Mr. Mitchell writes:-

This peculiar state, which is involuntary in its recurrence, is not usually heralded by any premonitions visible to those who may be present. He may be taking part in social conversation, when all at once, if looking at him, you will see his eyelids fall and his head droop; at the same time making a slight but audible noise through his nose, which may be called a grunt, usually repeated in quick succession two or three times, and he is asleep. The spell may continue for a few moments; a quarter, a half-hour, or an hour, or a number of hours; a day, or a night; or a day and night; or several days and nights; or a week, or even several weeks, without an interval of consciousness.

When in ordinary health, without bodily fatigue, or any strong or exhausting mental excitement, he can be easily aroused to consciousness, when he first goes into this state, by giving him a shake or by slapping him with the hand. In coming to consciousness, he seems to be momentarily surprised; and his body is slightly affected, as if lightly shocked by a galvanic battery.

When under the more favourable conditions of body and mind, upon his going to sleep, by immediately waking him up, he has been enabled to keep awake for many hours in succession, though there was a constant inclination to go to sleep. As a general rule, the longer the spells are protracted, the more intense are his sufferings. . . .

In these sleeps his eyes are generally closed, but there are instances in which they are as wide open as when awake. In this case, if he is free comparatively from suffering, one not acquainted with his peculiarities would not likely suspect that there was anything unusual in his condition.

The "sleeping personality" of Mr. Sanders, calling himself" X + Y = Z," "never betrays any scepticism nor the slightest taint of heresy," and seems to have held the ordinary chief orthodox doctrines of the church to which Mr. Sanders belonged. He apparently wrote a good deal - including letters to other persons, and instructions to his own normal self (to whom he invariably referred as "my casket,") and various books and papers which have not been published, and which he enjoined Mr. Sanders "on no account to exhibit till I come." This injunction appears in a message from "X+Y = Z's Valedictory to His Casket" in May 1876, when he took leave of his "casket," but indicated that at a later period he would return. In reply to inquiries in July 1890, Mr. Mitchell stated that the peculiar mental indications had recurred several times during the previous eighteen months.

The separation of the cranial bones referred to by several witnesses is a curious feature of the case, and in reply to a special inquiry, Mr. Mitchell states that "when the patient's head was greatly affected with pain the sutures would separate, but in some instances, when the suffering was slight while he was in one of his peculiar states, the sutures were not visibly separated".

The normal Mr. Sanders had no recollection of anything occurring in his "sleep" state, "but X + Y = Z seems to have had entire consciousness of Mr. Sanders, or of his ' casket,' as he always called him".

Hyperaesthesia might be invoked as an explanation to account for a few of the apparently supernormal incidents recorded, such as shooting a rifle ball through a hat "very near the centre" at the distance of forty yards at night when Dr. Thach, who describes the incident, could not even see the sights of the gun. Such an explanation might also be stretched to cover the cases of reading books and writing on paper under cover, allowing for a margin of malobservation or misdescription by the witnesses. It would, however, be quite inadequate to account for the bulk of the manifestations recorded. The cases on the whole suggest the action of telaesthesia rather than telepathy, although telepathy might be extended to apply to most of them, as, for example, his occasional knowledge of conversations and scenes occurring elsewhere, or of letters written or sermons preached at a distance.1 He himself, however, described such matters as if seeing or hearing them directly. I now quote the details of a few cases in illustration of the supernormal powers of "X + Y = Z".

Mr. John W. Pruit gives the following account.

Meridianville, Ala., May 7th, 1876.

I certify that one day about the middle of the month of February 1866, while Brother Sanders was confined to his bed from his dislocated thigh, I was at his house, and he was lying in his bed and in one of his so-called " sleeps." He attracted my attention by a hearty laugh.

I asked him the cause of his amusement.

He replied, "I was laughing at De Witt".

I asked what De Witt was doing.

He said, "He was having a hard scuffle to keep from falling off the fence, for the top rail was turning with him and he was trying to keep from falling over it".

Nothing more was said on the subject until De Witt arrived, which was in ten or fifteen minutes.

The fence where the difficulty occurred was from three-fourths to a mile distant, on the other side of a thick grove of timber and underbrush, and of an intervening hill.

And I further certify that no communication from any person or source was received in reference to De Witt until he arrived and confirmed what S. said.

J. W. Pruit.

Mr. De Witt gives a concordant account, explaining the trouble he had in getting over the fence with a sack of pease in one hand and a bowl of custard in the other, and referring to the knowledge of the incident shown on his arrival by Mr. Sanders.

Various cases are described of Mr. Sanders' finding lost articles, - such as dollar-bills, coins, a watch chain, a bunch of keys, - or specifying correctly where they would be found. I give an instance. Mr. Bentley writes:-

1 Some of these cases resemble those given in Dr. J. W. Haddock's Somnolism and Psycheism, ref+erred to in vol. i. p. 556.