Throughout the series, except in case 10, M. Janet was the operator. It will be seen that in the 35 trials there were nine cases in which Madame B. was found asleep within half-an-hour of the attempt being made to entrance her. In six other cases she was found asleep after a longer interval, but there is nothing to indicate that the sleep did not actually supervene at the right time. In one case she was found awake within fifteen minutes of the trial, but stated that she had been awakened by the ringing of the bell which announced M. Janet's arrival. In one other case she was found washing her hands to ward off the trance. Of the 17 failures Madame B. was out walking in four cases at the time of the trial, a circumstance which no doubt diminished the chances of success. In two cases headache or disturbance were produced; of the remaining 11 trials no details are given, and it is presumed that no unusual effect was observed, and that there was no apparent cause for the failure. Of course, experiments carried on under these conditions, the trials being confined for the most part within a narrow range of hours, and the subject liable to spontaneous trance, offer some scope for chance coincidence. But as Madame B. actually fell asleep spontaneously on only four occasions during the period over which the trials extended, it will probably be considered that the number of coincidences, imperfect as they were, was considerably more than could plausibly be attributed to accident or self-suggestion.[60]
In January 1887 M. Richet made some experiments of the same kind on Madame B. Of 9 trials, however, two only could be described as completely successful, and three more as doubtful. A few further trials, in December 1887 and January 1888, were even less successful. M. Richet has attempted on several occasions to influence other subjects at a distance, but no series of successful results was attained; and isolated coincidences of the kind have, of course, little evidential value (loc. cit., pp. 47-51).[61]
No. 30.—Experiments by DR. DUFAY.
In a paper published in the Revue Philosophique of September 1888, M. Dufay, a physician formerly in practice at Blois, and now a Senator of France, records several instances in which he has himself succeeded in producing sleep at a distance. In one case he hypnotised from his box in the theatre, as he believes without her knowledge, a young actress who had been a patient of his, and caused her, whilst in the state of lucid somnambulism, to play a new and difficult part with more success than she would have been likely to achieve in the normal state. In this particular case, however, it seems possible that the subject may have received some intimation of Dr. Dufay's presence in the house, and that the hypnotic state may have been due to expectation. Another case was that of Madame C., who had been for some time treated hypnotically by Dr. Dufay for periodical attacks of sickness and headache. So sensitive did this patient become to his suggestions that she would fall into the hypnotic sleep as soon as the bell rang to announce his coming, and before he had actually entered the house. The circumstances under which Dr. Dufay first made a deliberate attempt to influence Madame C. at a distance were as follows:—He was in attendance on a patient whom he was unable to leave, when he was unexpectedly summoned by Monsieur C. to hypnotise Madame C., who was in the height of an attack. He assured Monsieur C. that on his return home he would find Madame C. asleep and cured, as proved actually to be the case. However, here also, as Dr. Dufay points out, self-suggestion is a possible explanation. The following case seems less open to suspicion on this ground:—
"On another occasion," Dr. Dufay writes, "Madame C. was in perfect health, but her name happening to be mentioned in my hearing, the idea struck me that I would mentally order her to sleep, without her wishing it this time, and also without her suspecting it. Then, an hour later, I went to her house and asked the servant who opened the door whether an instrument, which I had mislaid out of my case, had been found in Madame C.'s room.
"'Is not that the doctor's voice that I hear?' asked Monsieur C. from the top of the staircase; 'beg him to come up. Just imagine,' he said to me, 'I was going to send for you. Nearly an hour ago my wife lost consciousness, and her mother and I have not been able to bring her to her senses. Her mother, who wished to take her into the country, is distracted....'
"I did not dare to confess myself guilty of this catastrophe, but was betrayed by Madame C., who gave me her hand, saying, 'You did well to put me to sleep, Doctor, because I was going to allow myself to be taken away, and then I should not have been able to finish my embroidery.'
"'You have another piece of embroidery in hand?'
"'Yes; a mantle-border ... for your birthday. You must not look as though you knew about it, when I am awake, because I want to give you a surprise.'
"I repeated the experiment many times with Madame C., and always with success, which was a great help to me when unable to go to her at once when sent for. I even completed the experiment by also waking her from a distance, solely by an act of volition, which formerly I should not have believed possible. The agreement in time was so perfect that no doubt could be entertained.
"To conclude, I was about to take a holiday of six weeks, and should thus be absent when one of the attacks was due. So it was settled between Monsieur C. and myself that, as soon as the headache began, he should let me know by telegraph; that I should then do from afar off what succeeded so well near at hand; that after five or six hours I should endeavour to awaken the patient; and that Monsieur C. should let me know by means of a second telegram whether the result had been satisfactory. He had no doubt about it; I was less certain. Madame C. did not know that I was going away.
"The sound of moanings one morning announced to Monsieur C. that the moment had come; without entering his wife's room he ran to the telegraph office, and I received his message at ten o'clock. He returned home again at that same hour, and found his wife asleep and not suffering any more. At four o'clock I willed that she should wake, and at eight o'clock in the evening I received a second telegram: 'Satisfactory result, woke at four o'clock. Thanks.'
"And I was then in the neighbourhood of Sully-sur-Loire, 28 leagues—112 kilometres—from Blois."
Similar experiments have been recorded by, amongst others, Dr. J. Héricourt,[1] a colleague of M. Richet in the editing of the Revue Scientifique, Dr. Dusart,[62] and Dr. Dariex.[63] In the last case there were only five trials, the experiments being then discontinued at the request of the patient. The first three trials were completely successful, the sleep supervening within, at most, a few minutes of the time chosen by the agent.
The following narrative resembles those cited above in its general features. But in view of the nature of the effect produced—a painful hysterical attack—it is perhaps hardly a matter for regret that the case is without any exact parallel.
No. 31.—By DR. TOLOSA-LATOUR.
In this account, taken from a letter written to M. Richet by Dr. Tolosa-Latour on the 5th March 1891 (Annales des Sciences Psychiques, Sept.-Oct. 1893), Dr. Latour explains that he had repeatedly hypnotised a lady who was seized in September 1886 with hysterical paralysis, and had ultimately succeeded in effecting by this means a complete cure. Prior to his treatment, in 1885, she had suffered for some time from daily hysterical attacks, and when she came under Dr. Latour she was still occasionally subject to them, and found relief in the hypnotic sleep. Both symptoms had at the time which he writes almost completely disappeared.
"I had made some very curious experiments, but I had never thought about either action at a distance or clairvoyance. It was while leaving Paris and reading your [M. Richet's] pamphlet in the carriage that the idea occurred to me of sending Mdlle. R. to sleep. It was Sunday, October the 26th, the very day of my departure. I remember the hour too; it was just before reaching Poitiers, where some relations of my grandmother were expecting me. I told my wife that I was going to try the experiment, and begged her to say nothing about it to any one. I began to fix my thoughts about six o'clock, and during the journey from Poitiers to Mignie (where we stayed several days) I again and again thought of this question, especially during the intervals of silence which always occur during a journey.
"I wished to cause a violent hysteric attack, as I knew that she had not been dangerously ill for a long time. So on Sunday, October the 26th, from six till nine o'clock in the evening, I fixed my thoughts intently on the experiment.
"Then, on my return, I asked my brother if Mdlle. R. had called him in, as she always did when she was ill. Among the patients' names I did not find hers. It seemed almost certain that my experiment had failed. A week afterwards I called on her, and was agreeably surprised to learn that, on the contrary, it was a success, as you will judge by her letter. She does not fix the day, but her sister and the nurse have told me that it was the second Sunday after the festival of St. Theresa—that is to say, after Wednesday the 15th; the first Sunday being the 19th, the second is of course the 26th.
"This is the letter:—