Posthumous humanity : a study of phantoms / by Adolphe d' Assier ; translated and annotated by Henry S. Olcott ; to which is added an appendix, shewing the popular beliefs current in India respecting the post-mortem vicissitudes of the human entity.

  • Assier, Adolphe d', 1827-1889.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Posthumous humanity : a study of phantoms / by Adolphe d' Assier ; translated and annotated by Henry S. Olcott ; to which is added an appendix, shewing the popular beliefs current in India respecting the post-mortem vicissitudes of the human entity. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    as she put out the light. I treated her like a crazy idiot. Soon afterwards came the terrible year. (*) I came out of it, for my part, with the loss of my sight and, a still graver thing, with the first symptoms of a complete paralysis. Having been an eye-witness to the marvellous cures effected by the medicinal springs of Aulus in the treatment of certain diseases, especially those due to the prostration of vital energy, I went there in the spring of 1871, and was able to arrest the progress of my malady. The purity of the mountain air, as well as the vivifying action of the mineral waters, determined me to fix my permanent residence in that locality. I could then study at close quarters these nocturnal disturbances which I had previously but known by hearsay. After the death of the old proprietor of the springs, the bathing establishment had become almost nightly the theatre of scenes of this cha- racter. The watchmen dared not sleep there alone. Sometimes the bathing-tubs resounded at midnight as with the strokes of a hammer. If the closet was opened whence the noise proceeded, it straight- way stopped, but recommenced in the next com- partment. When they were quiet, there were other manifestations not less curious : blows were struck on the partitions, human footfalls were heard in the watchman's room, objects of various (*) 1S70—year of the Franco-Prussian War.