Still this is, of course, no complete explanation of the rarity of the phenomenon; for no definable line separates these rare attempts from the ordinary experiments in thought-transference, when the agent concentrates his attention on a visible object. In those experiments there is, so to speak, an opportunity for a visual hallucination, if the agent is able to produce one. But the percipient has never (as far as I know) received more than a vivid idea, or at most a picture of the object in the mind's eye. And this fact sufficiently indicates that the more pronounced sensory result is one requiring most special conditions - one which would remain extremely rare however much it were sought for, and the proof of which will rightly be regarded with all the more jealous scrutiny.

1It seems practically certain, from what follows, that by "the day before" Mr. Thompson meant "earlier in the day." Otherwise the case would have had no relation to what he is speaking of.

The previous records of the phenomenon to which I can point are really only four in number; and these are [for the most part] so far from conclusive, that they would hardly even be worth mentioning, if stronger examples could not be added from our own collection. The first case is thus meagrely described by Dr. Elliotson (Zoist, vol. viii., p. 69): -

"I have a friend, who can, by his will, make certain patients think of any others he chooses, and fancy he sees those persons: he silently thinking of certain persons, the brain of the patient sympathises with his brain. Nay, by silently willing that these persons shall say and do certain things which he chooses, he makes the patients believe they see these imaginary appearances doing and uttering those very things".

That a man of indisputable ability should have thought such a statement of such a fact adequate is truly extraordinary. The same may be said of the following sentence of Dr. Gharpignon's Physiologic du Magnetisme (Paris, 1848), p. 325: -

"Nous avons maintes fois forme dans notre pensee des images fictives, et les somnambules que nous questionnions voyaient ces images comme des realites".

Even if these descriptions be accurate in the main, we are unable to judge how far the vision was really externalised by the patients. In the next case this point is clear; but the distinct assurance is still lacking that the agent was on his guard against the slightest approach to a suggestive movement. The incident is cited in the Annales Medico-Psycho-logiques, 6th series, vol. v., p. 379, by Dr. Dagonet, doctor at the Saint Anne Asylum.

"Un interne [house-physician] lui dit: 'Regardez done, Didier, voila une jolie femme.' Il n'y avait personne. Didier reprit: ' Mais non, elle est laide,' et il ajoute: ' Qu'a-t-elle dans les bras? Ces questions se rap-portaient exactement a ce que pensait son interlocuteur. A un certain moment Didier se precipita meme pour empecher de tomber 1'enfant qu'il croyait voir dans les bras de la femme imaginaire dont on lui parlait".

This is a specimen of the stray indications of thought-transference that may be found even in strictly scientific literature; but the significance of the phenomenon seems to have been altogether missed. It is described among a number of observations of an ordinary kind, made on an habitual somnambulist, and as though it were quite on a par with the rest.

The next account, though like Dr. Charpignon's first-hand from the agent, is more remote, and [as Gurney knew it, was equally uncorroborated. He quotes it from an article by H. M. Wesermann in the Archiv fur den Thierischen Magnetismus, vol. vi., pp. 136-9, dated Dusseldorf, June 15, 1819; but it seems better to substitute here what is practically the same account of the experiments with the addition of first-hand testimony by one of the percipients. It is translated from pp. 26-30 of a book, which Gurney had apparently not seen, entitled Der Magnetismus und die Allgemeine Weltsprache, published in 1822 by the same author, H. M. Wesermann, Government Assessor, and Chief Inspector of Roads at Dusseldorf, and a member of the Batavian Society for Experimental Philosophy at Rotterdam and of scientific societies at Jena, Bonn, and Dusseldorf. Wesermann was trying to transfer mental images to sleeping friends at a distance, and the first four items are of this nature, but the fifth is a waking and completely externalised hallucination.

First Experiment At A Distance Of Five Miles (Meilen)

I endeavoured to acquaint my friend, the Hofkammerrath G., whom I had not seen nor written to for thirteen years, with the fact of my intended visit, by presenting my form to him in his sleep, through the force of my will. When I unexpectedly went to him on the following evening, he evinced his astonishment at having seen me in a dream on the preceding night.

Second Experiment At A Distance Of Three Miles

Madame W., in her sleep, was to hear a conversation between me and two other persons, relating to a certain secret; and when I visited her on the third day she told me all that had been said, and showed her astonishment at this remarkable dream.

Third Experiment At A Distance Of One Mile

An aged person in G. was to see in a dream the funeral procession of my deceased friend S., and when I visited her on the next day her first words were that she had in her sleep seen a funeral procession, and on inquiry had learned that I was the corpse. Here then was a slight error.

Fourth Experiment At A Distance Of One-Eighth Of A Mile

Herr Doctor B. desired a trial to convince him, whereupon I represented to him a nocturnal street-brawl. He saw it in a dream, to his great astonishment. [This means, presumably, that he was astonished when he found that the actual subject of his dream was what Wesermann had been endeavouring to impress on him].

Fifth Experiment At A Distance Of Nine Miles

A lady, who had been dead five years, was to appear to Lieutenant - n in a dream at 10.30 p.m. and incite him to a good deed. At half-past ten, however, contrary to expectation, Herr - n had not gone to bed, but was discussing the French campaign with his friend Lieutenant S - in the ante-room.

Suddenly the door of the room opened, the lady entered dressed in white, with a black kerchief and uncovered head, greeted S - with her hand three times in a friendly manner; then turned to - n, nodded to him, and returned again through the doorway.

"As this story, related to me by Lieutenant - n, seemed to be too remarkable from a psychological point of view for the truth of it not to be duly established, I wrote to Lieutenant S -, who was living six miles away, and asked him to give me his account of it. He sent me the following reply: ' ... On the 13th of March, 1817, Herr - n came to pay me a visit at my lodgings about a league from A - . He stayed the night with me. After supper, and when we were both undressed, I was sitting on my bed and Herr - n was standing by the door of the next room on the point also of going to bed. This was about half-past ten. We were speaking partly about indifferent subjects and partly about the events of the French campaign. Suddenly the door out of the kitchen opened without a sound, and a lady entered, very pale, taller than Herr - n, about five feet four inches in height, strong and broad of figure, dressed in white, but with a large black kerchief which reached to below the waist. She entered with bare head, greeted me with the hand three times in complimentary fashion, turned round to the left towards Herr - n, and waved her hand to him three times; after which the figure quietly, and again without any creaking of the door, went out.