on to picture vividly what were evidently scenes from its early history, showing that the infinitessimal fragment had been sufficient to put her into communication with the records connected with the spot from which it came.  The scenes through which we pass in the course of our life seem to act in the same way upon the cells of our brain as did the history of Stonehenge upon that particle of stone.  They establish a connection with those cells by means of which our mind is put en rapport with that particular portion of the records, and so we ‘remember’ what we have seen.”

One of the simplest and most common form of psychometry is that in which the psychometrist is able to tell the physical condition of a person by means of holding to the forehead, or even in the hand, some trinket or small article such as a handkerchief recently worn on the person of the individual regarding whom the information is sought.  In the case of some very sensitive psychometrists, the psychic person “takes on” the condition of the other person whose former article of clothing, trinket, etc., she is holding.  She will often actually experience the physical pain and distress of the person, and will be able to indicate from what ailment the person is suffering.  Some persons attain great proficiency in this direction, and are a great assistance to wise physicians who avail themselves of their services.  Some successful physicians themselves possess this faculty well developed, and use it to great advantage, though, as a rule they keep very quiet about it, from fear of creating unfavorable comment from their fellow-physicians and from the general public who “do not believe in such tom-foolery.”

A step further is the power of some psychometrists to correctly describe the personal characteristics, and even the past history of persons with whom they come in contact, or whose “associated article” they have in their hands.  Some very remarkable instances of this phase of psychometry are related in the books containing the history of clairvoyance.  An interesting case is that related by Zschokke, the eminent German writer, who relates in his autobiography his wonderful experience in this direction.  Listen to the story in his own words:  “It has happened to me occasionally at the first meeting with a total stranger, when I have been listening in silence to his conversation, that his past life up to the present moment, with many minute circumstances belonging to one or other particular scene in it, has come across me like a dream, but distinctly, entirely involuntarily and unsought, occupying in duration a few minutes.  For a long time I was disposed to consider these fleeting visions as a trick of the fancy—­the more so as my dream-vision displayed to me the dress and movements of the actors, the appearance of the room, the furniture, and other accidents of the scene; till on one occasion, in a gamesome mood, I narrated to my family the secret history of a seamstress who had just quitted the room.  I had never seen the person before.  Nevertheless, the hearers were astonished, and laughed and would not be persuaded but that I had a previous acquaintance with the former life of the person, inasmuch as what I had stated was perfectly true.