Note 132 — Chapter XIV

For instance, Gregory and others record that the clairvoyant subjects of a certain Major Buckley were able to read the mottoes enclosed in nuts (the equivalent of the modern Christmas crackers) purchased at random from a confectioner's shop, and still unopened. The recent evidence of the kind is quite inconsiderable, and is perhaps hardly sufficient to allow of the existence of a faculty of independent clairvoyance being treated as an open question. Experiments with Mrs. Piper in this direction have yielded negative results, and Professor Richet's trials with Madame B. (Proc. S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 77 and 149) are neither sufficiently numerous nor sufficiently striking to justify any conclusions being drawn from them. Some curious results have, however, been obtained by M. J. Ch. Roux (Annales des Sciences Psychiques, vol. iii. pp. 198 et seq.), and somewhat similar results have been obtained in this country by two Associates of the S.P.R. But it is possible that all these instances may be susceptible of another explanation. See, however, Mr. Myers' article on "Sensory Automatism," Proc. S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 436 et seq.