have told you already that you are perfectly well." He then passed
his hand over Dr Hodgson's left shoulder, placed his finger under the
left shoulder-blade scapula, on the exact spot where the pain had been,
and said it must have been caused by a draught, which was probably true.
Another time, Dr Hodgson complained of a pain, without explaining where.
Phinuit instantaneously put his finger on the painful spot, below the
chest. He said at first that the pain was caused by indigestion, but
then corrected himself spontaneously and said it was caused by a muscle
strained in some unusual exercise. Dr Hodgson had not thought of this
explanation; but it was true that, two days before, when going to bed,
and after some weeks' interruption, he had exercised himself with
bending his body backwards and forwards. The pain appeared next day.
Phinuit ordered applications of cold water on the painful spot, and
friction with the hand. Naturally there exist other diagnoses more
complicated and extraordinary than those I have quoted.

In terminating this study of Phinuit, I must return to the eternal
question--Is Phinuit a different personality from Mrs Piper, or is he
only a secondary personality? None of those who have studied the
question closely have ventured to decide it categorically. There is no
so clearly defined distinction between the normal personality and the
secondary personalities which have so far been studied as there is
between Mrs Piper and Phinuit. In fact, the medium and her control have
not the same character, nor the same turn of mind, nor the same
information, nor the same manner of speech. It is not so with normal and
secondary personalities. Our personality may split into fragments,
which, at a cursory glance, may appear to be so many different
personalities. But when these fragments are closely studied numerous
points of contact are found. When suggestion is added to this
segregation, the separation between the normal and secondary
personalities is even more emphatic. But then there are traces of
automatism present which are not to be found in Phinuit. He seems to be
as much master of his mental faculties and of his will as you or I.

Finally, if we consider that many of Mrs Piper's controls carry the love
of truth further than Phinuit, that they have succeeded in proving their
identity in the eyes of their intimates, who were none the less sceptics
to begin with; if we consider the George Pelham and Hyslop ca