the gift of second-sight. Very early, for several mornings following, he saw a man, whom he could not recognise, as his back was turned towards him, fall into a deep piece of water near his house. A few days afterwards, as he was going out very early to his work, his foot slipped on the edge, and he was drowned.

In the parish of Riesum, in Funen, lived a celebrated seer, Wilmsen. He once saw, near Nordriesum, a large funeral procession, in which it appeared to him that the coffin separated into two parts, and that each half was carried by four bearers. He was unable to explain this, but a short time afterwards, two persons were buried at the same time, and at the particular spot the two coffins swerved to the roadsides on account of a large puddle. (Kieser, Archiv, 8. Bd. 3. S.)

Paul Bredersen, in Bramstadt, saw a funeral, in which he perceived himself sitting, with his neighbour Christian, in a carriage drawn by two white horses. From this, he ex

pected the death of Christian's mother; but he could not understand the white horses, as none of that colour were to be found in the village. In three weeks time the old woman died, and the neighbour's bay horses were harnessed to the carriage. The procession was already in motion, when one of the horses fell, and was not able to go any further. In great haste a messenger was sent to the nearest village, where it happened that the only horses to be procured were white ones.

In 1821 there was a seer in Niebüll who had many singular visions. He was a glazier, and at one time was engaged in putting in some panes of glass for a person of the name of Welfen. In the room where he was working he saw Welfen's daughter, a girl of eighteen years of age, lying on a bier; and in returning home he met her funeral. The father heard of this, but did not believe it, and laid some wagers that his prediction would prove false. The seer then added that a certain number of carriages would follow, and that there would be a strong wind, as in carrying out the coffin a quantity of wood shavings were blown about. Lastly, he said that the coffin would be let down so unevenly that they would be obliged to draw it up again. After a short time all this came to pass exactly as he had said.

A Madame Brand was second-sighted, but only at the death of the prebendaries of the Bern Minster, when she always saw a procession going towards the church.

A Hanoverian knight was walking in the royal gardens, and saw a funeral approaching from the castle; at the same time he heard all the bells ringing. Much surprised, the knight immediately went to the castle, and inquired who was being buried: every one laughed at him. Six days afterwards the news was received that King George of the Hanoverian family had died on that day and at the very moment when the knight had seen the procession.

Somewhat similar was Swedenborg's vision of the fire at Stockholm, at the moment of his arrival in Gotenburg from England. Many other examples having remarkable resemblance to magnetic clairvoyance may be met with in Werner's "Guardian Angels;" Kieser's "Archiv für den thierischen Magnetismus;" Martin's "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," London, 1716; Jung Stilling's "Theorie der Geisterkunde;" "A Journey in the Western Islands of Scotland," by Samuel Johnson; "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with S. Johnson," by S. Boswell, 1785; "Pinkant's Works;" Horst's "Deuteroskopie."

The most frequent and best known were visions and phenomena like those of the somnambulic state, which manifest themselves in various diseases. Philosophers never saw anything uncommon in them, and medical history records somnambulic phenomena even through the misty ages of the past. Aristotle considered soothsaying among persons of melancholy temperaments as a common circumstance; and Cicero speaks of the divinations of madness and insanity and other diseases under the influence of which people are accustomed to predict events. At the same time he makes the remark that possibly this may be ascribed to the use of peculiar drugs, cardiacis atque phreniticis,-for that soothsaying belonged rather to a sick than a healthy body. Plutarch mentions many varieties of prophetic mania, and Pliny speaks in the same terms of catalepsy. I have already brought forward the older medieval writers, among whom Aretaus and Galen state that soothsaying belongs especially to inflammatory and chronic diseases. The following have

given minute accounts of such cases :-Fernelius (De abditis morborum causis); Paul Lentulus (Historia admiranda de prodigiosa Apollonia, 1604); Dionis (Recueil sur la morte subite et la catalepsie, Paris, 1718); Sauvages (Nosologia method. 1763, t. iv., and Mémoires de l'Acad. des Sciences à Paris, 1742); Petetin (Mémoires sur la découverte des phénomènes qui présentent la catalepsie et le somnambulisme, symptômes de l'affection hystérique essentielles, 1787,-Electricité animale prouvée par la découverte des phén. phys. et moraux de catalepsie, etc., et de ses variétés par les bons effets de l'électricité artificielle dans le traitement de ces maladies, Lyons, 1808). All pathologists describe idio-somnambulism in nervous affections, and it would therefore be superfluous to give a long list of works on the subject; it will suffice to state that De Haen, Darwin, Willis, Brandis, Swieten, Pinel, Wichman, Reil, Hufeland, etc., have scientifically investigated this subject in their works, and endeavoured to accommodate it with known laws. From the importance of the subject we must enter a little into explanation and details.

In inflammatory diseases, particularly those of the brain, prophetic delirium often takes place. De Seze considers it an undisputed fact that in apoplexy and inflammation of the brain ecstatic states manifest themselves, and that not only new ideas are formed but a new power of looking into the future. Fernel tells us of a patient who in sleep spoke Latin and Greek, which he was unable to do when awake; he also told the physicians their thoughts, and laughed at their ignorance. Gueritant (Bulletin de la Société des Sciences à Orleans, Sept. 84,) mentions a young girl who has a peculiar power of recognizing persons at a distance, and who indicated the necessary course of treatment to be pursued in her case. A very similar case is related by Hunaud (Dissert. sur les vapeurs) of a cataleptic girl who predicted future events, as for instance," I see poor Maria, who takes so much trouble about her pigs; she may do what she likes, but they will have to be thrown into the water." The next day six of the pigs were driven home, and a servant fastened them up in a pen, as they were to be killed the next day. During the night, however, one of

them went mad, having been bitten a few days before by a mad dog, and bit all the other pigs. They all had to be

killed and thrown into the water. Lentulus relates similar cases, as well in nervous as in spasmodic affections; and among others which Petetin mentions, one is very remarkable from the fact that he made experiments very similar to mesmerism before Mesmer had given his theory to the world.

The cataleptic person whom Petetin mentions had been for a length of time insensible to outward influences, and could neither see nor hear. Once, however, Petetin remarked that she understood him when he spoke close to the pit of the stomach. Soon afterwards she was able to see and smell in the same manner, and she had the power of reading a book or a letter even when a substance was laid between her and it. If a non-conducting body was laid between the object and the pit of the stomach she took no notice of it, but with good conductors the opposite took place. In this way he often formed a chain of persons, of whom the first touched the patient with his fingers, and the last, who was the most distant, whispered into his hand, and by this means the patient understood all that he said. If, however, the communication was interrupted between only two of the persons who formed the chain, by any idio-electric body— for instance, a piece of sealing-wax-the cataleptic patient remained perfectly unconscious of everything that was said: it was this which induced him to ascribe the whole phenomenon to electricity.

In another cataleptic patient, Petetin not only observed an entire transfer of the senses to the pit of the stomach, but also to the ends of the fingers and toes. Both of these patients showed, however, a remarkable activity of mind, and made frequent predictions of the future. Petetin was at that time a violent antagonist to magnetism, and it was not till near the end of his life that he became better acquainted with it.

Sauvages relates the following circumstance:-In 1737 a girl, twenty-four years of age, was attacked by catalepsy. Three months afterwards a remarkable state showed itself. When it came over the patient, she spoke with a volubility quite unusual to her. What she said had reference to that

which she had spoken the day before when in the same state. She repeated word for word a catechism which she had heard the previous day, and drew from it moral conclusions for the instruction of the people of the house. She accompanied all this with movements of the limbs and eyes, and yet was fast asleep. To test the truth of these appearances I pricked her, placed a light suddenly before her eyes, and another person shouted from behind in her ears. I poured French brandy and spirit of sal-ammoniac into her eyes and mouth, and blew snuff into her nostrils; I pricked her with needles, twisted her fingers, touched the ball of her eye with a pen, and even with the end of my finger; but she did not show the smallest sense of feeling. In spite of all this she was very lively, and spoke with great quickness. Soon afterwards she got up, and I expected to see her strike herself against the beds; but she walked about with great composure, and avoided all the beds and chairs. She then laid down again, and soon became cataleptic. If any one raised her arm or turned her head on one side during the continuance of this state, she would remain so as long as the equilibrium of the body was preserved. She awoke from this as from a deep sleep. As she knew from the faces of those around her that she had had one of her attacks, she was always confused, and generally wept the whole day, but she was totally ignorant of everything that passed in this state. After some time these phenomena disappeared, although it was very doubtful whether medicine had produced this effect. I have since heard that she has again become somnambulic, though without the previous cataleptic attacks. Her health was much improved." The somnambulism in which halfclairvoyant glances are exhibited, is often, as in this case, the crisis of a disorder. Hippocrates regarded it from this point of view, when he says, (Aphorisms, sect. vii. n. 5)— “In mania and dysentery, dropsy or ecstasy are beneficial." The most frequent examples are recorded of nervous affections, hysteria, St. Vitus's dance, and epilepsy. Lentulus, who gives the case of Apollonia Schreier, of Bern, celebrated in 1604 on account of her visions and long-continued fastings, also mentions an epileptic boy who after the fits became ecstatic and sang hymns; then he would stop suddenly and say many remarkable things, even concerning the dead.