rmation he here gives us about himself does not bear marks of
absolute sincerity. We might say he was an Englishman or American trying
to pass himself off for a Frenchman to his fellow-countrymen, and having
a very small acquaintance with France and French affairs. And if he had
even stopped there! But no. He has often contradicted himself. He tells
Dr Hodgson[33] that his name is Jean Phinuit Scliville. He could not
tell the date of his birth or death. But, on comparing the facts he
gives, we might conclude that he was born in 1790, and that he died in
1860. He tells Dr Hodgson that he studied medicine in Paris, at a
college called _Merciana_ or _Meerschaum_, he does not know exactly
which. He adds that he also studied medicine at "Metz in Germany." It is
no longer he who had a sister named Josephine; it is his wife.
"Josephine," he says, "was a sweetheart of mine at first, but I went
back on her, and married Marie after all." This Marie Latimer is
supposed to have been thirty when she married Dr Phinuit, and to have
died at fifty. He asks Dr Hodgson, "Do you know where the Hospital of
God is (Hospital de Dieu)?" "Yes, it is at Paris." "Do you remember old
Dyruputia (Dupuytren)?" "He was the head of the hospital, and there is a
street named for him." Phinuit asserts that he went to London, and from
London to Belgium, and travelled a great deal, when his health broke
down.

In the above-quoted passage, Phinuit asserts that he had set himself to
prove the existence of spirits. If he had set himself the contrary task
he would have been more likely to succeed, when he gives us such
information as the above. If we went no further, we should need to ask
ourselves how serious men can have concerned themselves during so long a
period with such idle stories. Happily, as we shall see later, others
have succeeded in establishing their identity better than Phinuit has
done. Phinuit himself, even if he tells the most foolish stories when he
speaks of himself, reveals profoundly intimate and hidden secrets when
he speaks of others. Truly, it is correctly said that these phenomena
are disconcerting. But they are none the less interesting to science
when their authenticity and the sincerity of the medium are beyond
discussion, as in the present case. I will therefore go on examining the
Phinuit personality; it will be the reverse side of the medal.

An American doctor, whom Dr Hodgson designates by the initials C. F. W.,
has a sittin