752 
Correspondence. 
tQdfober 
much less reticent to myself than in this letter to Jena. For, in 
an answer to the diredt question I felt myself justified, some 
years since, in addressing to that immortal expert in Biology, as 
to the bearing of his researches on the existence of an “ Amnia ” 
or “ Soul ” in Man, he distinctly stated that, in his opinion, a 
vital or “ spiritual ” principle, apart from inherent somatic energy, 
had no more locus standi in the human than in the other races of 
the Animal Kingdom — a conclusion that seems a mere corollary 
of, or indeed a position tantamount with, his essential dodtrine 
of human and bestial identity of Nature and genesis. — I am, &c., 
Robert Lewtns, M.D. 
CHEMICAL THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 
To the Editor of the journal of Science. 
Sir, — The chemico-physiological hypothesis suggested in your 
issue for November (p. 692), in explanation of ghost-seeing, &c., 
reminds me of a letter I once met with in your correspondence 
pages (1880, p. 279), an account of a room in which few persons 
could sleep without being attacked with nightmare. The letter 
was headed “A Difficulty to Solve.” Have we not here a pos- 
sible solution ? — I am, &c., 
Old Subscriber. 
