HER SIXTH SENSE

Evening Star, Issue 15481, 1 May 1914, Page 5

HER SIXTH SENSE

1 LADY"KNOWS BY INSTINCT WHEN SPIDERS ARE NEAR, .'. That there axe more things in heaven and earth than aro dreamed .of in our philosophy is brought home once again by a remarkable instance of a lady's sixth sense, -which is described in '.The Times' by a medical correspondent. "A few weeks ago, while on. a visit to .the country," he writes, " I mot a young man who informed me that his wife possessed a most extraordinary sixth sens© in regard to spiders. She could detect t.ho presence of a spider in any room sho happened to be living in, without; having seen the insect, or, indeed, if one may soput it, without having any reason to suppose that-it was there. The discovery was accompanied by violent sickness, malaise, arid even /lability, "but all these symptoms at once passed a.ivay when the spider was caught and removed 'from the room. I had heard of such caees, and recollected.' having read a story in one of the medical - papers some years ago in which a somewhat similar state of things was described, yet found it hard to believe that actual detection of so small an insect, could occur, n& it were, 'by instinct.' However, my doubts were «-et at .rest a few, nights later when the lady referred to joined her husband at the house where wo were staying. In the middle of the night- my new acquaintance came to my room and asked mo to attend his wife, who had become very unwell. ' She declares there is a spider in the bedroom, but I cannot find one this time.' I followed him, and found his wife in a state which suggested sudden collapse. She was very pale, with a feeble ;pulso and rapid breathing. She declared that she felt ' dreadfully side' and that she -was absolutely certain that there was a spider somewhere in the room. ; So insistent was she on this point that, to humor her, but without in the least believing her story, her husband and I lit a candle and searched every nook and cranny of the room. We found nothing. and Were about'to give up the rather ridiculous pursuit when the patient suddenly announced that she 'had a feeling' that, the spider was upon the mantelpiece. We 'looked there, and had satisfied ourselves that 'she was quite mistaken, when it occurred io me to lift the edge of the flonnco surrounding the woodwork. As I did so a large black spider inn quickly along the cloth towards a hole in the wood ,ind disappeared. The husband and I looked at one another, and I signed to him to afford no indication, of what had occurred. But just then a sigh of relief from • the bed, accompanied' by the remark ' At last you have found it,' proved to ue the futility of our precaution. The sixth sense had not failed. Within' about half an hour the patient was- quite well again, and, on- being assured that the hole in the woodwork was stopped up, fell asleep peacefully."