963 A. I now cite a few instances of prophecies given through Mrs. Piper.

(a) The following account is from Miss W.'s report (made from con-temporary notes) of sittings with Mrs. Piper, Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. P- 34.

In the spring of 1888, an acquaintance, S., was suffering torturing disease. There was no hope of relief, and only distant prospect of release. A consultation of physicians predicted continued physical suffering and probably mental decay, continuing perhaps through a series of years. S.'s daughter, worn with anxiety and care, was in danger of breaking in health. "How can I get her away for a little rest?" I asked Dr. Phinuit, May 24, 1888. "She will not leave her father," was his reply, "but his suffering is not for long. The doctors are wrong about that. There will be a change soon, and he will pass out of the body before the summer is over." His death occurred in June 1888.

E. G. W.

(b) The next incident is from Mr. "M. N.'s" account of Mrs. Piper in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 120, which was corroborated by Mrs "M. N".

April 5th [1889].

. . . About end March of last year I made her a visit (having been in the habit of doing so, since early in February, about once a fortnight). She told me that a death of a near relative of mine would occur in about six weeks from which I should realise some pecuniary advantages. I naturally thought of my father, who was advanced in years, and whose description Mrs. Piper had given me very accurately some week or two previously. She had not spoken of him as my father, but merely as a person nearly connected with me. I asked her at that sitting whether this person was the one who would die, but she declined to state anything more clearly to me. My wife, to whom I was then engaged, went to see Mrs. Piper a few days afterwards, and she told her (my wife) that my father would die in a few weeks.

About the middle of May my father died very suddenly in London from heart failure, when he was recovering from a very slight attack of bronchitis, and the very day that his doctor had pronounced him out of danger. Previous to this Mrs. Piper (as Dr. Phinuit) had told me that she would endeavour to influence my father about certain matters connected with his will before he died. Two days after I received the cable announcing his death my wife and I went to see Mrs. Piper, and she [Phinuit] spoke of his presence, and his sudden arrival in the spirit-world, and said that he (Dr. Phinuit) had en-deavoured to persuade him in those matters while my father was sick. Dr. Phinuit told me the state of the will, and described the principal executor, and said that he (the executor) would make a certain disposition in my favour, subject to the consent of the two other executors, when I got to London, England. Three weeks afterwards I arrived in London; found the principal executor to be the man Dr. Phinuit had described. The will went materially as he had stated.

The disposition was made in my favour, and my sister, who was chiefly at my father's bedside the last three days of his life, told me that he had repeatedly complained of the presence of an old man at the foot of his bed, who annoyed him by discussing his private affairs. . . .

["M. N."]

(c) See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. pp. 447-449.

At a sitting with Mrs. Piper on March 7, 1892, the death of her uncle David was foretold to Miss Macleod. Her contemporary note of the statement was: "David will die soon".

She wrote on March 27, 1893:

"My uncle David, whose death Mrs. Piper predicted at the sitting which I had with her on March 7, 1892, died at Chicago on last Tuesday, the 21 st of March. As far as I know, his health was perfectly good at the time of the sitting".

(d) From Dr. Hodgson's account of the sittings of Dr. A. B. Thaw with Mrs. Piper, Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. p. 352.

Several minor prophecies proved correct; one important prophecy concern-ing the success of certain machines was wrong as to time, as well as other circumstances connected with them; but another concerning the death of a brother, who was never present at a sitting, was right. This brother was a chronic invalid with asthma. At the sitting of May 10th, 1892, Phinuit said that his kidneys were out of order, and it was discovered for the first time that he had kidney disease on a careful medical examination made two weeks later. At the same sitting Phinuit said that he would die "within six months or a year," and, in reply to the question how, said, "He's going to sleep, and when he wakes he'll be in the spirit. Heart will stop." On May 22nd, the time was given as "six months or a little less." He died in sleep, of heart failure, on the 3rd of the following September.