring or even to a neutral tint. It is necessary to close the eyes or to look away for a moment; so that what follows is a second edition rather than a prolongation of the first picture. On the other hand, the mere desire for change will produce a green light rapidly alternating with the original hue.

It is significant that these optical effects seem to have been dependent on Miss Freer's knowledge of how real objects would have appeared under the same conditions.

In order to test further whether the results were due to suggestion, Mr. W. A. Dixey,1 the well-known optician of New Bond Street, carried out a series of experiments with Miss Freer on the effect of different kinds of lenses on her crystal visions, the conditions being arranged so that she did not know the normal effects of the lenses on real objects (see Borderland for January 1894). The lenses were fitted into four pairs of eye-glasses, and, with normal binocular sight, their respective effects on real objects at the given distance would have been: (A) to duplicate the object vertically; (B) to blur it; (C) no effect; (D) to duplicate the object horizontally. Mr. Dixey handed the lenses to Miss Freer, and the eight experiments were as follows: (1) A gave distance; (2) B, the picture disappeared, but after about a minute the colours became intenser, and the shadows more defined; (3) C, no difference; (4) D duplicated the picture horizontally; (5) A duplicated it vertically; (6) A lowered part of the picture; (7) D moved it to the right; (8) B, the picture disappeared. In experiments (3) (4) and (5) the effects were what they would have been on real objects, while in (6) and (7) they were what they would have been if the right eye only had been looking at a real object.

In (1) (2) and (8) the effects were not similar to what would have been produced on real objects. Thus the general result was that in five out of eight experiments the crystal pictures changed in appearance in the same way that real objects would have done on applying the lenses, but in the other three the changes that followed in the pictures on applying the lenses were not those that would have been produced in real objects.

1 See "Report on the Census of Hallucinations," Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p.

Mr. Dixey has since repeated these experiments, under as nearly as possible the same conditions, with Mrs. Verrall, who found, on applying the lenses, that her crystal pictures either disappeared or remained unaffected, except in one case, where a temporary enlargement of the picture - which was not the normal effect of the lens - took place. These negative results are of special interest, because Mrs. Verrall, unlike most crystal-seers, is conscious of using points de repère in her visions, and informs us that on this occasion they were more conspicuous to her than usual when the pictures began to develop, though, as usual, she lost sight of them when the pictures became fully formed.

It seems probable, therefore, that Miss Freer in her experiments may have unconsciously made use of points de repère, and that the effects actually produced by the lenses on them were transferred by self-suggestion to the visions. It would obviously be difficult to exclude this explanation in any such experiments.

Some experiments made by Mrs. Sidgwick on the function of points de repère in the case of hallucinations that seem to move are described in the "Report on the Census of Hallucinations " (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 108).

Cases of hallucinations apparently following optical laws are important in view of their possible bearing on physiological theories of the origin of hallucinations, having often been cited as evidence that the retina - as well as the brain - must be affected by the hallucination. For a discussion of this view - with illustrative cases - see the "Report on the Census of Hallucinations" (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. pp. 144-48).