980 A. I cited in 858 A a case, communicated by Dr. Ermacora, of Padua, of foreknowledge of a letter's arrival on the part of a sensitive well known to him, Signorina Maria Manzini, the knowledge purporting to come from her control, "Elvira." An article by Dr. Ermacora in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. p. 235, records a long series of observations made by him with the same sensitive, and two other precognitive cases of hers - of which I quote one below - are given in vol. xi. pp. 466-476. Dr. Ermacora was not able to decide whether "Elvira" is a separate entity, or merely a modification of the medium's own mind. There is, in fact, much the same perplexity as in the case of Phinuit and Mrs. Piper.

Whatever Elvira may be, she possesses certain supernormal powers which for us are perhaps the more instructive in that their scope is some-what narrowly limited. Among these powers Elvira claims precognition; admittedly on what may be termed a puny scale, and dealing with trivial matters, but nevertheless involving some real knowledge of the coming course of events, and of the part which human actions, apparently free, will play therein. The question now before us is whether Elvira's ap-parent foreknowledge may not be explained as inference from a slightly wider knowledge of the present, combined with a power of suggestion exercised not only upon Maria Manzini herself (which on any hypothesis is obviously probable), but even upon strangers.1 Dr. Ermacora, as may be seen from his full report, kept these points in mind; and his con-clusion was that Elvira had shown some foreknowledge of events, paltry indeed in themselves, but yet such as suggestion can hardly be pressed to cover. (See the incident of sale of pawn-tickets, and others, in Rivista di Studi Psichici, 1895.) The question will then be, - and these trivial incidents may help us quite as well as more important ones towards its solution, - whether that supernormal knowledge of actually existing thoughts and things with which Elvira must at any rate be credited (see 858 A) may be enough to suggest by mere forward-looking inference, - itself perhaps supernormally acute, - the events foretold in the following and some similar cases.

1 Dr. Ermacora once informed me that Elvira had made a prediction involving a mistake to be made by Maria in cutting out some garments, and then withdrew it, as not wishing that Maria should thus waste the stuff, and resolving to influence her not to make the mistake. Elvira herself, therefore, admits that she can influence the so-called predictions by suggestions of her own.

Dr. Ermacora writes:-

Signorina Maria Manzini, at my request, kept an account of the dreams which occurred in her ordinary sleep. Some were remembered spontaneously in the morning and some in her next somnambulic state. In the latter case I suggested to her that she should remember and record them after waking.

I think the following case was remembered in somnambulism, but this is of no consequence, because Signorina Maria, following my advice, recorded not only the date of dreams, but also the date and the hour when she wrote them down. In any case the present dream was recorded before its fulfilment.

This is what I find in the record of Signorina Maria's dreams:-

March 27th, 1894, 11 P.M. "Night of March 26th-27th, 1894.

"I dreamt that the door bell rang on the S. Pietro side of the house.1 I went to open and found a tall man about forty years old, with greyish trousers and a darker overcoat He was very polite, and asked if I would subscribe to the issue of a novel, saying that afterwards I should have a pair of earrings as a prize. I said no, because I thought it was an imposture".

I did not read the account of this dream till after its realisation, but am perfectly certain that Signorina Maria told it to me directly, and I also distinctly recollect that when Signorina Maria related the realisation a few days later,she said I ought to remember her preceding dream; and I remember also that I not only recalled it, but that I looked at once at the record to see if it had been written down according to rule. I found that it was correct, and that it agreed with the viva voce story. Besides, though Signorina Maria may not always be diligent in recording dreams she hardly remembers, she is very careful to put the exact date, and is therefore quite certain that the dream occurred either in the night of March 26th-27th, or at most (supposing the case to have been complicated by a paramnesia which displaced the dream in time) on March 27th, at 9 p.m.; about which time, as can be seen from my journal of the somnambulic experiments, Signorina Maria was in somnambulism in my presence.

On the evening of March 31st, i.e. four days after the dream, Signorina M. told me that on that day about 3 p.m. the visit of which she had dreamed had taken place. Everything coincided; the entrance of the person by the door towards S. Pietro, his age, his insinuating manners, the colour of his trousers and overcoat, and the object of his visit.

I called her mother, and asked her to describe the visit with all possible details; meanwhile I took the following notes: "The person came twice; the first time about 11 a.m., when Maria was out. Signora Annetta (her mother) was alone in the house. The visitor had very pleasant manners, and was about thirty-five years old (Signorina Maria thought forty). He had a box covered with black cloth with him, such as is used by commercial travellers. He said he came to show them a novelty. In order to get rid of him, Signora Annetta said that Signorina Maria was not at home; he replied that he would return, l Signorina Maria's house has two doors, one in the Via S. Pietro, and the other turned towards the river Bacchiglione and Signora Annetta told him to come at 2 p.m. At 2 p.m. he returned and rang at the door on the S. Pietro side. Signora Annetta opened to him, and says that when he entered the room Maria seemed much astonished (Maria said at once that she was astonished at recognising him). He proposed that they should subscribe to the issue of a novel; there were to be prizes when the issue was finished; two pictures, or a small organ, or a pair of earrings.