Phantasms of the Living, published in 1886, which embodies much of the early work of the Society for Psychical Research, and in particular much valuable discussion by its earliest honorary secretary, Edmund Gurney, has long been out of print. But as its value has been but little affected by subsequent investigations, and it still forms the basis on which much of the present-day work on telepathy, and especially on apparitions, rests, it is thought that a new edition is likely to be appreciated by the public. Had the authors been with us still, a new edition would no doubt have been brought up to date. New evidence would have been included, and the discussion might perhaps have been added to or diminished, to suit the new atmosphere which the book itself has helped to create. Changes of this sort I have not felt justified in attempting. The text is substantially as the authors left it with the exception of omissions for the sake of brevity in Chapters IV and XIII (indicated in their places), and no new cases have been introduced.

The original edition, however, occupies two large volumes and it was desired to reduce the present one by nearly half. This has been effected mainly by omitting a large number of the cases quoted. In the original work, besides descriptions of experiments, accounts of some 700 numbered incidents, prima facie telepathic, were given. Of these the present edition includes only 186. The whole of the supplement which contains more than half the cases - the less well-evidenced ones -has been omitted. Of the rest the cases retained are selected first as required to illustrate Gurney's remarks, and secondly as being, in my judgment, the best evidenced of their class. They must be regarded as typical cases, not as exhibiting the mass of evidence obtainable at the time, and which for reasons explainal in the introduction, it was an important part of the plan of the original work to present. In order to retain as far as possible the effect of this mass, I have given the cases their original numbers, thus showing how many have been omitted at each point.

Further omissions for the sake of brevity are some experimental cases; some illustrative cases in foot-notes; and, more important, a long note by Gurney on Witchcraft and one by Myers "On a Suggested Mode of Psychical Interaction," neither of which belongs to the general course of the work.

It remains to explain that I have inserted in their proper places some of the cases from the "Additional Chapter" of the original edition, and have introduced further information about a few cases and other matters, not only from Gurney's " Additions and Corrections," but from other sources, especially from articles published by Gurney himself in reply to criticisms. A few foot-notes, attached to omitted cases, have been transferred to equally appropriate places elsewhere. Finally there are a very few editorial notes in text and foot-notes. These are clearly distinguished by being enclosed in square brackets and signed "Ed." Square brackets were also used by Gurney to indicate remarks of his own in the course of cases, but there is I think no risk of confusion. The omission of cases has necessitated some changes in sentences connecting one case with another. These also, when other than purely verbal, • have been enclosed in square brackets.

I must in conclusion remind readers, especially those who have not followed regularly the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, that the present work, excellent as I think it is, cannot now be regarded as a complete exposition of the subject with which it deals. In the thirty-one years since it was originally published, much new and illuminating evidence for telepathy - both experimental and spontaneous - has been accumulated; our knowledge about transient hallucinations of the sane (see Chap. XI), veridical and other, has been considerably added to by the "Census of Hallucinations," of which the results were published in Proceedings, vol. x; motor automatism, in the form especially of automatic writing, has been much studied; and finally evidence pointing to the operation of telepathy, not only between minds in the body, but between the living and the dead, has so much increased, that had he written now I think it probable that Gurney (as well as Myers) would have referred to this possibility less tentatively than he does on pages 331 and 479-481.

ELEANOR MILDRED SIDGWICK.

Office of the Society for Psychical Research,

20, Hanover Square, W.

January, 1918.