he other world. It would be interesting
to know whether this is the case.

In general, the other doctors who have had sittings with Mrs Piper find
more fault with Dr Phinuit's prescriptions than with his diagnosis. They
blame the prescriptions as being more those of a herbalist than a
doctor. This would not be a great reproach. If a Dr Phinuit has really
existed, he must have practised fifty or sixty years ago, and must have
studied at the beginning of the last century. Therapeutics of that epoch
differed considerably from those of the present day. For this reason Dr
C. W. F. asks whether Dr Phinuit's medical knowledge really exceeds
what Mrs Piper might have read in a manual of domestic medicine. As far
as the diagnosis is concerned, his knowledge assuredly exceeds this.

Dr C. W. F. reports a fact which, though it would not prove Dr Phinuit's
medical ignorance, would once more prove his ignorance of French, and
even of the Latin of botanists. Dr F. asked,[37] "Have you ever
prescribed _chiendent_ or _Triticum repens_?" using both the French and
Latin names. Phinuit seemed much surprised, and said, "What is the
English of that?" It is certain that a French doctor, and, above all, a
doctor in the beginning of the last century, must know _chiendent_, and
even _Triticum repens_.

Mrs Piper told Dr Hodgson that Phinuit had often been shown medicinal
plants, and had been asked their names, and that he had never made a
mistake. Dr Hodgson procured specimens of three medicinal plants from
one of his friends. He himself remained entirely ignorant of their names
and uses. Phinuit carefully examined the plants, and was unable to
indicate their names or their uses. But neither would this incident
prove much. The living practitioners who could not be caught in this way
must be rare.

I will give two or three of Phinuit's diagnoses as examples. I will
choose those which have been given to Dr Hodgson about himself, as my
readers now know him well.

At one of the first sittings[38] Dr Hodgson had with Mrs Piper, Phinuit
pronounced the following judgment on his physical constitution, "You are
an old bach (bachelor), and will live to be a hundred." And he added
that Dr Hodgson had at the time a slight inflammation of the nasal
membranes, though there was no external sign to guide him.

On another occasion Dr Hodgson asked him a question about a pain he had
had but which he no longer felt. Phinuit was evasive at first, saying,
"I