want of skill in
using the strange organism; he would require a sort of apprenticeship.

But when no mental trouble has preceded death, the incoherence of the
first communications does not last. They soon become as clear as the
imperfection of the means which the dead man has to use permits. In the
George Pelham case, which we shall examine later on, the first
communications were also incoherent. Yet George Pelham was soon to
become one of the most clear and lucid, if not the most clear and lucid,
of all the dead persons who have claimed to manifest through Mrs Piper's
organism. But George Pelham died suddenly by an accident, and his
intellectual faculties, which, moreover, were above the average, had
never been injured.

This is, I repeat, what experience seems to show. But doubtless many
more observations are needed before we can affirm that it is really
proved.

However, unless Dr Hodgson and his colleagues are mistaken, these facts
are contrary to what we should expect on the telepathic theory. I will
quote some examples.

Dr Hodgson tried to obtain communications from one of his friends,
designated by the initial A., more than a year after the latter's death.
He spent six sittings over it, but the result was meagre. He obtained
some names, and with difficulty some mention of certain incidents of
A.'s life. Some of the incidents were even unknown to Dr Hodgson at the
time, but all was full of incoherence and confusion. Finally he gave it
up on the advice of George Pelham, who said that A.'s spirit would not
be clear for some time yet. This A. had suffered from violent headaches
and nervous exhaustion for some years before his death, though the
troubles had not amounted to insanity. Now, just at the time when A. was
incapable of manifesting clearly, other spirits were manifesting with
all desirable lucidity in identical circumstances. Another case quoted
by Dr Hodgson is that of a Mr B. who had committed suicide in a fit of
insanity. He was not personally known to Dr Hodgson. During several
years Mr B.'s communications were extremely confused, even about matters
with which Dr Hodgson was well acquainted.

A third communicator, an intimate friend of Dr Hodgson's, had also
committed suicide. About a year after his death he still seemed to be
ignorant of events which he had known well in his lifetime and which
were quite clear in the inquirer's mind. More than seven years after his
death he wrote through the mediu