725. Taking the cases as they follow each other in that work, the first (vol. i. p. 395) is the well-known incident recorded by Lord Brougham - his vision, while taking a warm bath in Sweden, of a school friend from whom he had parted many years before, but with whom he had long ago "committed the folly of drawing up an agreement written with our blood, to the effect that whichever of us died first should appear to the other, and thus solve any doubts we had entertained of the life after death." This incident happened about 2 a.m. apparently on December 19th (possibly on December 20th), 1799. G. died in India on December 19th, 1799 - place and hour not stated. The time in any part of India is, of course, several hours ahead of the time in Sweden. In this case the time-coincidence cannot be clearly determined.

The second compact-case in Phantasms of the Living (vol. i. p. 419) tells definitely against the assumption that the apparent fulfilment of a compact must needs indicate actual death. Captain P. was washed overboard at sea; but though in extreme danger, did not lose consciousness, caught hold of a rope, and was saved. On the same night, perhaps at the same moment, a lady with whom Captain P. had made a death-compact, saw his phantasm in her room. This seems precisely the kind of incident which Gurney's last-quoted sentences have in view.

The third case (vol. i. p. 427) is remarkable inasmuch as the phantasmal figure appeared not only to the partner in the compact, but also to a child unacquainted with the decedent, but who chanced to be sleeping in a room near to that occupied by the said partner. It is not known which of the two appearances came first; but to the child the figure appeared as though groping its way. The death occurred on the same night, but the time-coincidence is not more precisely known.

In the fourth case1 (vol. i. p. 506) the coincidence is said to have been very close: the mother dying at five minutes to three, and the son seeing the figure just before the clock struck three. It is, of course, impossible to say whether the phantasm preceeded or followed actual death.

The fifth case, again, given in Chapter VI (Sensory Automatism). (667 A), shows us the phantasm, which had been promised at death, appearing when the agent was still alive, but had been stunned by a fall from a coach, which left for some time much mental confusion. The case is interesting as showing what may be called a ready dissociability of spirit and organism, coincident with complete obscuration of the supraliminal consciousness.

The sixth case is that of Captain Colt of Gartsherrie. I quote this at length in 725 A, since it is probable - though not certain - that the agent had been dead for some hours at the time of the apparition. Allowing for difference of time, he had probably been shot in the temple some fourteen hours before. He had apparently not moved after he was shot. He had been previously wounded in several places, and no surgical aid was attainable. There is here a curious analogy with the narrative of the red scratch already given. Captain Colt says, "I saw ... a wound on the right temple with a red stream from it. His face was of a waxy pale tint," etc. The "red stream" - the aspect of the body just after death - seems to have been made prominent for an evidential purpose. On the dead man's body was found a letter from his brother, the percipient, which begged him, if killed in battle, to manifest himself in the very room in which his phantasm did actually appear.

The seventh case (vol. i. p. 531) is that of a half-caste Indian, called "Mountain Jim," over whom the well-known traveller, Mrs. Bishop (then Miss Bird), had established a great influence. At their last parting he vowed that he would see her again when he died; and, in fact, some hours either before or after his death in Colorado she, being in Switzerland, saw his phantasm, and heard the words, " I have come, as I promised".

In the eighth case - Chevalier Fenzi's (vol. ii. p. 63) - the percipient had a sudden fit of deep depression, and went out to walk on the sea-shore in the midst of a violent thunderstorm. There he thought he saw his brother - who was really at Florence, seventy miles off - walking a little way off over some rocks, behind one of which the figure disappeared. The brother died at the time. He had not only promised to try to appear after death, but had at the same time predicted to Chevalier Fenzi that he would die within three months. The prediction was fulfilled. It may, of course, have had some influence in producing Chevalier Fenzi's experience.

1 Gurney did not give this case an "evidential number," regarding it as "ambiguous" on account of the anxiety subsisting in the percipient's mind. For the present purpose, however, it plainly ought to be taken into consideration.

In the ninth case (vol. ii. p. 253), already referred to above (in 718), the decedent was still living, but her strong desire had been for a sight of the percipient before her own death; and this she appears to have attained.

In the tenth case (which is given at second-hand in vol. ii. p. 477) two girl friends exchanged rings, with the promise that the friend who died first would restore the ring to the survivor. At about the time when the first friend died the surviving friend saw her standing by her bedside, and holding out the ring.

In the eleventh case (in vol. ii. p. 489, which is again at second-hand, and very remote) there were three parties to the compact, and two of these successively are said to have appeared at about the time of death to the last survivor.

The twelfth case (vol. ii. p. 496) although second-hand and remote, was written down apparently within a year of its occurrence. The time-coincidence cannot be exactly known, as the decedent was shipwrecked. His appearance was that of a drowned man.