The Book of Dreams and Ghosts Part 23

{35a} To Joseph himself she bequeathed the ruby tortoise given to her by his brother. Probably the diamonds were not Rizzio's gift.

{35b} Boismont was a distinguished physician and "Mad Doctor," or "Alienist". He was also a Christian, and opposed a tendency, not uncommon in his time, as in ours, to regard all "hallucinations" as a proof of mental disease in the "hallucinated".

{39a} S.P.R., v., 324.

{39b} Ibid., 324.

{42} Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. v., pp.

324, 325.

{43} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xi., p. 495.

{45a} Signed by Mr. Cooper and the d.u.c.h.ess of Hamilton.

{45b} See Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 91.

{48} Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xi., p. 522.

{50} The case was reported in the Herald (Dubuque) for 12th February, 1891. It was confirmed by Mr. Hoffman, by Mr. George Brown and by Miss Conley, examined by the Rev. Mr. Crum, of Dubuque.--Proceedings, S.P.R., viii., 200-205. Pat Conley, too, corroborated, and had no theory of explanation. That the girl knew beforehand of the dollars is conceivable, but she did not know of the change of clothes.

{56a} Told by the n.o.bleman in question to the author.

{56b} The author knows some eight cases among his friends of a solitary meaningless hallucination like this.

{58} As to the fact of such visions, I have so often seen crystal gazing, and heard the pictures described by persons whose word I could not doubt, men and women of unblemished character, free from superst.i.tion, that I am obliged to believe in the fact as a real though hallucinatory experience. Mr. Clodd attributes it to disorder of the liver. If no more were needed I could "scry" famously!

{60a} Facts attested and signed by Mr. Baillie and Miss Preston.

{60b} Story told to me by both my friends and the secretary.

{62} Memoires, v., 120. Paris, 1829.

{66} Readers curious in crystal-gazing will find an interesting sketch of the history of the practice, with many modern instances, in Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. v., p. 486, by "Miss X.". There are also experiments by Lord Stanhope and Dr. Gregory in Gregory's Letters on Animal Magnetism, p. 370 (1851). It is said that, as sights may be seen in a gla.s.s ball, so articulate voices, by a similar illusion, can be heard in a sea sh.e.l.l, when

"It remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there".

{68} A set of scientific men, as Lelut and Lombroso, seem to think that a hallucination stamps a man as _mad_. Napoleon, Socrates, Pascal, Jeanne d'Arc, Luther were all lunatics. They had lucid intervals of considerable duration, and the belief in their lunacy is peculiar to a small school of writers.

{69a} A crowd of phantom coaches will be found in Messrs. Myers and Gurney's Phantasms of the Living.

{69b} See The Slaying of Sergeant Davies of Guise's.

{70} Principles of Psychology, by Prof. James of Harvard, vol. ii., p. 612. Charcot is one of sixteen witnesses cited for the fact.

{74} Story written by General Barter, 28th April, 1888. (S.P.R.) Corroborated by Mrs. Barter and Mr. Stewart, to whom General Barter told his adventure at the time.

{75} Statement by Mr. F. G., confirmed by his father and brother, who were present when he told his tale first, in St. Louis. S.P.R.

Proceedings, vol. vi., p. 17.

{76} S.P.R., viii., p. 178.

{77} Mrs. M. sent the memorandum to the S.P.R. "March 13, 1886.

Have just seen visions on lawn--a soldier in general's uniform, a young lady kneeling to him, 11.40 p.m."

{78} S.P.R., viii., p. 178. The real names are intentionally reserved.

{80a} Corroborated by Mr. Elliot. Mrs. Elliot nearly fainted.

S.P.R., viii., 344-345.

{80b} Oddly enough, maniacs have many more hallucinations of hearing than of sight. In sane people the reverse is the case.

{82} Anecdote by the lady. Boston Budget, 31st August, 1890.

S.P.R., viii., 345.

{85a} Tom Sawyer, Detective.

{85b} Phantasms of the Living, by Gurney and Myers.

{85c} The story is given by Mr. Mountford, one of the seers.

{86} Journal of Medical Science, April, 1880, p. 151.

{88} Catholic theology recognises, under the name of "Bilocation,"

the appearance of a person in one place when he is really in another.

{91a} Phantasms, ii., pp. 671-677.

{91b} Phantasms of the Living.

{91c} Mr. E. B. Tylor gives a Maori case in Primitive Culture.

Another is in Phantasms, ii., 557. See also Polack's New Zealand for the prevalence of the belief.

{92} Gurney, Phantasms, ii., 6.

{93} The late Surgeon-Major Armand Leslie, who was killed at the battle of El Teb, communicated the following story to the Daily Telegraph in the autumn of 1881, attesting it with his signature.

{95a} This is a remarkably difficult story to believe. "The morning bright and calm" is lit by the rays of the moon. The woman (a Mrs.

Gamp) must have rushed past Dr. Leslie. A man who died in Greece or Russia "that morning" would hardly be arrayed in evening dress for burial before 4 a.m. The custom of using goloshes as "h.e.l.l-shoes"

(fastened on the Icelandic dead in the Sagas) needs confirmation. Men are seldom buried in eye-gla.s.ses--never in tall white hats.--Phantasms of the Living, ii., 252.

{95b} From a memorandum, made by General Birch Reynardson, of an oral communication made to him by Sir John Sherbrooke, one of the two seers.

{101} This is an old, but good story. The Rev. Thomas Tilson, minister (non-conforming) of Aylesford, in Kent, sent it on 6th July, 1691, to Baxter for his Certainty of the World of Spirits. The woman Mary Goffe died on 4th June, 1691. Mr. Tilson's informants were her father, speaking on the day after her burial; the nurse, with two corroborative neighbours, on 2nd July; the mother of Mary Goffe; the minister who attended her, and one woman who sat up with her--all "sober intelligent persons". Not many stories have such good evidence in their favour.

{103} Phantasms, ii., 528.

{111} "That which was published in May, 1683, concerning the Daemon, or Daemons of Spraiton was the extract of a letter from T. C., Esquire, a near neighbour to the place; and though it needed little confirmation further than the credit that the learning and quality of that gentleman had stampt upon it, yet was much of it likewise known to and related by the Reverend Minister of Barnstaple, of the vicinity to Spraiton. Having likewise since had fresh testimonials of the veracity of that relation, and it being at first designed to fill this place, I have thought it not amiss (for the strangeness of it) to print it here a second time, exactly as I had transcribed it then."-- BOVET.