960 A. From Dr. Hodgson's Report in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. PP- 335-6.

I pass on now to consider briefly the results obtained from some other communicators, and begin with the case of the lady whom I have called Madame Elisa Mannors. Other names are substituted for the real ones. She was known to G. P., and her first appearance was to her sister, Madame Frederica, on May 17th, 1892 (Report, p. 471). She had died the previous summer. The cause of her death was designated by Phinuit, who also described correctly, purporting to repeat what she was telling him, some incidents which had occurred at her death-bed. The sitter inquired about a watch which had belonged to Madame Elisa, but the statements made at this sitting, and to myself at subsequent sittings, did not lead to its recovery. Some Italian was written by request, the lady being as familiar with Italian as with English, but only two or three common words were decipherable. The first names of sitter and communicator were given, and the last name was both written and afterwards given by G. P. to Phinuit. Some of the writing was of a personal character, and some about the watch, and G. P. stated correctly, inter alia, that the sitter's mother was present (in "spirit") with the communicator, and that he himself did not know her. The real names are very uncommon. The Italian for "It is well.

Patience," was whispered at the end of the sitting as though by direct control of the voice by Madame Elisa. Both the sitter and her sister were well known to me, and also to the Howards, and Madame Elisa made several personal communications in the course of the sittings recorded in Appendix I. (see Report, pp. 417-19, 423), where further attempts, only partially successful, were made to write Italian clearly, and also to speak it, but not much was said.

She communicated by writing later to three or four other friends or relatives, always in a strongly personal way, and very clearly. In her statements to one very personal friend, at sittings when I was present, she showed on several occasions an intimate private knowledge of her sister and her sister's family in connection with events that were occurring, and also of other relatives to whom she was deeply attached. She also had several "written talks" with myself alone, referred to incidents with which we were both familiar when guests at the same house in another part of the country, and appreciated properly other references which I made myself. It always seemed like the woman I knew.

As I have mentioned elsewhere (Report, pp. 293, 332), the intelligence communicating by writing is not conscious of the act of writing. The chief difficulty apparently in getting another language written by the hand is that strange words tend to be written phonetically unless they are thought out slowly letter by letter. The writing is usually much more legible now than it was during the period of the records from which I am quoting, when there was frequently much difficulty in deciphering even the simplest English words. It was therefore not surprising that so little of the "Italian" written by Madame Elisa was decipherable.

962 A. From Dr. Hodgson's report in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. pp. 384-5.

There are various references in the records given in Appendix IV. to the twin children of Dr. and Mrs. A. B. Thaw. One of these, Margaret, died a year before their first sitting at the age of six months, and the other, Ruthie, died three months before their first sitting at the age of fifteen months. The communications concerning these children were given almost entirely by Phinuit, who had, however, some difficulty with the names. At the first sitting several attempts were made before the name Margaret was given clearly. Trouble with teeth was mentioned in connection with the children, apparently as the first impression on the appearance of Margaret, but not actually specified as Margaret's. Margaret was teething when she died. Phinuit also said that one of the children wanted baby's beads. Margaret used to play with a neck-lace of beads belonging to her older sister living. And referring to Margaret, Phinuit said that she had some flowers in her hand, that "she liked them and took them with her." Mrs. Thaw had placed three little flowers in Margaret's hand after her death. Phinuit got much more in connection with Ruthie, whose first appearance seemed to be accompanied by a recurrence of associa-tions connected with the trouble that caused her death, dysentery and sore throat.

Phinuit indicated the locality and the distress, and Ruthie's dislike of "the powder." Bismuth was given through the entire illness of two weeks and was always given with trouble. Phinuit spoke of Ruthie as having light golden hair, afterwards adding curly; - correct - but called her a boy. The living Ruthie was very generally mistaken for a boy, but not, of course, by the Thaws. Yet Phinuit had much difficulty in getting the name, and failed to get nearer than Ethie, and the sitters told him it began with R. Phinuit said that she had not learned to talk, but later on he got the name Ruth-ie correctly. He remarked that she only said papa and mamma. Other words that the living Ruthie said were given in later sittings. Phinuit described her as wanting to see the stars. For two or three months before her death Ruthie was fond of pointing at the stars through the window. At the beginning of the sitting Phinuit said she put her hand on Dr. Thaw's head, and afterwards described her as wanting to pat his face, actions which were characteristic of the living Ruthie towards Dr. Thaw. Similarly she wanted to hear the tick tick (watch) in connection with her uncle Aleck, and it was he who chiefly used to hold the watch for her to hear it.

And another characteristic action was reproduced in connection with Mr. Melvin W.; Phinuit said she wanted him to wave the hand in a certain way to Mr. W., and the living Ruthie waved her hand in that way to Mr. W., and to him only. Reference was also made to her picture, and Mrs. Thaw was painting a picture of Ruthie when she was taken ill. In later sittings Phinuit described her as saying other words, baby, pretty, Bettie, and pussie, with the accent used by Ruthie when living. These were the only words besides the papa and mamma mentioned before, used by Ruthie when living. The first time Mrs. Thaw wore fur at a sitting, the hand stroked it, and Phinuit whispered "pussie" as Ruthie living used to do. But Ruthie had whispered "pussie" at a previous sitting. Two or three times there seemed to be a direct control of the voice by Ruthie who took the place of Phinuit (Report, pp. 564, 576, 578). The first time she whispered pttee and pssee (pretty and pussie) and the second time pttee only, the words being many times repeated. This second occasion was connected with rather a striking incident. Mrs. Piper was visiting the Thaws in New York, and they took her up the river Hudson to their country house and had a sitting on the afternoon of the day of their arrival.

I was taking notes, sitting slightly to one side and partly behind Mrs. Piper, while Dr. and Mrs. Thaw were sitting in front of her, with their heads somewhat bowed. Phinuit apparently "left" and his place was taken by Ruthie, who began whispering pttee pttee. The hand rose and turned somewhat diagonally and extended the forefinger and pointed towards a picture on the far side of the room. The Thaws did not see this action until I drew their attention to it, when they looked up, and followed the direction of the pointing. The hand then trembled and sank. Dr. Thaw noted: "During the last month of Ruthie's life it was a regular morning custom to bring her to the room in which this sitting was held - our bedroom - and she would always point, as hand did in sitting, with one finger (unusual with a baby) and say 'pt-tee, pt-tee,' just as in sitting. This little incident had not been in either sitter's conscious mind since baby's death six months before. Mrs. Piper had never been in that room until the actual time of sitting.

Many other pictures in the room, two of which Mrs. Piper's hand could have pointed at more easily than the particular one always noticed by the baby".