THE WEIRD ADVENTURES
OF PROFESSOR DELAPINE
OF THE SORBONNE....
BY
GEORGE LINDSAY JOHNSON,
M.A., M.D. B.S. F.R.C.S.
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, Limited
CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY, Limited, SOUTH AFRICA
NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON AND CO.
1916
To
My Dear Master
Edmund Landolt, M.D.
HOMMAGE D'AMITIÉ
PREFACE
When travelling in France a few years ago during the summer vacation,I made the acquaintance of a professor of world-wide fame, whichacquaintance soon ripened into a lasting friendship. Among the varioussubjects which we dealt with in our conversation, I happened to mentionspiritualism. I told him how bitterly disappointed I had been at thevarious séances I had attended. Either the séance had passed offwithout any phenomena at all, or if anything did occur, it had turnedout invariably to be a palpable fraud, and had left me more scepticalthan ever—besides, I added, the oracular utterances delivered by themedium when in an hysterical condition, which is palmed off to theaudience as a trance, were so nonsensical and meaningless as to leaveme in doubt whether to be amused at the gullibility of the public, ordisgusted at the time I had thrown away in listening to such nonsense.
"Yes," replied the Professor thoughtfully, "that always used to be myview of spiritualism, but since I have seriously examined the subjectfor myself I have entirely changed my views on the subject. So far fromscoffing at it, as I confess I used to, I am now convinced that thereal phenomena are far and away more astonishing than are these whichthese charlatans profess to exhibit or actually produce by conjuringand fraud. Now, if you wish to be convinced that there are genuinephenomena, come with me to Paris and we will investigate the subjecttogether at the great S.... Hospital. Here we found indeed a rich fieldfor our studies. We witnessed there all the phenomena of suggestion,second-sight, clair-audience, hypnotism, dual-consciousness, telepathy,the movement of objects without contact, and many other occurrences ofsuch a surprising nature that in our present state of ignorance theyappeared to be altogether outside the laws of Nature as we understandthem; and I went away entirely convinced that certain people possesspowers such as we ordinary mortals have never even dreamt of."
While I was staying at his hotel, the Professor narrated to me theextraordinary history of Professor Delapine, which he assured me wastrue, and which with his permission I committed to writing, and workedup into a novel. Observing the intense interest which I exhibited inhis narrative, he was kind enough to introduce me to the Professorhimself as well as to several of the other characters, and therebyenabled me to fill up the gaps. What I heard certainly bore out theadage that "truth is stranger than fiction." For obvious reasons I havenot given the real names to the characters referred to in the novel,since Delapine, Madame Delapine, (Renée), Marcel, and Dr. Riche arestill hale and hearty, and very distinguished and popular members of