With this letter the sealed envelope was returned, apparently in exactly the same state in which it had been sent; the seals were intact, with the exception perhaps of a few trifling fractures, for which the transit to and from Boston, through the mail, would readily account. Upon closer inspection, however, and upon turning the envelope so as to catch the light, I thought that a slight glazing of gum was discernible around the central seal, and from beneath its edge a minute bubble of mucilage protruded. The fee demanded was at once forwarded, and by return of mail the following 'communicates' were received, written in pencil on long strips of common paper, and in two different hands:
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
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.