833. The next case which I shall quote combines various motor automatisms in a very unusual way. I give it at length in the text, partly on account of its strangeness and partly in deference to the high scientific authority on which I received it.

The account is taken from an article by Dr. A. T. Myers and myself (already referred to, see 577) in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 182.

The writer of the following narrative is a physician occupying an important scientific post on the Continent of Europe. He is known to us by correspondence and through a common friend - himself a savant of European reputation - who has talked the case over with Dr. X. and his wife, and has read the statement which we now translate and abbreviate. We are bound to conceal Dr. X.'s identity, and even his country; nor is this unreasonable, since the bizarrerie of the incidents to be recorded would be felt as greatly out of place in his actual scientific surroundings.

The Dr. Z. who here appears in the somewhat dubious character of a mesmerising spirit, was also, as it happens, a savant of European repute, and a personal friend of Dr. X.'s.

Mme. X. is a lady healthy in body and mind, well-balanced, of sound judgment, strong common sense, and a calm and firm character; she is charitable without excess; is not susceptible to flatter}', nor given to enthusiasm; she detests falsehood and duplicity and abhors injustice. She has never had any one of those serious maladies, such as meningitis, typhoid fever, etc, which are apt to leave traces on the nervous system. Nor has she suffered from any nervous complaint. She is the very opposite of what would be termed a nervous or hysterical subject. She is sensibly affected by accounts of human woes, especially among children; but such sensibility by no means explains the accesses of violent laughter which I have remarked in her since the commencement of the series of events to be now related. These accesses, which have nothing in common with the hysterical crises which they superficially resemble, are always caused by some extraordinary communication emanating from an occult intelligence.

In September 1890, while we were staying in the country, Mme. X. sprained her right foot on a very dark night. A fortnight after our return to M-- the foot was almost well; but shortly afterwards I fell ill, and Mme. X. underwent much fatigue in nursing me. The injured foot then became inflamed and painful; and the left foot also became painful. For all that winter Mme. X. was obliged to lie up, the foot being kept from all movement by plaster or silicate dressings. This treatment was ultimately abandoned; the foot was simply bound up and crutches used. There was inflammation of the tissues of several of the joints of the right foot, and we were seriously alarmed.

At this point certain friends talked to Mme. X. about the alleged facts of Spiritism, of which until that date she had had a very vague notion. They praised the beneficent intervention of spirits in disease; but had much difficulty in inducing her to admit the mere possibility of facts of this nature. I can affirm, therefore, that it was only with great difficulty that these friends succeeded in vanquishing Mme. X.'s scepticism - which was moreover supported by my own objections to Spiritism - and at last persuaded her to submit herself to the action of the invisibles. The spirit-guide of a group of which one of our friends was a member advised the intervention of the (spirit)-doctor Z. A day was arranged when Dr. Z. was to visit Mme. X., and she was informed of the date. Owing to other preoccupations we completely forgot this rendezvous. On the day named - it was in April 1891 - Dr. Z. announced himself by raps in the table. Only then did we recollect the rendezvous agreed upon. I asked Dr. Z. his opinion on the nature of the injury to Mme. X.'s foot. By tilts of the table, through Mme. X.'s mediumship, he gave the word "tuberculosis." He meant that there was tuberculosis of the joints, and of this there had been some indications.

Had Mme. X. been predisposed to tubercle I doubt not that this would have supervened. Personally, I much feared this complication, and Dr. Z.'s answer (as I at once thought) might well be the mere reflection of my fears. It left me no more anxious than before. We now know that there was in fact no tuberculosis. In any case, Dr. Z. ordered a merely soothing remedy, sulphur ointment. Some days later, at our request, Dr. Z. reappeared and promised to undertake the cure of Mme. X.'s feet; warning us, however, that there would never be a "restitutio ad integrum," but that the patient would be unequal to long walks, and would suffer more or less from her feet in damp weather - which has proved to be the case.

I come now to the phenomena, mainly subjective, which Mme. X.'s case began to present. On August 17th, 1891, the patient felt for the first time a unique sensation, accompanied by formication and sense of weight in the lower limbs, especially in the feet. This sensation gradually spread over the rest of the body, and when it reached the arms, the hands and forearms began to rotate. These phenomena recurred after dinner every evening, as soon as the patient was quiet in her arm-chair. At this point the X. family went into the country to R--, and at that place the manifestations took place twice daily for some 15 or 20 minutes. Usually the patient placed her two hands on a table. The feeling of "magnetisation" then began in the feet, which began to rotate, and the upper parts of the body gradually shared in the same movement. At a certain point, the hands automatically detached themselves from the table by small, gradual shocks, and at the same time the arms assumed a tetanic rigidity somewhat resembling catalepsy.

On one occasion when these sensations had been strongly marked, and the patient had felt the whole of the upper part of her body stiffened, she went to bed and saw in the dark an intense light which lasted for several minutes and then gradually disappeared.

Three weeks after the family's return to M-- the phenomena changed in character, and gained in interest. The patient had begun to be able to walk without much difficulty; but all forced and voluntary movement of the foot was still painful, although when the movement was initiated by the occult agency no pain whatever was felt. One evening, after the usual seance, the patient felt her head move against her will. An intelligent intercourse was thus set up between the patient and the unseen agent or agents. The head nodded once for "Yes," twice for "No," three times for a strong affirmation. These movements were sometimes sudden and violent enough to cause something like pain. Words and phrases could, of course, be spelt out in this way. This form of correspondence has never wholly ceased; although the intensity of the phenomenon has now much diminished. The occult agent now impresses one or other of Mme. X.'s hands with movements which trace in the air the form of letters of the alphabet; - a plan which works well and quickly.

Mme. X. is also a writing medium; and this power first showed itself in a strange way during the stay in the country of which I have already spoken. She was writing a letter one day, with no thought of these unseen agencies, when suddenly she felt her hand checked. Warned by a special sensation, she still held the pen. Her hand placed itself on a sheet of paper and began rapidly to write alarming predictions. The writings retained this tone only for a few hours; and soon the communications became trivial in character, and, save in some exceptional instances, have since remained so.