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Death and its Mystery – After Death – Camille Flammarian

The communication which I am about to give was sent me from Intra, Italy, on August 31, 1899, by the learned Dr. Perossi.

The Italian newspapers, my dear Master, give us assurance that you are still patiently questioning the Unknown, and that it will please you to be kept informed as to manifestations touching on the problems which you study, as well as the sky. I seize this opportunity to tell you of a personal, technical observation.

A young girl, Marie Bottini, aged thirteen (she is a peasant from Boregio), fell over a precipice and struck her head against a stone which made a wound on her right temple. It fractured her skull and a piece of bone was driven into it. It was 6 x 7-that is to say, 42 centimeters square. The fragment of bone, completely detached from the skull, buried itself in the gray matter of the brain, where it still is.

A great deal of the gray matter issued from her head; in order to sew up the flesh wound I had to take out about fifty grams of it. The little girl was brought to me thirty-six hours after the accident; I found her able to give clear answers to all my questions, and up to the present time she has not been afflicted with any nervous disorder, either of her intellectual faculties, her muscular control or her sensibility.

 In spite of the effects of the wound on her system, she suffered no mental disturbance, and was able to give, and can still give, minute explanations of what happened to her.

Having fallen into a ravine hollowed out by water, she took refuge in it and remained there until the following day. When she was asked if she had not been afraid during the night, she answered that she had not, and stated that toward the close of the day her father had appeared, to her and had given her courage, telling her to wait patiently for her relatives, who would surely come to look for her the next day and would take very good care of her.

Her father had been dead for three years. I told her that a person who had been dead for so long could not come back, but she stated with conviction that her father had come and had protected her during the whole night.

This child still sticks to what she said.

There, my dear Professor, is the authentic account of the occurrence. It is for you to study. Was it an illusion or reality? We physicians see in it an hallucination. Allow me, dear Professor, etc.

Dr. PEROSSI,

(Letter 771.)