May 12, 1S99.] 



SCIENCE. 



677 



This was at first doubted by that most crit- 

 ical of scientists, Mr. Henry S. Olcott, of 

 Madras. He was, however, convinced of 

 its correctnesss bj' the well-authenticated 

 fact that inanimate bodies, as rocks and tea- 

 cups, equally with animate bodies, are able 

 to cast shadows. From the shadows of tea- 

 cups philosophical generalizations of great 

 value have been obtained in India and 

 Thibet. The only body known to man 

 which has no fluidic double, or shadow, is 

 the sun. Its phantom is, perhaps, the whole 

 visible universe, and it is the undoubted 

 center of that fluidic force which is ex- 

 pulsory of all shadows. The shadow of an 

 object is not as mostpeople suppose, merely 

 the absence of sunshine. If that were all 

 it would be much less substantial in its 

 nature than is now the case and would have 

 no definite boundaries. The shadow is the 

 phantasmal double. All material bodies 

 have interspaces among their atoms corre- 

 sponding to the cells in living organisms. 

 Indeed, it is well known that molecules of 

 matter nowhere touch one another, nor do 

 they come anywhere near touching. If we 

 could conceive the physical molecules of a 

 rock as inhabited worlds a being with a 

 telescope on one of them would gaze at his 

 neighbor atom as our astronomers gaze 

 forth on the mighty sun of Sirius. It is 

 also well known that molecules do not 

 really exist at all, but that each is really an 

 eddy or storm center, and thus a center of 

 attraction in the fluidic atmosphere of astral 

 substances, in which all inhabited worlds 

 are bathed. But omitting these consider- 

 ations, which belong to ultimate science, or 

 sciosophy, there is no doubt that the shadow 

 of a man or a rock is itself an objective 

 reality. It is a posthom driven out from 

 its original station by the expellatory force 

 of the sun. " The huge conical shadow of 

 the earth which reaches beyond the moon 

 and is called night" is not merely the 

 absence of light. It is the hour of posthom 



phantoms when all nature is saturated in 

 fluidic forces. It is natural, then, that at 

 night phantasms of all degrees should be 

 at large, and that in this period and under 

 its conditions all successful stiidies in the 

 natural history of the shades have been 

 accomplished. 



During life the carnate body exerts a 

 strong attraction for its posthom, so that 

 the shadow is seldom seen far away from 

 its host. Toward evening, however, it 

 wanders more widely, and at last it may be 

 apparently wholly detached. Whether this 

 is really ever the case under normal condi- 

 tions is not yet certainly known. This 

 question will be the subject of further in- 

 vestigations by the members of the club at 

 Alcalde. 



Mr. James M. Barrie, of Edinburgh, in a 

 volume bearing the curious title of ' Senti- 

 mental Tommy,' tells us that once in his 

 youth he turned a corner in running so 

 suddenly that he thereby ' dislocated his 

 shadow.' It is easy to see that this might 

 occur, though probably infrequently. 



It is certain that at death the host ceases 

 to exert any particular hold over its phan- 

 tasm. The shadow wanders freely and at 

 will. It is soon disconcerted because the 

 stars begin to devour its substance, and it is 

 but rarely that means can be found to resist 

 their malign influence. For this reason all 

 phantoms of the dead are disintegrated and 

 reduced to primaeval vapor within a space 

 of ten to twenty days after their disassocia- 

 tion. This fear of dissolution is the cause 

 of the violent excitement often shown by 

 phantoms. From the same cause arises 

 their proneness to linger about the haunts 

 of the host in life or about his place of 

 burial. 



Certain classes of posthom phantoms have 

 been known to suck the blood of the living, 

 and thus to maintain a precarious existence 

 for a number of days or weeks. These are 

 known as vampires, and their existence 



