leaving the body in such a state that it is capable of being again
inhabited and animated, lies at the bottom of the numerous statements
as to sorcerers and sorceresses changing themselves into hares,
wolves, or cats, which are to be found in the records of witch trials.

That this was possible, at least after death, was evidently a strong
belief upon the part of Major S----. We are informed that he
frequently intimated his intention of entering the body of a
particular black spaniel which he possessed, and so strong a belief
was attached to his words, that after his death all his dogs,
including the spaniel in question, were shot, apparently in order to
render impossible any such action upon his part. The policy of the
measure adopted was short-sighted. If the Major had thoroughly
succeeded in animating the body of the living spaniel, the physical
resources at his disposal would have been too limited to have enabled
him to give much trouble. As it is, a series of witnesses attest
apparitions of this spaniel, and of at least one other dog, which may
naturally be regarded as much more disturbing.

The second point is possibly the same as the last, but it appears to
be more probably based upon the belief held by Major S----, in common
with a large number of those who have made a serious study of
apparitions--and certainly a large number of the members of the
S.P.R.--that such apparitions are really hallucinations or false
impressions upon the senses, created, so far as originated by any
external cause, by other minds either in the body or out of the body,
which are themselves invisible in the ordinary and physical sense of
the term, and really acting through some means at present very
imperfectly known. Such an opinion of course reserves the question of
the possible action of unseen forces upon what is commonly called