Transcriber’s Notes: Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ in the original text. Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold= in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved. Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected. [Illustration: DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE “GHOST” MACHINERY. (_See p. 8._) (From a drawing by Mr. Barnard Chalon.)] THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE GHOST; AND _ALL ABOUT METEMPSYCHOSIS_. BY PROFESSOR PEPPER, AUTHOR OF “CYCLOPÆDIC SCIENCE SIMPLIFIED,” “THE PLAYBOOK OF METALS,” AND “BOY’S PLAYBOOK OF SCIENCE,” ETC. ETC. [Illustration] CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: _LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. 1890. [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.] POLYTECHNIC, 309, Regent Street, London, W., _Christmas, 1889_. _To_ WALTER HUGHES, Esq., Messrs. Hughes, Masterman, & Rew, 59, New Broad Street. MY DEAR SIR, Will you allow me to dedicate this little work to you, as some small recognition of the patience, care, and legal knowledge you displayed in bringing to a successful issue the difficult proceedings before the Attorney-General, Sir Roundell Palmer (now Lord Selborne), and also those in Chancery, connected with the sealing of my Ghost Patent by order of the late Lord Chancellor Westbury, in September, 1863? With a grateful sense of the personal kindness and attention I have received from yourself and the other members of your Firm, I am, my dear Sir, Your old Client and sincere Friend, THE AUTHOR. THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE GHOST. When the Hyde Park second Great Exhibition in 1862 had closed its doors, and the reaction from the bustle attendant on the arrival and departure of country visitors had set in, so that the halls and lecture rooms lately crowded with the numerous patrons of the old Royal Polytechnic were somewhat deserted, there came to the aid of the Institute a new invention, which people by common consent called “The Ghost.”