§ 2. The remaining cases are, I think, less doubtful. The following account is extracted from the evidence given by the late Mr. Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., before a Committee of the Dialectical Society, on May 25th, 1869 (Report, p. 161). [Another case of his has been omitted].

(305) "In a second case my sister-in-law had heart disease. Mrs. Varley and I went into the country to see her, as we feared, for the last time. I had a nightmare and could not move a muscle. While in this state, I saw the spirit1 of my sister-in-law in the room. I knew that she was confined to her bedroom. She said, ' If you do not move you will die '; but I could not move, and she said, ' If you submit yourself to me, I will frighten you, and you will then be able to move.' At first I objected, wishing to ascertain more about her spirit-presence. When at last I consented, my heart had ceased beating. I think at first her efforts to terrify me did not succeed, but when she suddenly exclaimed, 'Oh, Cromwell! I am dying,' that frightened me exceedingly, and threw me out of the torpid state, and I awoke in the ordinary way. My shouting had aroused Mrs. Varley; we examined the door, and it was still locked and bolted, and I told my wife what had happened, having noted the hour, 3.45 a.m. and cautioned her not to mention the matter to anybody, but to hear what was her sister's version, if she alluded to the subject. In the morning she told us that she had passed a dreadful night; that she had been in our room, and greatly troubled on my account, and that I had been nearly dying.

It was between 3.30 and 4 a.m. when she saw I was in danger.

1 See p. 176, note 2.

She only succeeded in arousing me by exclaiming, 'Oh, Cromwell! I am dying.' I appeared to her to be in a state which otherwise would have ended fatally".

Even this incident might possibly be explained (like case 94) as an instance of simultaneous dreams1 - an independent and original nightmare of one of the two parties concerned inducing that of the other, without being reciprocally influenced by it. The next case, if correctly recorded, could not be so regarded. The account is contained in a letter from Mr. T. W. Smith, late of Leslie Lodge, Ealing, to the Psychological Society, dated February 26th, 1876, and kindly lent to us by Mr. F. K. Munton, who was secretary of that Society. Mr. Smith, who was known to Professor Barrett, left Ealing early in 1877, and his present address cannot be ascertained.