"Captain." On another occasion he is a
long time in finding a person's name--Theodora. Then he adds, mockingly,
"Hum! it is a fine name once one has got hold of it." This does not
prevent Phinuit from altering Theodora into Theosophy, and calling the
person in question Theosophy! I could easily give other examples of
Phinuit's wit. But on this point I must remark that the word "Theosophy"
astonishes me in Phinuit's mouth, even when he is making a joking use of
it. Evidently Mrs Piper knows the name and the thing well. But at the
time when Dr Phinuit attended his contemporaries in flesh and blood,
there was, I believe, no question of Theosophy, nor of its foundress,
Madame Blavatsky. There was indeed a sect of Theosophists at the end of
the eighteenth century, but it was very obscure.

Dr Phinuit is, besides, very proud of his exploits. He likes to make
people believe that he knows and sees everything. Indeed, perhaps it is
because he likes to seem not to be ignorant of anything that he
sometimes asserts so many controverted facts. And this is to be
deplored; for how much more useful service he would render if his facts
were not doubtful! Unluckily, this is far from being the case. Phinuit
occasionally seems to tell falsehoods deliberately. This has been made
evident when he has been asked to prove his identity by giving details
of his terrestrial life.

In December 1889,[32] he replies to Professor Alfred Lodge, the brother
of Professor Oliver Lodge,--

"I have been from thirty to thirty-five years in spirit, I think. I died
when I was seventy, of leprosy; very disagreeable. I had been to
Australia and Switzerland. My wife's name was Mary Latimer. I had a
sister Josephine. John was my father's name. I studied medicine at Metz,
where I took my degree at thirty years old, married at thirty-five. Look
up the town of ----, also the Hotel Dieu in Paris. I was born at
Marseilles, am a Southern French gentleman. Find out a woman named
Carey. Irish. Mother Irish; father French. I had compassion on her in
the hospital. My name is John Phinuit Schlevelle (or Clavelle), but I
was always called Dr Phinuit. Do you know Dr Clinton Perry? Find him at
Dupuytren, and this woman at the Hotel Dieu. There's a street named
Dupuytren, a great street for doctors.... This is my business now, to
communicate with those in the body, and make them believe our
existence."

I think a bad choice was made of Dr Phinuit to fill this part. The
info