The reasonable interpretation of the result is surely that he was in some way actually counting the days as they passed.

In the next case, which occurred after the above remarks were written, I got an actual account of the process, which singularly confirms them. P------11 was told, on March 26th, that on the one hundred and twenty-third day from then he was to put a blank sheet of paper in an envelope, and send it to a friend of mine whose name and residence he knew, but whom he had never seen. The subject was not referred to again till April 18th, when he was hypnotised and asked if he remembered anything in connection with this gentleman. He at once repeated the order, and said, "This is the twenty-third day; a hundred more".

1 Unfortunately the accident of the échéance on Easter Monday prevented the execution of the order, as W-----s went off on a holiday excursion for the whole day.

S. "How do you know? Have you noted each day?"

P------ll. "No; it seemed natural".

S. " Have you thought of it often ? "

P------ll. " It generally strikes me in the morning, early. Something seems to say to me, ' You've got to count.'"

S. " Does that happen every day ? "

P------ll. " No, not every day - perhaps more like every other day. It goes from my mind; I never think of it during the day. I only know it's got to be done".

Questioned further, he made it clear that the interval between these impressions was never long enough to be doubtful. He " may not think of it for two or three days; then something seems to tell him." He was questioned again on April 20th, and at once said, "That's going on all right - twenty-five days;" and on April 22nd, when in the trance, he spontaneously recalled the subject, and added, "Twenty-seven days." After he was woke on April 18th, I asked-him if he knew the gentleman in question, or had been thinking about him. He was clearly surprised at the question, said he fancied he had once seen him in my room (which, however, was not the case), and that the idea of him had never since crossed his mind.

But there is another way in which the moment for the performance of the action can be fixed. The "subject" can be told to perform it when some signal is given - as when some one gives a cough or pokes the fire... [And] we can arrange the conditions in such a way as again to involve reckoning of a certain kind, and of a kind which it is hard to conceive as having no mentation of any sort associated with it. For instance, the direction may be to perform the act when some one coughs for the third time, or pokes the fire for the fourth time.... If the " subject" be re-hypnotised before the final cough - say the fourth - has been given, and questioned as to what has passed, he shows clearly that he remembers being in the attitude of expectancy for the coming signal. Sometimes the hidden mental condition during the time of waiting has been a very curious one. Thus W------s, who had been told that at my fifth cough the candles would go out, then woke, and then hypnotised again before the final cough had been given, disowned all memory of the four coughs which had been actually given, but knew that the next would be the fifth, " because then the candles would go out." At other times the signals have been clearly and correctly counted....

[In other experiments the mental condition of the subject in the interval between the suggestion and its fulfilment was tested by automatic writing instead of by re-hypnotising and asking him questions. Thus: - ]

On March 21st [W------s] was told that on the morrow, a quarter of an hour after his arrival, he was to pull up the blind and look out of the window. He arrived next evening at 7.10, and was soon set to the planchette; but as the instrument did not move, he was hypnotised, told that I wanted to know how the time was going, and immediately awakened. The writing 7 minutes and 8 more was now produced. The process began at just 7.17, so that at that moment the reckoning was exactly right; but, owing to a wheel coming off the instrument and having to be replaced, the writing itself was spread over four minutes....

On April 20th [P------11] was told that half-an-hour after his next arrival he was to wind up a ball of string, and to let me know how the time was going. He arrived next evening at 8.30, and was set to the planchette at 8.43. He wrote, 13 minett has passed and I7 more minetts to pass.

Some more experiments followed, and it so happened that at 9, the exact time when the fulfilment was due, he was in the trance. He suddenly said "Oh!" as if recollecting something, but did not move; he was then woke, and at 9.2 he walked across the room to where some string was lying, and wound it up. On April 18th an exactly similar order was given, except that the thing to be done was to take off his coat He arrived at 9.10 on April 20th, and was set to the planchette at 9.15, and while reading a newspaper aloud with intelligence and complete comprehension, he wrote, 5 minett has passed 25 minuett hass got passed and then I shas take off my coat.

The order, however, was fulfilled at 9.21, almost immediately after the conclusion of the writing....

Another day the same "subject" was told that when I coughed for the sixth time he was to look out of the window. He was woke, and I gave at intervals five coughs - one of which, however, was a failure, owing to its obvious artificiality. He was set to the planchette, and the words produced were, When Mr. Gurney cough 6 times I am to look out.

At this point I read the writing, and stopped it. I asked if he had noticed my coughing, and he said, "No, sir; " but this, of course, showed no more than [that] he had heard without attending. He was now hypnotised, told that I wanted to know how often I had coughed, and at once woke. The writing recommenced, 4 times he has cough and 2 times more he has to cough.

I coughed twice more, and he went to the window, drew aside the blind, and looked out. Two minutes afterwards I asked him what sort of a night it was. He said, " Fine when I came in." I said I thought I had seen him looking out just now, but he absolutely denied it....

Later, P------11 was told that when I spoke the thirtieth word he was to walk to the door and come back again, and was then woke. I made natural remarks at intervals, taking care to count the words I used. The thirtieth produced no result. I added one, and then told him to come and write. The writing was, Mr. Gurney spoke 30 words Mr. Smith I think I am right don't you think so?

He then returned to his former seat, and sat down for a second; then got up, walked to the door, looked at it, and came back again. Re-hypnotised, and questioned as to the words I had used, he remembered most of them, but not all.

In Gurney's paper, "Recent Experiments in Hypnotism," in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 3-17 (1888), are recorded a number of other ingenious experiments showing the intelligence of subliminal mentation in carrying out post-hypnotic suggestions. These were executed automatically while the supraliminal intelligence of the subject was closely engaged in some other task; e.g. he would, while reading aloud, automatically work sums or write a second line to a couplet rhyming with the first, which had been given him. On one occasion a subject "correctly multiplied 12s. 3¾d. by 8, repeating 'God save the Queen' meanwhile, with every other word left out".