The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-05 00:00:00

No. 16,189. LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING SU Ng JULY 5, 1844.

PRICE sd.

TIT. SUN u Publisked EVERY MORNING at FIVE moor, in Time for the BARU TRAINS and TOWN DELIVERY; a SECOND EDITION (Eve►ring Sun) is Publishe4 in Time for the AFTERNOON TRAINS

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I CLAIRVOYANCE...4.MR. •
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Sir,- .nce the account of the phenomena of elair-
voyance, exhibited by Mr. Alexis, appeared in your co-
lumns of last week, another private party have witnessed
a similar exhibition at the house of I)r. Elliotson, at
which I had the honour of beine present, and the foi-
1, wing plain statement of what I then saw will, I
think, be interesting to your readsrs. I most pre-
mise that I had never before seen any experimente what-
ever in animal magnetism, &c., that I was totally unac-
quainted with Dr. Elliotson, Mr. Marcillet, and Mr.
Alexis, and that I went, note-book in hand. prepared to
watch and observe, as accurately as leesible, end that
this account is drawn up from the noes 1 t'e is Haile.
Alexis having seated himself in a large else- el, r,
Marcillet stood in front of him, and seer fixing his eyes
upon him for about four minutes, the inagneCe eleep
was produced. During this operation there were eon yid-
sive motions of the limbs and muscles of the end
every now and then Alexis turned his eyes towerds the
operator, as it seemed to me, eith s 0 eXpie,eicit
of pain, and almost entreaty to de- i ..1.110 con-
vulsive motions subsided after s fe.- I,z*:cri by she
operator, and then the phenoto `ll-i 44: .4 t 0,4 rsy
shown. His hands were extended, and e: (eine ileite
rigid, and were again relaxed by Mr. M millet pee,ing
his hand once or twice over them. I:iti t' gs ere
stretched out, and, to test their rigidity, a geieleteatt,
weighing at least 14 stone, stood tspreest upon them,
Alexis' body being kept balanced by two gel:lice:len
pressing on his shoulders. Alexis is by no ii saes
strong in appearance ; but I apprehend the strongest
man would find the above feat difficult. Is web then
proposed to bandage his eyes. A quantity cotton
wool was placed over them, and kept dower by three
handkerchiefs, one encircling the head, the ()Veg. two
placed diagonally. • The gentleman—a v'siter, like
myself—who undertook the tying, did not seem to do it
to Alexis' satisfaction, for he said " Serrez fors, sei'rez
fort." (tie it tight), and, still being dissatisfied, he seized
the ends of the handkerchief, and tied thee; himself.
The visitors were then asked to examine the handl er-
chiefs, and each person who did so was satisfied that
vision was impossible. A pack of cards was then
brought, which, it should be remarked, had glazed and
ornamented backs, so that it would have been more than
ordinarily difficult to see through them, even with strong light light behind. A visitor came forward to play, and
Alexis seated himself at the table which was in the middle
of the room, so that there was across light. He seized
the cards, a full pack, in a quick, hurried manner, and
sorted them for i4srte. lie did this with great rapidity.
sad
Inadefitiftine Several Were Agra.
during which he frequently told his adversary what
cards he had in his hand, as on one occasion that he had
. three tens, on another that he had four trumps ; and
again he called for the cards seriatim which his adver-
sary was to play. Once or twice he made mistakes, as
saying the nine of hearts instead of the seven, but in the,
great majority of' instances was right. Another person
then took the cards, and the same wonders were repeated.
He then moved away from the table, and played at a
distance of about four yards from his adversary, but he
still told the cards as before, and played his own fre-
quently without looking at their faces. During the whole
of this time Mr. Marcillet stood at some little distance,
and from time to time repeated the passes. Dr. El-
liotson took no part in the proceedings. Alexia was
then asked to read, and a volume of " Le Moyen., Aye
Pittoresque" was placed before him. The weed and
bandages were. still unmoved, but he read off from the
page wherever he was told by any of the visitors, and by
myself amongst the rest. On one occasion he con,
tinned to do so, although two hands were placed be-
fore his face and the type. He seemed, however,
to find this somewhat more difficult. He was very
animated, and talked rapidly as he turned over
the pages, as if pleased with his own exploits.
Whilst doing this, and just as he hail said, in answer to,
a question, that the picture was a cathedral, I inter.
rupted him hastily with, " Mais quelle cathedral.e
He replied, " C'est une bonne question," and, placireg his
hand upon the letter-press, instantly said, " Notre, Dame
de Chalon," which was quite correct. He also ac-
curately described some figures in arreour. He
then, of his own accord, offered to reas'e e line five
pages off, but in this he failed. A volusee of Bossuet
was then brought from I)r. Elliotion's Ilbrry, no visitor
having brought one. He took my band and aske,l me
to show him what to read, and read several times cor-
rectly. In one instance he read the two following lines:—
"C'est encore pour eux un grand embarras de voir que
ce (le) propheLe fasse slier in temps du Christ (Jesus),"
He however insisted that it was " le " and not " ce," and
read "Jesus Christ" instead of "Christ" only. On
this part of the experiments no great stress can be laid,
as after the Bossuet was brought he complained of the
great heat and threw off the handkerchiefs, so that his
eyes were only closed as in sleep. He then said, sepa-
rating about 150 pages of the volume, aad holding them
firmly together, that he would read some words on which-
ever side and whatever part of the page I pleased, but
would not undertake to say how far off tbe words were. r
then pointed out the side and part of the page that I wished.
,
and he gave the words " Tite-Live ' and " Romulus saying that etch commenced a paragraph. This was me
done immediately, but the leaves were not or/ened
at all. I examined the book, and found about fit) pages
on the words " Tits-Live," and about 150 the ward " Ro-
mulus," each iu the place and position requited by me,
and each commencing a paragraph. lie then
seated himself in the large chair once more,
and a stranger (I believe D. Castle,
of Milan) sat down by him, and put himself "ea rap-
port" with him. I did not hear the conversation, but
1)r. Castle afterwards stared to those present, that
Alexis had described to him accurately how he (D 4;
Castle) had passed the preceding night, and the natesee
and seat of' the pain that he had suffered from. But
further and more satisfactory proofs of clairvoyareee were
given. Alexis read a word (content) that was eseelosed its
a card -board box, and presented to him for that pur-
pose by a visitor. He made out, the let-
ters "on" first, and the others after eoree difficulty.
But in a case of this kind, every one eiatstrally distrusts
every experiment not made by hieneelf I therefore
took out my pocket-book and went„ three words, but
being asked to put one only 'wrote in another p'ace
" amt." I showed this to no ore, but turning a leaf
over
it, said, I had written a ',ford which I wished him to
read. It was one of Penny's metallic poeket-boeks.
so
that any of your readers may test the practicability of
seeing a light petecil-mark through. I kept the leaf
pressed firmly 'over the word, and upon the
body of the book, aed held it in his hand.
Directly he placed his hand in my other hand, he
said, merrily, " Que vous ites bon ! Il n'y a que trois
lettres." (Hew kind you are—there are but three letters.)
I assented, lie then wrote nearly, but not exactly, over
it— the letter a, then turned to me, and said, " That
is right," I assented. He then wrote nt, end in-
quired in the same way. I said nothing. He repeated
the question. I remained silent. He then said in a.
jocose half-bantering tone—(to this effect)—" Yeu may
just as well say so, because you know it is." I then sai4
" Oui." He repeated it after me in high glee, and added
instantly the i, scratching a fine flourish underneath
to show that he had succeeded. I showed the pocket-
book to those present, and all were satisfied that they
could not have read it. It is now in my possession, and
I would show it to any one who might wish to see it.
I make no comments on the above facts, I attemetit no
explanation, but it is right to add that all present,
and among them were several medical men, were
perfectly satisfied of the fairness of the experiments.
No one would suggest any possible plan 'of collusion..
I can be surprised at no one being incredulous
until he has seen the experiments with his own eyes.
For even now, without again scrutinising another series
of experiments, I could not honestly say that I was alto-
gether convinced. I only say, that if there be decep-
tion, the deception would be almost more wonderful theta
the reality. I send you my name and address, and re-
main, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN INQUIRER AFTER TRUTH.
P.S. After having drawn up the above, I read the
article in the Chronicle of this day (July 2). Icertainly
regret that the reporter did not remain when asked to
do so by Dr. Elliotson, although I cannot but say that
the impression of all who heard what passed was any-
thing but favourable to the gentlemanly feeling and
conduct of the reporter • and also that Dr. Etlfotson,
could hardly have acted otherwise. I regret the
absence of the reporter, because the one word
written by me, and in almost exact accordance
with the requisitions made in the article above men-
tioned, was read fairly and honestly by Mr. Alexis,
without having been seen by any one else. I may fur..
then add, that the following gentlemen, having wit.
nessecl—some, indeed, having testede-the above experie
ments, voluntarily subscribed their names to a paper az.
pressive of their conviction of the integrity of thit ex-
traordinary exhibition :
The Viscount Adare, 76, Eaton-square.
John Elliotson, M.D., Conduit-street.
55, Wimpolessareet.
John Ashburner, M.D.,
H. Storer, M.D., Granville-street, Tsrunswiek-square.
James George Davey, M.D., 1h.,.-nwell Asylum.
w, C. Engledue, P
ottsmouth.
M Castle, M.D., Milan,
Dr. Ritterbandt.

T. G. She E,ardSymes,3B,Hill-street,Berktolepsquare.
FA
Natlaniel Ogle.
ihniel Thomas Evans, Temple.
John James, Captain, Dover.
Henry U. Janson. President of the Exeter Literary and
Philosophical Society.
W. Topham, Temple.
Henry G. Atkinson, G.S., 18, Upper Gloucester-ghee.
Edward Wise, Temple.
Bailliere, Regent-street.
John Bylaw, Exeter.
LJempsen, H.S., Fairfield.
C'

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,OURAGE OF THE JACHDA.W.-41.mut five o'clock
-en Monday morning last, a singular combatiras vrithessed
in the burial-ground of St. John'a Chapel, in this town.
A pair ofjackdaws have for several seasons built their nest
and reared their young in a cavity beneath a projectingapont
at one corner of the chapel ' • and on the present occasions
were encouraging their rczwly-fledged offspring to test the
strength of their pinimis by taking short flights from the nest.
to an adjoining trek, when one of the sooty youngsters, in
nialting the attempt, proved unequal to the feat, and canoe
fluttering to the ground. A hungry cat, most probably on
the proxvl for a breakfast, instantly pounced upon the poor
bird, and was bearing it off in her mouth, when she was as.
sailed by the parent jackdaws, who, uttering loud cries of dia•
tress, used their beaks and claws with such effect, that puss was
glad to drop her prey, and beat a temporary retreat. In a
daunted,d from she madetheathircl exhausted essay to seonye
so
cey
ditios of
few minutosi she again retusued to the charge, and was %/dm
reilexl4empdtng
.iNaotmhi4\isel,
ng
the parent birds would certainly have succeeded, but for the
Illterkvence of a couple of labourers, who clambered over the
iron railing of the enclosure, and speedily terminated the un•
an
cual combat by rescuing the youngpatidaw from thal
clutches of the feline apoiler and com the latter to
seek safety in flight, Tie intended victim o her ravenous
appetite is now in the possession of ene of the men, and:
althoug,* severely lacerated bar her teeth and talons, is in es
inky of MOYI/447.---ialefeeter GNOrdiak