(172) "My son has shown me the paper signed by our housekeeper, Mrs. Elizabeth Duthie, and has told me of your desire to be assured of her reliability. Mrs. Duthie has been with me for more than 30 years, and I know her to be one on whose statement the fullest reliance may be Placed. "J. Calder Macphail".

Mrs. Duthie writes: -

"Pilrig Manse, Edinburgh, August 22nd, 1885. "In August, 1883, the family of the Rev. J. C. Macphail had all gone to the country, leaving me alone in the house. An intimate friend of mine, a Miss Grant, who lived in Aberdeen, had been for some time seriously ill, and I was anxious about her, though I did not know that death was near. On Sunday night, the 26th of August, about 8 o'clock, I retired to my room, which is separated from the rest of the house with a flight of stairs leading up to the door. I got into bed, and was lying half-asleep, with my face to the wall, when I felt that someone was bending over me, looking into my face. I opened my eyes, and looked up into the face of my friend Miss Grant. I started up in bed, and, looking round, saw Miss Grant's figure leaving the room. I then got out of bed, and going to the door, looked downstairs, but no one was to be seen. I went down the stairs into the kitchen, but no one was there, nor was there a trace of anyone. I looked at the clock, and saw it was a few minutes past 9, and then went back to bed, feeling very uncomfortable, and certain something had happened to my friend.

All next day (Monday) I felt unhappy about it, and waited anxiously to hear of my friend; but, as there was no one else in the house, I did not mention my experience of the previous night to anyone. That night I received information from Aberdeen that my friend had died at 9 o'clock on the previous night - at the very time I had seen her form in Edinburgh.

"I have never had a hallucination of the senses on any other occasion.

"Elizabeth Duthie".

Mrs. Duthie's viva voce account, given to the present writer a year later, exactly corresponded with the above. She is quite certain that her eyes were open when she saw the face.

In answer to inquiries Mrs. Duthie says: -

"I am quite certain that this experience fell on a Sunday, though I forget the exact day of the month; and I could not have imagined that it fell on the Sunday after I got the news, for I heard of the death the very next day".

She has sent us a printed notice which she received, to this effect: -

"22, Thistle Street, Aberdeen.

"27th August, 1883. "Helen Grant died here last night at 9 o'clock.

(Signed) "Wm. Grant." Mr. G. W. Macphail writes: -

"Mrs. Duthie told my mother of her strange experience less than a month after the event, and I learnt it shortly after from Mrs. Duthie".

The next case is a deposition made by Mrs. Still (known in her professional capacity as Mrs. Byrne), who was introduced to Mr. Myers by Mrs. Longe, of Coddenham Lodge, Cheltenham.

"Cheltenham, December 27th, 1882.

(173) "Mrs. Byrne was stewardess on the steamer ' Lyra,' Captain Gilpin, in the River Plata line of steamers. One morning - probably between 6 and 7, but she had no watch - she was lying in her berth. She awoke and saw Captain Gilpin's head passing slowly along her berth and looking at her. This was a familiar gesture on his part, as he used to be friendly with Mrs. Byrne, and ask her to sit on a seat outside his cabin, and used to look through his window in this way when he thought she was sitting there. Mrs. Byrne got up at once, and went into the pantry, and there heard that Captain Gilpin had been killed (though not instantaneously) by the fall of a spar at 6 that morning".

An extract from the official log-book, obtained by us from the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen, shows that the accident to Captain Prince Gilpin took place at 5.30 a.m., February 19th, 1878, on the "Laplace," not the "Lyra." He was crushed against the engine-room skylight by a heavy sea; and his death was due to fracture of the ribs and injuries to the lungs. This would quite correspond with Mrs. Byrne's statement that his death was not instantaneous.

[The coincidence here must have been very close; as there cannot have been more than a short interval between Captain Gilpin's death and Mrs. Byrne's natural time for rising, and in this interval, apparently, the vision occurred. The short period within which the whole contents of the narrative are comprised is further of importance as making the case an easy one to carry correctly in the memory; and it seems very unlikely that the percipient should have come to imagine that she got up immediately after her vision and ascertained what had occurred, if the vision really took place on some other morning. Mrs. Byrne had been on two previous voyages with Captain Gilpin. She has experienced one other visual hallucination, which may have been purely subjective.]1

The lady who narrates the following case desires that her name may not be published.

"May, 1885.