The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-16
From Pail Mall Gazette.

CoME one the other day. when the
conversation turned, as 1t sometimes
~ does, On ghosts, described an eA-
which seemed to revive a rather old-fash-
ioned kind of spirit. The lady who had
perceived the ghost had wakened in the
early morning to find shadowy gar
mented figure hanging over her bed. 1t
had presently gono, and she had seen
it's gray shadow fade into the light of
the window nearest the staircase land
ing. The ghost returned on other morn
irgs. 1t did not seem to have frightened
her very mucn, though she was stranger
in a strange land. But the occurrence
was reported to an eminent member c.
the Society for Psychical Research. 1t
was found on inquiry that some time pe-
fore some one had died In the house in
a room on the same landing. The expia-
ration-it was suggested by the eminent
authority-followed the lines of some mod
ern theories of apparitions. 1t was that
the spirit of the person who had died
had been of too low an order to be able
to escape from its earthly surroundings,
and so still haunted the place If its death.
1t would not, however. continue to do 50
indefinitely but would presently go.
So it did. The lady who had seen IL
ceased to BE haunted by 1t, and nobody
has seen 1t since. But we are about tt
put forward an explanation of its appear
ance and disappearance whicn is not in
the least supernatural, but which is quite
material. For the purpose of doing so we
shall now adj another detail of the lady $
experience which we had purposely omit
lied. though ON first consideration 1t seems
to strengthen the ghostly character 1I
| that experience. When she saw the gray
shadow bending oyer her bed she was
conscious of an unpleasant and inexpiica-
BILE odor This odor-so readily to be III
terpreted by the ciedulous as that OF ths
charnelhouse-;s the key to the whole
ehostly experience. 1t was haiiueina-
ton of smell. As such II is familiar 10
lneurologists and has hsen abundantly ex-
planned by Dr. Herry Head. f. r. s., one
of the senior physicians of the, London
hospital.
We will leave it momentarily. however
to take from some of the many examples
he has cited, apraritions similar to these
which the lady perceived. They are seen
perhaps not often. but certainiysnot rare
Inv. by his ;ltients at the London nos
pital. and previously by those at the
Victoria Park Hospital for Diseases or
the Chest Rut the poor people who per
ceive these ghosts are not very wiliiiis
to talk about them, for there is one dis
~ al. the QhDStS.
Those who gee them are vaguely con-
scious that they are not the real thing
! In that respect the ghosts diner funda-
mentally from the. Illusions of the insane
which to the insane are quite real ana
,oe,oai But DR.. Heads patients are
afraid that there is something wrong
about themselves which makes them see
| Ghosts and SO they will not readily talk
about It to .hc nurse or In the presence
or students. lest they should be thought
to he 'odd"-.lest, above all, they should
be suspected to be insane. 1t cannot or
TOO clearly emphasized at this point that
they are not insane; they are merely tue
temporary victims of hallucinations which
viii cease with an altered state of bodily
| health.
| When, however, .he patients confidence
| has been won, he finds relief in telling
sympathetic physician what really
amount to his symptoms; and II is found
that the apparitions he perseives are
grouped under three headings, two oi
which have one attribute in common. The
patients may see ghosts; they may hear
hallucihatory sounds like a low knock
inp on a wall, or q distant bell; or foot
stems. or inar.icluat, Whispering Or theY
may complain of SMELLS, which. as it can
be shown, nave no existence outside thfir
own consciousness. The smells can lie
divided into grours-the smell of burn
ing. the earthly smell, or smell of the
grave, which one patient, jobbing gar
dener, attempted TO describe by saying
| IL was 'like bad soil being turned up
from the ground; the smell of gas; and
the sulphurctted hydrogen group.
! Let us deal, however, with seeing and
Hearing first. The attribute they have in
common is that they are both of low
order of disginctnsss. The ghosts seen
are always draped, rot clothed, wrapped
/ in shawl wrapped in sheet,
dressed like statues are dressed" The
| limbs are never visible; the face is misty.
These hallucinations are in all cases
black, white or gray, quite unlike ne
vast majority Of the visions of the IN
sare which either resemble some normal
object or are highly colored. So also
with the hallucinations of hearing They
are always simple sounds, never articu-
fiate VOICES ard in this way differ ciiaTa Q
lteristicaly from the whispered words and
sentences which the insane hear. The
the night. Those of vision when tile
atient wakes from sleep, never in tue
bright light of d.:s.
The key 70 all these hallucinations lica