858 A. My next case comes from Dr. Ermacora, of Padua. I quote it from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. pp. 68-70.

Padua, June 17th, 1892.

. . . Signora Maria Manzini, residing here in Padua, has been for a few months experimenting with automatic writing, and is habitually controlled by a personality which announces itself under the name of Elvira.

On April 21st, 1892, Signora Maria Manzini received a letter from Venice informing her that her cousin, Maria Alzetta, was seriously ill with phthisis. It was long since Signora Manzini had heard news of this cousin, and she only knew that, having been left a childless widow, she had remarried and had two children by her second husband. On the evening of the same day Signora M. was writing in my presence, under the control of Elvira, and asked questions as follows:-

Q. Can you tell me if my cousin's illness is really serious? After a pause of about a minute and a half the answer came. A. She has a very short time to live, and she leaves three lovely children.

Q. Did you first know this when I received news of the illness? A. No, I have known it for many days, but did not mention it for fear of paining Maria [the medium].

Q. Why, then, were you so slow just now in answering my question? A. I went to see how she was, so as to be able to tell you precisely.

Next day Signora M. wrote to Venice offering to go and see the invalid. On the 24th she received an answer expressing a desire for her arrival, and stating that the invalid was at the hospital. She wrote again to ask on what days it was allowed to visit the hospital patients. Before an answer arrived Signora M. wrote in my presence (April 28th) under Elvira's control, and we put the following questions:-

Q. How is the invalid at Venice? Do you know why the answer to my letter has not arrived? and do you know on what day it is allowed to visit the hospital? A. The invalid's condition is the same. There is little hope. She has undergone a serious operation; there is danger. To-morrow morning Maria will receive a letter. Visitors such as she are received every day at the hospital.

Q. Do you mean because Maria is a relation of the invalid's? A. No, but because she comes from a distance.

Failing to see what connection there could be between pulmonary disease and a surgical operation, we asked:-

Q. If the patient is in a consumption, what operation can she have undergone? A. She is in a consumption; but the operation was necessitated by the birth of her last little girl.

Next morning Signora M. received a postcard from Venice containing these words: "Amalia inquired at the hospital and was told that you and your mother would be received on any day, as strangers from another city, if you will come when it suits you".

The date of the letter's arrival and the news contained in it thus corresponded with the prediction. But an embarrassing circumstance remained. When the postman delivered this letter he said that he had in fact brought it to the house on the previous evening, but finding no one at home he had taken it away with him again till the following morning. Thus the messages from Elvira had been received after the postman had endeavoured to deliver the letter. Had, then, the fact that the letter was already in Padua determined the communication which announced its approaching delivery and part of its content?

On April 30th Signora M. went to Venice and found that her cousin had really had a third child a few months previously, and after its birth had been ill in a way which had ultimately needed a surgical operation. Another small detail previously communicated to Signora Manzini by Elvira was likewise found to be true. Signora Manzini made no mention whatever of her own experiments, and her cousin at Venice continued entirely ignorant of them.

On that same evening, April 30th, on Signora Manzini's return from Venice to Padua, I was anxious to inquire from the "control" as to the effect of the presence in Padua of the letter which had been announced on the evening of the 28th for the following morning. Under the control of Elvira, Signora M. wrote the following answer: "I did not know that the letter had arrived; but I was sure that Maria would receive it next morning, because those who wrote it had intended that it should reach her in the morning. They had intended to post it in the evening, but instead of that they posted it directly it was written. I was, in fact, mistaken; for it was a mere chance that it was actually received in the morning".

I then requested Signora M. to write to her friends at Venice in the following terms: "I would beg you to satisfy a feeling of curiosity on my part with regard to a presentiment which I had about your last letter. I should like to know whether it was posted at the hour which you originally intended, or whether you changed your intention and posted it at a different hour. Will you please tell me all you remember about this?"

The following answer was received on May 2nd:-

"I had meant to post my last letter to you in the evening, but, fearing to forget it, I posted it at mid-day, when I had occasion to go out".

To resume the facts. Automatic writing informed us of facts entirely unknown to our ordinary consciousness; namely, the fact that the invalid had three children, and the fact that she had undergone an operation. Thus far we might invoke telepathy and clairvoyance as the explanation. Then there was a true prediction of the arrival of a letter, and of part of its content. But although the letter was delivered on the morning specified, it had, in fact, already arrived in Padua when the communication was made, and its nondelivery in the evening was due to accident. Clairvoyance would not explain this incident, as that power might have been expected to reveal the presence of the letter in Padua. Neither was there an indication of so-called psychometry - an influence from the nearness of the letter itself. But, lastly, an automatic message explains the incident in the simplest manner, and that explanation turns out to be the true one. Dr. G. B. Ermacora.