(697) "There can be no doubt whatever that there is some transmission for which no explanation has yet been given by the savants.

"I am a practical business man, and look upon all theories of Spiritualism, etc., as so much humbug that only deludes weak-minded people. But, at the same time, I recently had an experience of a most extraordinary character, which I should scarcely have believed if related to me of anyone else, and the plain facts of which I will give as they actually occurred.

"I had in my employ a clerk who contracted an illness which incapacitated him from regular attendance at his duties. He was absent about six months in 1884, and, on leaving the hospital, as I found that he was unable to resume his regular work, I agreed with him that he should come to the office whenever he felt able to do so, and that I would pay him for the work so done. This arrangement continued for some months; then, at the beginning of April, 1885, he had to stay away altogether for two or three weeks. He seemed in fair general health, but he was troubled with a diseased ankle-joint, which prevented him from getting about. I was in no anxiety on his account, however, and had no apprehension of any serious illness. My wife, who knew Mr. Z. from seeing him occasionally at my private house, did not even know that he was absent from the office at this time.

"On the night of the 27th-28th April I was awakened by my wife calling out convulsively, ' There is someone looking at you.' Though by no means timid as a rule - a practical woman, not subject to nervous fancies of any kind - she was much disturbed and terrified. She jumped out of bed and turned up the gas. Finding no intruder in the room, and all the doors locked, she got back into bed; but she was shivering all over, and it was some time before I succeeded in quieting her. The clock in the hall struck 1 during this disturbance.

"In the morning we referred to the incident, and I told my wife she must have been suffering from nightmare.

" Later on that day, news was brought to my office that poor Z. had passed away in the night. When I got home in the evening, my wife met me as usual at the door, and I said to her, ' I have some sad news to tell you.' Before I could say more she replied, ' I know what it is; poor Z. is dead. It was his face which I saw looking at you last night'.

"I afterwards learnt, from a man who lodged in Mrs. Z.'s house, that he had died just at 1 o'clock in the morning of the 28th, and that in the delirium which preceded his death, he called upon me to look after his wife and children when he was gone".

Mrs. B., the percipient, writes: -

"I have read this paper through, and the contents correctly describe what transpired. I was awake when I saw the face. I have never experienced any similar occurrence".

[The last sentence is in answer to the question whether she had experienced a hallucination of the senses on any other occasion].

We have verified in the Times obituary the fact that Z. died on April 28th, 1885.

Mr. Podmore has examined the clerk whom Mr. B. despatched to make inquiries of the widow on hearing of the death, - i.e., on the afternoon of April 28th - and who has since heard Mrs. B. narrate her experience. So far as he could recollect, Mrs. Z. told him that Z. died about 1.30 a.m., certainly at an early hour in the morning. He did not remember to have heard anything about the dying words, etc.

[Mr. Gurney, in reply to a suggestion by Professor Peirce, states emphatically that "The percipient had not heard of Z.'s death when she announced that it was his face that she had seen. Most people would, I think, infer this from the printed account." (Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research (1887), vol. i., pp. 164, 298.). - Ed].

[Case 169 here omitted].

We owe the following case to the Rev. T. Williams, Rector of Aston-Clinton, Tring. The first note written down by Mr. Williams from his sister's account of the occurrence was copied from his diary by the present writer.

(170) "Mrs. Stewart, sister-in-law of Jane, my sister's servant, came up to ask if any news from home. She said, with her husband in bed - moonlight - chest of drawers between window - saw her mother standing - felt perfectly awake - she hid her face - a third time looked up - heard [? saw] nothing, but heard men calling up - knew exact time. She came up to my sister's and related this the same day - said dreading to hear knock at door all day - fearing to hear of something having happened to her mother. Her friends, who lived at Church Stretton, came a month after to christening of her baby; in mourning - said mother's sister, who exact image of her mother, had died at the very time of her vision - but friends did not tell Mrs. Stewart, because of her condition. This written from my sister's account, who saw Mrs. Stewart on the day of the vision, and heard account of what seen from herself." The date 1880 is added.

The following account is from the husband of the percipient, who is herself dead. His mother's name is also appended to the statement.

"April, 1885. "Mrs. Stewart, the wife of a carpenter, living in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, and who [Mrs. S.] is since dead, was, in the year 1874, in bed, and early one morning, being sure she was awake (for she had just heard the railway men being called to their work by the call boy), she looked up to see the time, and in one corner of her room she saw distinctly what she thought was her mother, intently looking at her. She was startled, and hid her face. On looking again the vision was still there but on looking up a third time it had disappeared. Mrs. Stewart came up, that day to see a sister-in-law who was in service near the town, to ask if she had had any tidings from her home (the impression the vision had made was so great), but nothing had been heard. Time passed on, and all seemed forgotten, when some of her friends came up to Abergavenny, to the christening of a little baby, born in the meantime. They were in mourning, and inquiries were made as to the friend mourned for, when it was told that on the night Mrs. Stewart thought she saw her mother, a sister of the mother's, to whom she bore a great likeness, had died about the hour named, at some distance off; but they did not tell Mrs. Stewart of the death until some weeks after it happened, as Mrs. Stewart was in delicate health and much attached to her aunt. "John Stewart".

Miss Williams, of Abergavenny, writes on July 1, 1885: -

"Mrs. Stewart was not an excitable woman, had never had any hallucination of the senses, and was a quiet, somewhat silent person. Her mother-in-law is now living in Abergavenny, and is a very sensible, respectable, practical woman. She probably heard Mrs. Stewart speak of the occurrence soon afterwards, and was anxious to add her testimony to the statement. I probably mentioned the statement to my brother in 1880, and he set it down in his note-book".

In reference to this last sentence, Mr. Williams says: "I am more inclined to think that I heard of it within a day or two after it happened, and that if I added the date 1880, it must have been the date of my copying it into my note-book from some loose memoranda".

Here we have a singular feature - an appearance which suggested not the agent but a person closely resembling her. The case thus stands in a sort of midway position between the more normal cases and the class of unrecognised phantasms, of which several specimens have already been given (cases 32 and 154). The same peculiarity occurs in the next case. [171 here omitted].

The next case is from Mrs. Duthie, housekeeper to the Rev. J. C. Macphail, of Pilrig Manse, Edinburgh, who writes: -

" December 8th, 1885.