g with Mrs Piper on May 17, 1889. Here is a fragment of the
dialogue between him and Phinuit.[34]

C. F. W.--"What medical men were prominent in Paris in your time?"

Phinuit.--"Bouvier and Dupuytren, who was at Hotel Dieu."

C. F. W.--"Was Dupuytren alive when you passed out?"

Phinuit.--"No; he passed out before me; I passed out twenty or thirty
years ago."

C. F. W.--"What influence has my mind on what you tell me?"

Phinuit.--"I get nothing from your mind; I can't read your mind any more
than I can see through a stone wall." (Phinuit added that he saw the
people of whom he spoke objectively, and that it was they who gave him
his information.)

C. F. W.--"Have you any relatives living in Marseilles?"

Phinuit.--"I had a brother who died there two or three years ago."

A little later on, at the same sitting, Phinuit says,

"Many people think I am the medium; that is all bosh."

Well, so much the better. But if Phinuit is not Mrs Piper, neither does
he appear to be a Frenchman. A further proof of this is that he is
incapable of keeping up a conversation in French. He speaks English with
a pronounced _cafe-concert_ French accent, it is true, but that is not a
proof. He likes to count in French, and sometimes he pronounces two or
three consecutive words more or less correctly. But who would venture to
maintain that Mrs Piper's sub-consciousness has not received them in
some way; it would be all the more likely, because at one time our
medium had a governess for her children who spoke French fluently.
However, Dr C. F. W., quoted above, says that Phinuit understood all
that he said to him in French, which Mrs Piper in her normal state could
not have done. On the other hand, Professor William James says that
Phinuit does not understand his French. Whom shall we believe? One thing
is certain, French or not, Phinuit does not speak French. Dr Hodgson
asked him why this was. Phinuit, who is never at a loss, explained as
follows:--"He had been a long time in practice at Metz, and as there are
a great many English there he had ended by forgetting his French." This
is just such a piece of childishness as the secondary personalities
invent.[35] Dr Hodgson pointed out the absurdity of the explanation to
Phinuit, and added, "As you are obliged to express your thoughts through
the organism of the medium, and as she does not know French, it would be
more plausible if you said that it would be impossible to express your
tho