viduals fading
away and dying after their wax image has been stuck full of pins or
otherwise mutilated. There have occurred instances of individuals dying
upon the date at which some one in whose powers of prophecy they had
confidence declared they would, or even upon a date on which they had
settled in their own minds, and announced accordingly; but these are so
rare as readily to come within the percentage probabilities of pure
coincidence. Most such prophecies fail utterly; but the failures are not
recorded, only the chance successes.

The second group of these alleged instances of death by mental
impression is in most singular case. Practically every one with whom you
converse, every popular volume of curiosities which you pick up, is
ready to relate one or more instances of such an event. But the more you
listen to these relations, the more familiar do they become, until
finally they practically simmer down to two stock legends, which we have
all heard related in some form.

First, and most famous, is the story of a vigorous, healthy man accosted
by a series of doctors at successive corners of the street down which he
is walking, with the greeting:--

"Why, my dear Mr. So-and-So, what is the matter? How ill you look!"

He becomes alarmed, takes to his bed, falls into a state of collapse,
and dies within a few days.

The other story is even more familiar and dramatic. Again it is a group
of morbidly curious and spiteful doctors who desire to see whether a
human being can be killed by the power of his imagination. A condemned
criminal is accordingly turned over to them. He is first allowed to see
a dog bled to death, one of the physicians holding a watch and timing
the process with, "Now he is growing weaker! Now his heart is failing!
Now he dies!" Then, after having been informed that he is to be bled to
death instead of guillotined, his eyes are bandaged and a small,
insignificant vein in his arm is opened. A basin is held beneath his
arm, into which is allowed to drip and gurgle water from a tube so as to
imitate the sounds made by the departing life-blood. Again the
death-watch is set and the stages of his decline are called off: "Now he
weakens! Now his heart is failing!" until finally, with the solemn
pronouncement, "Now he dies!" he falls over, gasps a few times and is
dead, though the total amount of blood lost by him does not exceed a few
teaspoonfuls.

A variant of the story is that the trick was pla