937 A. [The first volume of Alphonse Cahagnet's Arcanes de la vie future devoiles was published at Paris in 1848, and the second, reporting his sittings with Adele Maginot, in 1849. This medium had been long known to him; she had been a natural somnambulist from her childhood, and he had "magnetised" her to put a stop to the spontaneous attacks which were impairing her health. He found her an excellent clairvoyant, especially for the diagnosis and cure of diseases. Later, she was chiefly consulted by persons who wished for interviews with deceased friends. It appears that Cahagnet took great care to report the communications, and to obtain signed attestations from witnesses, so that the case stands on a much higher evidential level than most early records of clairvoyants. An account of Cahagnet's work, quoting the records of some of the best cases, is given in an article by Mr. F. Podmore (in which he compares the trance performances of Adele with those of Mrs. Piper) in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiv. p. 50, and I give below some extracts from this article].

The following (says Mr. Podmore) are a few representative records:-

No. 129

M. Petiet asks for M.Jerome Petiet. Adele sees a young man, about twenty-four or twenty-six years of age (he was thirty), not so tall as his brother now present; auburn hair, rather long; open forehead, arched and very pronounced eyebrows; brown and rather sunken eyes; nose rather long, pretty well formed; complexion fresh, skin very white and delicate; medium-sized mouth, round dimpled chin. "He was weak in the chest; he would have been very strong had it not been for this. He wears a rough grey vest, buttons with a shank and eye such as are no longer worn. I do not think they are brass ones, nor of the same stuff as the vest. They don't look to me very bright. His pantaloons are of a dark colour, and he wears low quartered shoes without any instep.

"This man was of a stubborn disposition, selfish, without any fine feelings, had a sinister look, was not very communicative, devoid of candour, and had but little affection for any one. He had suffered with his heart. His death was natural, but sudden. He died of suffocation." Adele chokes as this man choked, and coughed as he did. She says that "he must have had moxas or a plaster applied to his back, and this accounts for the sore I see there. He had no disease, however, in that part. The spine was sound. Those who applied this remedy did not know the seat of the disease. He holds himself badly. His back is round without being humped".

M. Petiet finds nothing to alter in these details, which are very exact, and confirm him in his belief that the application of this plaster, advised by a man who was not a doctor, brought on his brother's death, which was almost sudden.

"Signed the present report as very exact.

Petiet, 19 Rue Neuve-Coquenard".

Note. - The buttons that Adele was unable to describe were of metal, a dirty white ground, and surrounded by a blue circle. In this apparition there is a remarkable fact to be noted - viz., that Adele experienced the same kind of illness as this man. I was obliged to release her by passes; she suffered terribly.

No. 117

M. du Potet [a well-known writer on Animal Magnetism] wishes to call up M. Dubois, a doctor, a friend of his who had been dead about fifteen months.

Adele said: "I see a grey-headed man, he has very little hair on the front of his head; his forehead is bare and prominent at the temples, making his head appear square. He may be about sixty years of age. He has two wrinkles on either side of his cheeks, a crease under his chin,making it look double; he is short-necked and stumpy; has small eyes, a thick nose, a rather large mouth, a flat chin, and small thin hands. He does not look to me quite so tall as M. du Potet; if he is not stouter, he is more broad-shouldered. He wears a brown frock-coat with side pockets. I see him draw a snuff-box out of one of them and take a pinch. He has a very funny walk, he does not carry himself well, and has weak legs; he must have suffered from them. He has rather short trousers. Ah ! he does not clean his shoes every day, for they are covered with mud. Taking it altogether, he is not well dressed. He has asthma, for he breathes with difficulty. I see, too, that he has a swelling in the abdomen, he has something to support it. I have told him that it is M. du Potet who asked for him.

He talks to me of magnetism with incredible volubility; he talks of everything at once; he mixes everything up; I cannot understand any of it; it makes him sputter saliva".

M. du Potet asks that the apparition may be asked why he has not appeared to him before as he had promised? He answers: "Wait till I find out my whereabouts; I have only just arrived, I am studying everything I see. I want to tell you all about it when I appear, and I shall have many things to tell you".

"Which day did you promise me you would do so?" "On a Wednesday." Adele adds: "This man must be forgetful; I am sure that he was very absent-minded." M. du Potet asks further: "When will you appear to me?" "I cannot fix the time; I shall try to do so in six weeks." "Ask him if he was fond of the Jesuits." At this name he gives such a leap in the air, stretching out his arms, and crying "The Jesuits," that Adele draws back quickly, and is so startled that she does not venture to speak to him again.

M. du Potet declares that all these details are very accurate, that he cannot alter a syllable. He says that this man's powers of conversation were inexhaustible; he mixed up all the sciences to which he was devoted, and spoke with such volubility that, as the clairvoyante says, he sputtered in consequence. He took little pains with his appearance; he was so absent-minded that he sometimes forgot to eat. When any one mentioned the Jesuits to him he jumped as Adele has described. He was always covered with mud like a spaniel. It is not surprising that the clairvoyante should see him with muddy shoes. He had, in fact, promised M. du Potet that he would appear to him on a Wednesday or a Saturday. M. du Potet has acknowledged the accuracy of this apparition in No. 75 of the Journal du Magnetisme.

In effect, in the Journal of August 10th of the same year, in reviewing the first volume, Du Potet gives handsome testimony to the striking nature of the impersonation, "si bien que je croyais le voir moi-meme, tant le tableau en etait saisissant. Bientot cette ombre s'est enfuie en effrayant la somnambule; un seul mot avait cause cette disparition subite, et mon etonnement en fut porte a son comble, car ce meme mot le mettait toujours en fureur." But Du Potet, for all that, is inclined to attribute the phenomenon to transmission of thought from his own mind;1 and a few months later,2 in reviewing the second volume, he takes occasion to give the result of his further inquiries on this seance. Generally, the minute description of the personal appearance and other particulars which were prominent in Du Potet's own mind at the time were correct; and other details were correctly given which Du Potet might have heard, but had certainly not remembered at the time. He had ascertained, however, from the widow and children, that Dr. Dubois took no tobacco; never had a redingote of the colour described; had no hernia, and consequently wore no bandage. Moreover, the apparition predicted never came off.

Du Potet, however, adds expressly that Dr. Dubois was unknown in life to Cahagnet and his somnambule.

In some cases, with the express object of excluding thought-transference, the sitter came armed with the name of some dead person of whom he knew nothing - as in the following case. M. l'Abbe A--, mentioned at the beginning of the record, had had a successful experiment of the same kind at a previous sitting (No. 112).