I have purposely not mentioned in its proper place, so as not to break the narrative, that on looking at Mackenzie I was struck by the peculiar appearance of his countenance. It was of an indescribable bluish-pale colour, and on his forehead appeared spots which seemed like blots of sweat. For this I could not account, but by the following post my manager informed me that he was wrong in writing me of suicide. That on Saturday night, Mackenzie, on going home, had lifted a small black bottle containing aqua fortis (which he used for staining the wood of birdcages, made for amusement), believing this to be whisky, and pouring out a wine-glassful, had drunk it off at a gulp, dying on the Sunday in great agony. Here then, was the solution of his being innocent of what he was accused of - suicide, seeing that he had inadvertently drunk aqua fortis, a deadly poison. Still pondering upon the peculiar colour of his countenance, it struck me to consult some authorities on the symptoms of poisoning by aqua fortis, and in Mr. J. H. Walsh's "Domestic Medicine and Surgery," p. 172, I found these words under symptoms of poisoning by sulphuric acid. ..." The skin covered with a cold sweat; countenance livid and expressive of dreadful suffering." . . . "Aqua fortis produces the same effect as sulphuric, the only difference being that the external stains, if any, are yellow instead of brown." This refers to indication of sulphuric acid, "generally outside of the mouth, in the shape of brown spots." Having no desire to accommodate my facts to this scientific description, I give the quotations freely, only at the same time stating that previously to reading the passage in Mr. Walsh's book, I had not the slightest knowledge of these symptoms, and I consider that they agree fairly and sufficiently with what I saw, viz., a livid face covered with a remarkable sweat, and having spots (particularly on the forehead), which, in my dream, I thought great blots of perspiration.

It seems not a little striking that I had no previous knowledge of these symptoms, and yet should take note of them.

I have little remark to make beyond this, that in speaking of this matter, to me very affecting and solemn, I have been quite disgusted by sceptics treating it as a hallucination, in so far as that my dream must have been on the Wednesday morning, being that after the receipt of my manager's letter informing me of the supposed suicide. This explanation is too absurd to require a serious answer. My manager first heard of the death on the Monday - wrote me on that day as above - and on the Tuesday wrote again explaining the true facts. The dream was on the Tuesday morning, immediately before the 8 a.m. post delivery, hence the thrice emphatic "Ye'll sune ken." I attribute the whole to Mackenzie's yearning gratitude for being rescued from a deplorable state of starvation, and his earnest desire to stand well in my opinion. I have coloured nothing, and leave my readers to draw their own conclusions.

D.

The following is Mrs. D.'s corroboration:-

In regard to the remarkable dream my husband had when Robert Mackenzie's death took place through inadvertently drinking some aqua fortis, I beg to inform you of what took place as far as I am concerned.

On the Tuesday morning after the occurrence I was downstairs early, and at 8 o'clock was handed a letter, just received from the postman, and addressed to Mr. D. Seeing it was from our manager in Glasgow, I opened it, and was much grieved to find that it was to tell us that Robert Mackenzie had committed suicide. I ran upstairs to Mr. D.'s bedroom with the letter in my hand, and in much excitement. I found him apparently just coming out of sleep, and hastily cried out to him, exactly as he has described to you. I need not go over the words, which have often been repeated amongst us since, and I can confirm his narrative regarding them, as given to you, in every particular. The whole affair gave us a great shock, and put an end to the workmen's balls for some four or five years. Mr. D.'s dream was a frequent subject of conversation at the time. I knew Mackenzie well. He was a pale, large-eyed, and earnest-looking young man, with a great regard for Mr. D., through circumstances. The next day's post brought us the actual facts.

J.D.

731. Here, too, may be placed two cases - those of Dr. Bruce (in Chapter IV (Sleep)., 426 A) and Miss Hall (see 731 A) - where there are successive pictures of a death and the subsequent arrangement of the body. The milieux of the percipients, the nature of the deaths, are here again totally disparate; yet we seem to see the same unknown laws producing effects closely similar.

In Dr. Bruce's case one might interpret the visions as coming to the percipient through the mind of his wife, who was present at the scene of the murder. But this explanation would be impossible in Miss Hall's case. Rather it seems as though some telepathic link, set up between the dying brother and the sister, had been maintained after death until all duties had been fulfilled to the departed. The case reminds one of the old Homeric notions of the restless appeal of unburied comrades.