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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 228. 



may usually be recoguized by the roseate 

 appearance of the body from which they are 

 dei'ived. It is said that the reduction of 

 this body to ashes by tire will destroy the 

 vampire posthom. At least Mr. Dean is 

 convinced, from the experiences of several 

 peasants in Lithuania, that this is correct. 

 In all events, it is reasonable to suppose 

 that the heat of a funeral pyre would attract 

 the disintegrating posthom, and, once drawn 

 into the current of hot air, it could in no 

 way save itself. 



" The most common yearning of the post- 

 humous being," says Dr. D'Assier, " is to 

 bid the last farewell to those who are used 

 to it." But experiments prove that it is 

 equally accessible to ideas of vengeance, 

 while the wraiths of those who are unhappy 

 in their affections are somewhat extremely 

 perverse and demonstrative, being ' not 

 always satisfied to signify resentment by 

 noisy but harmless manifestations.' 



"While a vast array of cases are cited in 

 support of the theory that posthoms delight 

 in sympathy and in vengeance, one must be 

 very cautious in receiving such evidence. 

 AVe must not read our own emotions into 

 the vagrant actions of the poor disconsolate 

 shadows. The impending dissolution of 

 posthom stares it, as it were, every moment 

 in the face, and it may follow friend or 

 enemj' in the sole hope of somehow draw- 

 ing substance, either blood or shadow, in 

 order to continue its existence. They can- 

 not last long at the best, nor is it right that 

 they shovild do so, for if their status were 

 indefinitely prolonged, as some have main- 

 tained, the world would long ago have be- 

 come solidly full of phantoms, and for the 

 amount of fluidic ether necessary for their 

 production we should be obliged to draw 

 on some other universe. 



Dr. D'Assier very wisely observes (p. 

 176, Posthumous Humanity): "The peren- 

 nial survival of shades would long ago have 

 rendered this planet uninhabitable to us. 



The dead would oecupj' the place of the 

 living, for the accumulation of spectres of 

 the different tribes of the terrestrial fauna 

 heaped at the surface of the globe since the 

 first geological epochs would render the 

 air irrespirable. We could not move, save 

 in a dense atmosphere of ghosts. Now, 

 chemical analysis has never shown in the 

 air the presence of either of the immediate 

 principles which enter into the constitution 

 of a tluidic phantasmal form elaborated in 

 an animal economj^ For our part we 

 bitterly regret that these venerable shades 

 have disappeared." 



The evidence, on the other hand, is, how- 

 ever, worth consideration, as is shown by 

 the following experiments of the famous 

 Allan Kardec. One day his fancy led him 

 to evoke the posthom of Tartuffe. 



" Tartuffe did not wait to be dragged out 

 by the ears, but speedily showed himself in 

 all his classical peculiarities ! It was veri- 

 tably the personage created by Moliere, with 

 his soft and hypocritical speech, his wheed- 

 ling ways, his air of sugar-coated piety. 

 When, after close examination, he was sat- 

 isfied as to the phantom's identity he was 

 transported with pleasure and said to it : 



" ' By the way, how is it that you are 

 here, seeing that you never had any real 

 existence ? ' 



" ' That is true,' answered the spectre 

 in a most contrite tone, ' I am the spirit 

 of an actor who used to play the part of 

 Tartuffe.' Tartuffe, being unable to show 

 himself for a very good reason, sends an 

 actor in his place." 



Kardec again tells of a nest of little birds 

 in a garden. The nest having disappeared, 

 the gentleman became uneasy as to the fate 

 of his little pets. Being a person of enor- 

 mous animal magnetism and, therefore, an 

 adept in the calling and training of posthoms 

 he went through the usual ceremony of call- 

 ing the phantom of the mother bird, who 

 was seeking caterpillars in a neighboring 



