573 E. From "Facts in Clairvoyance," by Dr. Ashburner (Zoist, vol. vi. pp. 96-110). In the following case the information given by the clairvoyants related to facts which were apparently not known by normal means to any person.

Major Buckley, a well-known mesmerist, brought to Dr. Ashburner's house in London on February 12th, 1848, two young women, A. B. and E. L., whom he had brought from Cheltenham that day. They had often been mesmerised by him, and Dr. Ashburner wished to investigate their alleged clairvoyant powers. On this first evening only the two subjects, Major Buckley, and Dr. Ashburner were present. The latter writes: -

We assembled in my little library. I had provided myself with a dozen walnut-shells, bought at Grangés in Piccadilly, containing carraway comfits and, as I thought, a motto each, and two ounces of hazel-nut shells containing comfits and printed mottoes. These were in two packets of an ounce each, and had been purchased by me about two hours before at Lawrencés in Oxford Street, at the corner of Marylebone Lane. One of the young women was seated at either side of the fireplace; Major Buckley placed himself at the apex of a triangle, of which they formed the basal angles. He made a few slow passes from his forehead to the pit of his stomach on his own person. The girls said, after he had made eight or ten of these passes, " that they were sufficient." They saw a blue light upon him, and A. B. having taken up one of the nut-shells provided by me, placed it upon the chimney-piece above her head. E. L. then did the same thing with one of the nut-shells allotted to her. I was fully aware of the objections of sceptics, that a possibility existed of changing these shells by sleight-of-hand. I watched the proceedings anxiously and accurately, to avoid the possibility of being deceived.

The movements of these young women were slow and deliberate, not like the hocus-pocus quick jerk of the conjurer. A. B. first announced her readiness to read the motto in her nut-shell. She said that the words were -

"The little sweetmeat here revealed, Lays, as good deeds should lay, concealed".

I wrote down to her dictation, then I cracked the shell, emptied out the comfits, and found among them a little strip of paper, several times folded, on which were printed the very words she had spoken. Remember, reader, she was not asleep: both the girls were wide awake, and joined in the conversation with Major Buckley and myself in the intervals of the phenomena which they were exhibiting.

Then E. L. read the motto in her hazel-nut shell. It ran thus -

" An honest man may take a knavés advice, But idiots only will be cheated twice".

After I had written this down, and before I opened the shell by the aid of the nut-crackers, she said, " At the top, above the first line, is part of another motto; it runs thus -

' Who smiles to see me in despair'.

The word despair is cut close." When the nut-shell was opened and the motto unfolded, the description given by E. L. was found to be quite correct.

A. B. then took another shell, and in a very short time read these words, which I wrote down -

"She's little in size, Has bright speaking eyes, And if you prove true, Will be happy with you".

The shell was broken open, and the words printed on the little slip of folded paper found among the sweetmeats within were word for word with those written down by me.

E. L. took her turn at reading. The words she read out were -

" In every beholder a rival I view, I néer can be equalled in loving of you".

Having written down these words, the shell was opened, and it was found that E. L. had read the motto quite correctly.

The servant announced that Mr. Arnott wished to see me. He had come on professional business, and with no view of witnessing these phenomena. I asked Major Buckley's permission to introduce him. He came in and sat down. A. B. proposed that he should take up a nut-shell from the table, and she offered to read the motto while he held it in his hand. He seemed hardly to be aware of what wonder he was to witness. He took up a nut, held it in his closed hand, and A. B. read thus -

" The pangs of absence, how severe, Have they néer waked thy bitter tear ? "

Mr. Arnott took the nut-crackers, broke his nut-shell, and found that A. B. had read quite correctly. His laugh and look of surprise told enough of the conviction of his mind. The event had become a fact. How to account for it was another matter. He could not deny that he had witnessed the fact.

On the next occasion, February 15th, the twelve walnut-shells were used; the trials were made under the same conditions as before, the walnut-shells being held in the hands of the percipient. All the mottoes were read correctly, with the following exception: -

A. B. then read from the fourth of her walnut-shells, and here she made a mistake, attended by some remarkable circumstances. I wrote down her words thus -

"'Tis love like the sun that gives light to the year, The sweetest of blessings that life can endear".

She added, underneath the printing of this motto is the top part of a capital T and of two small t's. At the commencing side there appears to be half of an N and a small e belonging to another motto. All this was quite true that she added, but she had mistaken the motto, which ran thus -

"My lovés too great, you may perceive, And clearly see I don't deceive".

Five further successful trials were made, in which the nut-shells were held in the hands of Dr. Ashburner, or of a visitor, or on the chimney-piece, and about a dozen others are recorded in the rest of the paper.

Other cases, witnessed by the Earl of Stanhope, of the reading of mottoes in nuts by Major Buckley's subjects are given in the Zoist, vol. viii. pp. 265-67. See also Zoist, vol. ix. p. 234, for references to a large number of cases of clairvoyance published in that journal.

573 F. In the Zoist, vol. xii. pp. 249-52, a case of clairvoyance involving some apparent prevision is recorded by the Rev. J. Peed. A Miss A., whom he was hypnotising in Dublin in September 1853 for medical purposes, described in detail, while hypnotised, the lameness of his sister-in-law, whom she had never seen or heard of, as far as he knew, and advised him to get her own medical man, Dr. E., to treat it. Mr. Peed told Dr. E., and Miss A. repeated her diagnosis to Dr. E. before he had seen the patient; after examining her, he pronounced it remarkably correct, and proposed an operation. Miss A., on being questioned in the hypnotic condition about the operation, said that it would be a mere trifle, but that the patient would suffer much pain after it, which could be removed by mesmerism; that the after treatment, in which some surgical machinery must be used, would be tedious and trying; that in three weeks she would be able to walk downstairs without assistance, but that it would take three months to complete the cure. Mr. Peed states that all these predictions turned out accurately correct; also that Miss A. showed knowledge of the progress of the cure as it was going on and of what the doctor was prescribing for it.

Unfortunately the doctor's own testimony is lacking, and it seems that the prediction was not recorded till a few months after its fulfilment. The clairvoyant's knowledge of contemporary events in this case seems more clearly beyond guesswork than her knowledge of the future.