867 A. From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 343-48.

In Proceedings, vol. v. p. 434, is given a case translated from Psychische Studien, February 1889, pp. 67-9, which describes a communication made to Mdlle. Emma Stramm concerning the death of a M. August Duvanel. M. Aksakoff has kindly sent me additional matter of high interest bearing on this case, which I here translate from his letter dated May 9th, 1889 (new style). It will be well first to reprint the case as it stood in Psychische Studien.

On January 19th, 1887 (says M. Aksakoff), I received a visit from the engineer Kaigorodoff, who resides in Wilna. He narrated to me the following circumstances. He had as governess for his children Mdlle. Emma Stramm, a Swiss, from the town of Neufchatel, who possessed the gift of automatic writing. At a seance held at nine o'clock on the evening of January 15th, at the house of Herr Kaigorodoff, at Wilna, the following communication was given in French in his presence. I have been shown the original, and quote this from a copy of it. The medium, who was in her normal state, asked:-

"Is Lydia here?" (This was a personality which had manifested itself at previous sittings).

"No, Louis1 is here, and wishes to impart a piece of news (une nouvelle) to his sister".

"What is it?"

"A person of thy acquaintance passed away (est partie) about three o'clock to-day".

" What am I to understand by this?"

" That is to say, - he is dead".

"Who?"

"August Duvanel".

"What was his illness?"

"The formation of a clot of blood (d'un engorgement de sang). Pray for the redemption of his soul".

Two weeks later Herr Kaigorodoff, who was again in St. Petersburg, showed me a letter from David Stramm, the father of the medium, dated from Neuf-chatel, on January 18th, 1887 (new style); thus written three days after the death of Duvanel. This letter was received at Wilna on January 23rd. In it her father informs her of the event in the following words. I copy them liter-ally from the original:-

"My much loved daughter. ... I will now tell thee a great piece of news (unegrande nouvelle). August Duvanel died on January 15th, about three o'clock in the afternoon. It was, so to speak, a sudden death, for he had only been ill a few hours. He was attacked by blood-clotting (engorgement de sang) when he was at the bank. He spoke very little, and everything that he said was for thee. . . . He commended himself to thy prayers. These were his last words".

The difference in time between Wilna and Switzerland is about an hour. It would thus be four o'clock in Wilna when Duvanel's death occurred, and five hours later this piece of news was communicated by automatic writing.

But who was Duvanel? And why should his death be "a great piece of news" for Mdlle. Emma Stramm? In reply to questions which I put to him in writing, Herr Kaigorodoff gave me the following explanation: "When Mdlle. Emma Stramm lived with her parents in Neufchatel, this Herr Duvanel wanted to marry her. But he was met with a decided refusal on the part of the young lady. As her parents, on the other hand, were in favour of the marriage, and endeavoured to persuade her to consent to it, she resolved to leave her fatherland and take a situation as a governess. The last communication she had with Duvanel was some time before her departure, in the year 1881. She did not keep up any correspondence with him. She had seen Duvanel's family only two or three times in all. A year after her departure he left Neufchatel, and remained in Canton Zurich until his death".

1 The name of a deceased brother of the medium, who usually manifests at her seances. Louis died in 1869, aged eleven months. At the beginning of the seances, about the end of 1886, he was the first to communicate, announcing himself as his sister's "spirit protector." - A. A.

To this M. Aksakoff adds, in a letter to me (May 9th, 1889):-

I have delayed answering your letter of April 1st, because on receiving it I wrote to Colonel Kaigorodoff and to Mdlle. Emma Stramm for further details, which seemed to me needful for the completion of our critical judgment on the Duvanel case. I have just received their letters, dated April 16th and April 18th.

I will begin answering your questions.

(1) This case was published in Psychische Studien for February 1889, but it had been written by me in February 1888, which explains my saying that I had lately received it.

(2) I find in my book of memoranda a notice dated January 7th (19th) of M. Kaigorodoff's visit and his communication concerning the death of Duvanel.

(3) M. Kaigorodoff is a military engineer, living at present at Grodno, a seat of provincial Government in West Russia. In the autumn of 1886 M. Kaigoro-doff endeavoured to hypnotise Mdlle. Emma, but soon she began to speak and write in mediumistic fashion. (M. Kaigorodoff was not wholly a novice in Spiritualism, having been present, some ten years earlier, at a very elementary series of seances.) Automatic writing, however, seemed to fatigue the medium, and the method of trance-utterance was usually preferred. The medium saw and described the [deceased] persons in whose name she spoke. M. Kaigoro-doff asked questions in Russian, and the medium answered in German or French. M. Kaigorodoff, who was a widower, naturally desired a personal and absolutely conclusive message from his wife. She (the influence speaking through E. S. as Madame Kaigorodoff) replied that she could give such a message only by impressing the medium during her ordinary sleep; and she effected her purpose by causing the medium to see, in a dream, a series of four scenes [tableaux]; which Mdlle. Emma described to M. Kaigorodoff and in which he recognised the perfect representation of an episode in his married life.

These dream-communications form a special feature in the mediumship of Mdlle. Stramm; the same subject being sometimes thus treated for a week continuously.