Research source

I will conclude this chapter with the following extract from “Lockhart’s Life of Scott:”

Date of account: First published 1848
Source: The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Reference: The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers · selected passage 218
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

nalogous to, if not the very same, that causes the varying susceptibility to such phenomena as I am treating of; and, accordingly, we know that in all times, horses and dogs have been reputed to have the faculty of seeing spirits: and when persons who have the second-sight see a vision, these animals, if in contact with them, perceive it also, and frequently evince symptoms of great terror. We also here find the explanation of another mystery, namely, what the Germans call _ansteckung_, and the English (skeptics when alluding to these phenomena) _contagion_—meaning simply _contagious fear_; but, as when several persons form a chain, the shock from an electrical machine will pass through the whole of them—so, if one person is in such a state as to become sensible of an apparition or some similar phenomenon, he may be able to communicate that power to another; and thus has arisen the conviction among the highlanders, that a seer, by touching a person near him, enables him frequently to participate in his vision.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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