corner room of the house at B——, and the most exposed room where voices were chiefly heard; and that, too, by almost every one who slept there, Miss N., the Rev. Mr. Q., Father MacL., and Madame Boisseaux. The road ran nearest to it there. The writer believes that the remarkable fact that No. 1, the S.W. room, No. 2, the W. room, No. 3, the N.W. room, showed a far higher average of phenomena than the other five—i.e. the three eastern and the north and south centre rooms—is accounted for by the following circumstances.

[Footnote 23: "Alleged Haunting of B—— House," p. 118.]

No. 8, the south room, was much exposed, but unlike No. 1, it had no door in a line with another door and a window. Upon No. 1 an almost direct attack could be made from northward or southward; for the partition walls of the house, as well as the outer walls, were very thick.[24]

[Footnote 24: "Alleged Haunting of B—— House," p. 94; ibid., p. 140, note.]

In the new part of the house these were less so, but people in them were less affected than had been the case when the H. family stayed there.

Rooms Nos. 1, 2, and 3 could be raked from north or south. Nearly all the persons in the house were affected, and leaving out one or two men who objected to being reported, it appears that the ladies, who spent in the aggregate 237 nights in the house, had sixty-two nocturnal experiences, whilst men spending 108 nights had twenty experiences (between bedtime and breakfast was considered night-time). But three of the eleven ladies were very sensitive; only one man out of fourteen was so. Therefore, on a fair estimate, men and women were about equally sensitive; and this is the case with hypnotism generally. A further proof of the nature of the attack.

With regard to rooms Nos. 1 and 2, the following curious fact is noted by Miss Langton. "The knocks on the door between Nos. 1 and 2 have been audible in this room; No. 2 in my experience only when No. 2 is empty; and in No. 1 only when No. 2 is empty."[25] This looks as if attacks were made from the opposite side of the house to make detection less easy, especially by daylight. The maid-servants in the attics were often more impressed than the people in the rooms below. This seems due to the construction of the house; the attics are more approachable than the rooms from the staircase. The electricity follows the track of a person far better on a stair than on a ladder, it may be remarked. Thick walls, high window-sills, a commanding position, and a murmuring brook, are great securities against hypnotism, and these would be found in older Scotch castles. Another element of safety, the purling brook, is here mentioned; all noise is a good antidote; it is perhaps the case that with hypnotism from a distance the hypnotic state is continually waxing and waning, one link, generally a weaker one, succeeding another in the chain of impressions on the temperament. The diminution being continual, the force is renewed by people getting near enough to get a strong hold again, otherwise it dies out.

[Footnote 25: "Alleged Haunting of B—— House," p. 169.]

These approaches were doubtless most dangerous on railway journeys; hypnotism acts better in a small room than in a large one, and therefore a person in a railway carriage is more affected. Here discomfort and oppression helps hypnotism, but the hypnotist if in the train is in a favourable position, as the distance is preserved very closely and need not be very great.

Carriages are of the same size, and this is doubtless a help to the operator. The frequency of phenomena being observed on the night of arrival has been noticed. Miss N., who drove over, was not affected. The average recurrence of phenomena to each person was every fourth night; other people besides those previously mentioned as suffering on first nights, were on the second visit Miss Langton and Miss Duff. The latter was only very restless. This resembles the experimental result obtained by Mr. Rose; he attempted to impress two ladies in the same house: the elder saw his apparition, the younger was only restless.[26]

[Footnote 26: "Podmore," p. 252.]

It may be noted that in intercourse with other people, some effort is commonly made to secure their attention; this no doubt is connected with the greater facility for causing one's own apparition to be presented.

Thus to resume the question of place of hypnotism, on the second sojourn four people suffered in the night of first arrival. Was the gang larger, or were the assailants operators who had been afraid of the cold before?

Possibly Miss Langton had been followed to St. Andrews, where she had spent Easter, and had a vision of the phantom nun. In other cases where the absence had been longer only two people were attacked.

Several other persons felt a restlessness like Miss Duff's—woke without any cause, &c.—Mrs. M., Mr. T., Mr. L.F., and others. If any doubt be felt about the appearances and noises being from hypnotism, the experimental cases should remove it, the resemblance of the feelings of the "garrison" to those hypnotized should be dwelt on, the times of recurrence, and finally later mentioned the peculiarity of the apparition's nature—corresponding to those produced by hypnotism. The argument that Féré and Binet are fond of, that hypnotism much resembles what can be seen every day, is no doubt true.

Mrs. Anna Kingsford appears to have been often hypnotised by some unknown rascal, but her gentle admirable character seems to have suffered but little, though her life was possibly shortened.

But when Professor Maitland talks of building walls round her, he emphasises the advantage that society gives against witchcraft. Of four people whose lives have been destroyed or grievously injured by hypnotism, whose circumstances are known to the writer, three were childless married men (two were unhappily married), and the fourth case was a bachelor's, a poor young man's.

It may be noted that in the North of Europe, at least half a small class of men were attacked, and the others were more or less connected with these. The most were diplomatists and consuls.

The advantage of society must be referred to a great extent to the stream of thought-transfer from hypnotists being checked and broken up; for the effect of this stream being made indirect or semi-direct, its dominating power is thereby greatly diminished.

On the other hand, in three cases where attacks were defeated, the subjects were happily married men, and in two, if not in the three (the third case the writer gathered at second hand and fortunately remembered later), they had children. On the third visit of Miss Freer to B—— that lady notes that "the influence is evil and horrible. The worn features at breakfast were really a dismal sight."[27]

[Footnote 27: "Haunting of B——House," p. 210.]

On this occasion it looks as if more than three persons (Miss Langton on the 19th of February had noted three voices) were engaged in the attack.

The writer has no doubt, from personal and observed experience, that sometimes transfer is used, but is doubtful to what extent.

Boxes on the ear, slaps on the back, nay a flip as with a towel on the bare back, are felt, the last even by a clothed person. In Poltergeist cases, as in Alice's, a slap on the back was felt; perhaps she hypnotised Miss K. and slapped her on the back and transferred the slap to her (Alice's) mother.

This would be like the two engineer students' case, where the hypnotised one appeared to a friend.

In Poltergeist cases, one person perhaps does the mischief; in inferior haunted house cases two