8 14 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



heard, he says, an explosion like the report of a gun. or a pistol, 

 and, waking, he noticed that there was a ridge in his bed not like 

 the bed he had been accustomed to sleep in. He noticed the elec- 

 tric light opposite his windows. He rose and pulled away the 

 curtains and looked out on the street. He felt very weak, and 

 thought he had been drugged. His next sensation was that of 

 fear, knowing that he was in a place where he had no business 

 to be. He feared arrest as a burglar, or possibly injury. He 

 says this is the only time in his life he ever feared a policeman. 



" The last thing he could remember before waking -was seeing 

 the Adams express wagons at the corner of Dorrance and Broad 

 Streets, in Providence, on his way from the store of his nephew in 

 Broad Street to his sister's residence in Westminster Street, on 

 January 17th. He waited to hear some one move, and for two 

 hours he suffered great mental distress. Finally, he tried the 

 door, and, finding it fastened on the inside, opened it. Hearing 

 some one moving in another room, he rapped at the door." His 

 landlord opened it, and from him he learned where he was, how 

 he came there, and what day of the month it was. The landlord 

 thought he was insane and sent for a doctor, and the doctor tele- 

 graphed for his relatives and had him taken home. 



Prof. James, of Harvard, and Dr. Hodgson heard of this case 

 about three years later, and got Mr. Bourne's consent to their in- 

 vestigating it. Prof. James hypnotized Mr. Bourne, with the hope 

 of reviving the Brown state, and was surprisingly successful. He 

 told the story of his wanderings correctly, giving clews to his 

 doings during the two weeks that elapsed after he left Providence 

 and before he appeared in Norristown. Of his own history he 

 could tell very little. Said he : " Seems as if I was sot right 

 down there in Dorrance Street without knowing where I came 

 from. Got into a spot, don't know how I came there, both ends 

 are blank." His name, he said, was Albert John Brown. He was 

 "born in Newton, N. H., July 8, 1826 [he was born in New York 

 city, July 8, 1826], had passed through a great deal of trouble, 

 losses of friends and property ; loss of his wife was one trouble — 

 she died in 1881 ; three children living, but everything was con- 

 fused prior to his finding himself in the horse car on the way to 

 Pawtucket ; he wanted to get away somewhere — he didn't know 

 where — and have rest. . . . Pie had heard of the singular experi- 

 ence of Ansel Bourne, but did not know whether he had ever met 

 Ansel Bourne or not. He had been a professor of religion him- 

 self for many years, belonged to the ' Christian ' denomination, 

 but back there everything was mixed up. He used to keep a 

 store in Newton, N. H., and was engaged in lumber and trading 

 business; had never previously dealt in the business which he 

 took up in Norristown. He kept the Norristown store for six or 



