第110章

"Mr.P.has all his life been the occasional subject of rather singular delusions or impressions of various kinds.If I had belief in the existence of latent or embryo faculties, other than the five senses, I should explain them on that ground.Being totally blind, his other perceptions are abnormally keen and developed, and given the existence of a rudimentary sixth sense, it would be only natural that this also should be more acute in him than in others.One of the most interesting of his experiences in this line was the frequent apparition of a corpse some years ago, which may be worth the attention of your Committee on that subject.At the lime Mr.P.had a music-room in Boston on Beacon Street, where he used to do severe and protracted practice with little interruption.Now, all one season it was a very familiar occurrence with him while in the midst of work to feel a cold draft of air suddenly upon his face, with a prickling sensation at the roots of his hair, when he would turn from the piano, and a figure which he knew to be dead would come sliding under the crack of the door from without, flattening itself to squeeze through and rounding out again to the human form.It was of a middle-aged man, and drew itself along the carpet on hands and knees, but with head thrown back till it reached the sofa, upon which it stretched itself.It remained some moments, but vanished s if Mr.P.spoke or made a decided movement.The most singular point in the occurrence was its frequent repetition.Be might expect it on any day between two and four o'clock, and it came always heralded by the same sudden cold shiver, and was invariably the same figure which went through the same movements.He afterwards traced the whole experience to strong tea.

He was in the habit of taking cold tea, which always stimulates him, for lunch, and on giving up this practice whenever saw this or any other apparition again.However, even allowing, as is doubtless true, that the event was a delusion of nerves first fatigued by over work and then excited by this stimulant, there is one point which is still wholly inexplicable and highly interesting to me.Mr.P.has no memory whatever of sight, nor conception of it.It is impossible for him to form any idea of what we mean by light or color, consequently he has no cognizance of any object which does not reach his sense of hearing or of touch, though these are so acute as to give a contrary impression some-times to other people.When he becomes aware of the presence of a person or an object, by means which seem mysterious to outsiders, he can always trace it naturally and legitimately to slight echoes, perceptible only to his keen ears, or to differences in atmospheric pressure, perceptible only to his acute nerves of touch; but with the apparition described, for the only time-in his experience, he was aware of presence, size, and appearance, without the use of either of these mediums.The figure never produced the least sound nor came within a number of feet of his person, yet he knew that it was a man, that it moved, and in what direction, even that it wore a full beard, which, like the thick curly heir, was partially gray; also that it war, dressed in the style of suit known as 'pepper and salt.' These points were all perfectly distinct and invariable each time.

If asked how he perceived them, he will answer he cannot tell, he simply knew it.and so strongly and so distinctly that it is impossible to shake the opinion as to the exact details of the man's appearance.It would seem that in this delusion of the senses he really saw , as he has never done in the actual experiences of life, except in the first two years of childhood."

On cross-examining Mr.P., I could not make out that there was anything like visual imagination involved, although he was quite unable to describe in just what terms the false perception was carried on.It seemed to be more like an intensely definite conception than anything else, a conception to which the feeling of present reality was attached, but in no such shape as easily to fail under the heads laid down in my text.