The accounts
of the most interesting of these that I have met with, were given by M.
Petatin in 1787; M. Delpet, 1807; Dr Despine, 1829. The wonderful powers
of perception evinced by the patients when in this state of
trance-waking would exceed belief, but for the respectable names of the
observers, and the internal evidence of good faith and accuracy in the
narratives themselves. The patients did not see with their eyes nor hear
with their ears. But they heard at the pit of the stomach, and perceived
the approach of persons when at some distance from their residence, and
read the thoughts of those around.

I am, my dear Archy, no wonder-monger; so I am not tempted to make a
parade to you of these extraordinary phenomena. Nor in truth do they
interest me further than as they concur with the numerous other facts I
have brought forward to show, and positively prove, that under certain
conditions the mind enters into new relations, spiritual and material. I
will, however, in conclusion, give you the outline of a case of the sort
which occurred a few years ago in England, and the details of which were
communicated to me by the late Mr Bulteel. He had himself repeatedly
seen the patient, and had scrupulously verified what I now narrate to
you:--

The patient was towards twenty years of age. Her condition was the state
of double consciousness, _thus_ aggravated, that when she was not in the
trance, she suffered from spasmodic contraction of the limbs. In her
alternate state of trance-waking, she was composed and apparently well;
but the expression of her countenance was slightly altered, and there
was some peculiarity in her mode of speaking. She would mispronounce
certain letters, or introduce consonants into words upon a regular
system; and to each of her friends she had given a new name, which she
only employed in her trance. As usual, she knew nothing in either state
of what passed in the other. Then in her trance she exhibited three
marvellous powers: she could read by the touch alone: if she pressed her
hand against the whole surface of a written or printed page, she
acquired a perfect knowledge of its contents, not of the substance only,
but of the words, and would criticise the type or the handwriting. A
line of a folded note pressed against the back of her neck, she read
equally well: she called this sense-feeling. Contact was necessary for
it. Her sense of smell was at the same time singularly acute; when out
ridi