"THOMAS ATWOOD"

I personally interviewed Mr. John Polley's wife and sister and received
a written statement from each confirming Mr. Polley's account.

A local paper containing an account of the inquest on the child states
that the accident took place on Tuesday, 7th May, and the child was
taken to a hospital immediately and there died. The father of the child
wrote to me as follows:--

"DEAR SIR,--In reply to your inquiry respecting my late son,
John Frederick, I beg to say that on Tuesday, 7th May, my
wife went out to do some shopping, leaving my son, aged two
years and two months, in a bedroom with another brother aged
seven. Whilst the elder brother was getting some toys to
play with, the deceased thrust some paper in the fire,
pulled it out again, and set fire to his clothes. Some
neighbours took him to the Children's Hospital, Paddington
Green, where he passed away on Wednesday, 8th May, at 11.45
a.m. No intimation of this was given by myself or any member
of our family to my brother, Mr. John Polley, until a friend
of the family called at my address on Thursday, 9th May,
between 1 and 2 p.m., when we informed him of the sad loss
that we had sustained, and he told us that he intended
calling on my brother that evening, and we asked him if he
would communicate the news to my brother and sister who
reside at Church Street, Stoke Newington. Of course, Sir,
you know I am antagonistic to your views, but my brother has
told me it is for the interests of science. If this is so, I
take great pleasure in its furtherance.--Yours sincerely,

(Signed) "FREDERICK GEORGE POLLEY"

In the above case it appears to me that the vision of the burning child
which Mr. John Polley saw arose out of a spontaneous telepathic
impression, either from the mind of the father of the child to his
brother's (Mr. John Polley's mind), or from the mind of one of the
persons who was cognizant of the sad event.

In regard to the second case of spontaneous telepathy to which I have
referred, I cannot do better than to give the account of same as it
appeared in the _Journal of the Society for Psychical Research_ of June
1912:--

"The following case of a reciprocal telepathic impression
occurring to two persons at the same time has been
communicated to us by Mr. W. W. Baggally