Dear Furness.—­Yours of 28 Feby before me—­as to this matter under consideration I have looked it over and over again Called my old friend Geo Combe and we are of the mind it is the skull of a female—­Combe says he thinks it was that of a Colored woman—­the age—­about 40 to 44 the name of the one who inhabited it—­it would not be possible for any spirit but the one who the skull belonged to If it was colored—­Cornelia Winnie might know.  Respfy ROBT HARE Mch 2 ‘85.’

In a larger, bolder hand on the second slip was the following: 

’My dear Townsman—­pardon what may seem an intrusion—­but seeing your anxiety to get the Aage [sic] sex—­col and name of a skull in your office and seeing the conclusion that Dr. Hare and Proffr Combe have arrived at—­I will say that I have looked the same over and fully concur in their conclusion save in the color of the one who once annimated [sic] that skull.  Fowler Spurzeheim [sic] and Gall agree in saying that Hare and Combe have nothing to base an opinion upon, as to the color—­yet in sex they agree Yours with Respect

BENJA RUSH M.D.

Exact age could not be determined.  Mch 2 ‘85’

These answers are certainly remarkable.  The very words of the question inside the sealed envelope are here openly repeated, and although the six eminent, scientific ghosts, Hare, Combe, Fowler, Spurzheim, Gall, and Rush do not agree with each other on all points, yet a slight divergence, or contrariety, in opinion is at times observable to the grosser eyes of flesh among doctors upon earth; and then they were all in accord over the sex of the skull, in which problem, having one chance out of only two, they could not go very far afield.  Moreover, the very framing of the question as to sex might suggest female, and as to color might suggest black.

But had not the envelope been opened?

It occurred to me to cut the edges of the sealed envelope carefully, whereby I could examine the flap, on the inside.  It was done.  The paper of the envelope under three of the seals was torn, and deception stood revealed.  The seals had been cut out, and restored to their position with mucilage.

Although, in legal phrase, I might rest my case here, yet I was anxious so to seal an envelope that while its contents could not be extracted without the destruction of the envelope and a betrayal of any attempted fraud, yet that an answer to the question enclosed should be quite within the clairvoyant power, so called, of the Medium, if he really possessed any, and as to the existence whereof I was sincerely anxious to obtain some satisfactory proof.  Animated with this desire, I proceeded as follows: 

In the ‘communicate’ from the Spirit of Dr. Hare, reference is made to Cornelia Winnie’s possible knowledge of the information which I was seeking in regard to the skull.  Could this have been a lure to tempt me to knock again at the Spiritual door of which Dr. Mansfield is the porter?