learned. There is much testimony regarding Lucius' wonderful clairvoyance in the mesmeric state, and always the conviction that there is no collusion. One of the letters is from Mr. Quimby himself, in which he refers to the case of a patient put into a state of sleep during three hours while an operation upon the teeth was being performed. The patient felt no pain. Mr. Quimby states that while the patient was asleep he told her mother that he would show her how he could talk with the daughter mentally. He then stepped toward the patient but did not put his hand upon her, merely sent her a thought. The patient thereupon laughed out in response to this thought and satisfied all in the room that it was an instance of thought-transference. This experience is significant, for it points forward to the time, presently to come, when Quimby will be able to dispense with his subject, and communicate directly either through telepathy or by the aid of his own clairvoyance, apart from mesmerism.
The last letter of this period is dated Lowell, Sept. 26, '47, and is an appeal addressed to Mr. Quimby to make an examination by the aid of Lucius of her husband's body, with the hope that the cause of his sudden death may be determined. Mr. Quimby assented, the examination was made, and in this instance the description is appended to the letter in Lucius's own words. Lucius describes the condition of the heart, which was somewhat enlarged, the state of the lungs and stomach, liver, blood, and so on. He says, “This I write while I am in communication with Mr. Quimby in the magnetic state.”
Later, when reading over what he has written, he realizes that his description as there given does not show why death came about suddenly, and so he returns to the description, still confining his statement to an account of symptoms, and the probable sensations experienced just before death. This is what we might expect from a clairvoyant whose power consisted for the most part in making wonderfully accurate descriptions of things, events, states and conditions, or in reading thoughts in a person's mind; never the interpretation of these states in terms of their real meaning. This remained for Quimby himself to discern when, having found the limitations under which Lucius made these descriptions, he saw the difference between mere symptoms and inner
