We read in the Annals of Psychic Sciences of the year 1906, page 64, that the Reverend Dr. Minot J. Savage, who was intimately acquainted with Dr. Hodgson, considered him one of the most scrupulous, scientific, and skeptical investigators that he had ever known. He said of him that after having fought against the conviction for a number of years, he felt finally obliged to make known to the whole world that he was forced by the facts to believe that those whom we call dead are really the living: that we may communicate with them, that he was absolutely certain of having communicated with them and with several of their departed friends. He established thus, in an absolutely scientific manner, the identity of several of the intelligences who were manifested through Mrs. Piper.

It is opportune to mention here the definite proof of identity Dr. Minot Savage obtained through his own son. This case, reported by himself, is given by Ernest Bozzano, Annals of Psychic Research of the year 1906, page 534.

"In the course of one of these seances with Mrs. Piper, a personality manifested itself, declaring that he was my son. I omit the description of the incident, in order to limit myself to the following episode: At the time of his death, my son, occupied, with a medical student and another old friend, a room on Joy Street, Boston. Formerly they lived on Beacon Street, but he had moved from there after my last visit, so I had never entered his room on Joy Street, had never even heard him speak of it, and could have had no idea of anything that he would say about it. He said to me, 'Papa,' and he said it with a real expression of anxiety, 'I wish you would go immediately into the room that I occupied, look into my drawer, and you will find there a pile of loose papers. There are some of them that I wish you would put aside, and destroy without delay.' Having said this, he did not seem to be satisfied until I formally promised him to do as he wished. It must be remembered that Mrs. Piper was in a trance while her hand wrote this interview. She had not known my son personally, he did not remember ever having seen her. Moreover this allusion to the loose papers that for some unknown reason he desired so keenly should be destroyed, is of a nature to exceed the limits of all possible conjecture, even in case Mrs. Piper had have been awake. Though I was on very intimate terms with my son, such a Idemand seemed to me inexplicable: I was at a loss to discover the reason for it, and did not even try to do so. Nevertheless I went to the room in which he had lived. I found the papers, and had no sooner begun to read them than I understood his reasons and the great importance which he attached to the promise I had made. He had thrown these papers into the drawer trusting to their safety, and I realized he would not wish to have them made public at any price. It is surely not I who would violate his confidence by revealing their contents. I shall limit myself to saying that my son's anxiety was completely justified. Perhaps someone wiser than I will be able to explain to me how Mrs. Piper could know such a secret."

In this narration, we find the revelation of something of a very intimate nature, evidently unknown to any living person. Consequently, telepathy is not a sufficient explanation and the intervention of the son of Minot Savage seems very certain.

The Society of Research is not the only organization that has obtained like results, but they possess an abundant reserve of classic documents in which one may have faith because they have always rejected, after investigation, those narrations of subjects in which a certain disagreement of witnesses was revealed.

Nevertheless, outside of this Society, we have a rich documentation of facts surrounded by experimental guarantees. Thus the following case, for which a whole year of research was necessary before the identity of the communicant was established.

It happened at the office of the commercial House of Mr. Fidler at Goteborg, Sweden.

In 1890 Mme. d'Esperance was writing a business letter, when on her letter, already begun, appeared the name of Sven Stromberg. As it was a very bungled letter Mme. d'Esperance laid the sheet aside, but in the evening she mentioned the fact in her daily report and thus the copy of the letter, stuck away in the office, was later found and served to gratify to the date April 3, 1890.

No one knew Sven Stromberg and the incident would have remained unnoticed if two very prominent psychicists had not happened, two months later, to become cognizant of similar experiences. These gentleman proposed to attempt several trials of spiritual photography. From the first seance a directing being, Walter, intervened and said, "There is a man here named Stromberg who wishes to announce to his family that he is dead." Mr. Fidler then asked if he were the same one who had written his name upon a piece of paper at his office. They said yes, adding that his family lived in Jemtland, but that he, Stromberg, had died in America, at New Stockholm.

Meanwhile, it happened that Aksakof and Bout-lerow, while preparing their photographic experiments, made a simple attempt to focus their photographic apparatus when, to her great surprise, Mme. d'Esperance felt her hand touched: and as soon as the light of the magnesium flared up, a witness declared that he had seen a man standing behind her. Walter then stated that it was the aforesaid Stromberg, who died at New Stockholm, March 31st. The plate, quickly developed, confirmed the statement of the apparition. Yet no one knew Sven Stromberg; and in the hope of obtaining an explanation or some light upon the matter, the photograph was sent to Jemtland in order to discover if a man having that appearance had emigrated to America in 1886. On his part, Mr. Fidler had written to Canada to the Swedish consul.

The response from Jemtland was negative, as the curate of the parish of Stroem, where the photograph had been sent, answered that he knew only a certain Sven Ersson, who had married and had gone to America about that period. On the other hand, they did not know New Stockholm, and for a moment it was decided to abandon the whole affair. But all was cleared up when news was received from America. Delayed information furnished by the consul to another correspondent of Mr. Fidler established the fact that Sven Ersson, of the parish of Stroem in Jemtland, Sweden, had married Sarah Kaiser and had emigrated to Canada, where he took the name of Stromberg. He had bought a strip of land in a county called New Stockholm, had three children and had died March 31, 1890. This is the resume of the facts in their essential elements. It is always possible to invent a fantastic theory to explain similar communications by the mystery of subconsciousness, but it is really far easier to believe the communicants: as Prof. Hyslop said, it is simpler.