Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/231

218 E. GUENEY : was further noted that the hypnotisation was difficult or impossible unless the operator concentrated his thoughts on the desired result. Various ex- periments in thought-transference were completely successful : they took the form of strongly willing, during Mme. B.'s trance, that she should do some quite unlikely thing at a particular hour, the mental command being as punctually obeyed as if it had been expressed in words. The attempts at producing sommeil a distance were suggested by the discovery already mentioned of the need that the operator's will should co-operate in the hypnotic process. It was then found that the will alone was sufficient. " Pressure of Mme. B.'s hand, without the idea of entranc- ing her, was ineffectual ; but the idea without the pressure succeeded per- fectly." The next step was for Dr, Gibert to make the attempt when in another part of the town, and at a moment selected not by himself but by M. Janet or another friend. On two of these occasions M. Janet found Mme. B. in a deep trance, from which only Dr. Gibert could wake her ; on a third occasion she had felt the strong impulse to sleep, but had opposed it by putting her hands into cold water. A series of successes of the same kind were obtained in the spring of 1886 ; three of which, witnessed by Mr. F. W. H. Myers and Dr. A. T. Myers in the spring of 1886, are described in the paper of the former referred to in last footnote. On one of these occasions Dr. Gibert, on the other two M. Janet, was the hypnotiser ; and on each of the three the 'subject' seemed clearly to recognise to which influence she had been exposed . Of this second series M. Janet writes that, putting aside mental suggestions of trance made in the presence of the 'subject ' or in an adjoin- ing room, " the trials made at a distance of at least 500 metres from Mme. B.'s abode amount to 21. I do not count a trial made in the middle of the night, under unfortunate conditions ; and I count as failures all experi- ments where the ' subject ' was not found entranced on our entering her abode, or where the trance did not follow the mental suggestion within a quarter of an hour. These failures (each of which may admit of a complete explanation) were six in number. There remain, then, 15 precise and complete successes extraordinary coincidences, whatever interpretation of them we choose to adopt." During this period, Mme. B. did not fall into a trance on any other occasion than those mentioned. (2) The next account is from Dr. J. Hericourt, one of M. Bichet's ablest assistants in the editing of the Revue Scientifique. The observations were made and recorded in 1878, though not published till last year, pour des raisons faciles a comprendre. The ' subject ' Mine. D. was a young widow, in whom no trace of hysteria could be discovered. M. Hericourt found her exceedingly easy to hypnotise, and after about a fortnight could entrance her by his will alone, exercised without any word or gesture, and sometimes while Mme. D. was in the midst of an animated conversation with other persons. On the other hand, he found that all the ordinary physical processes remained completely ineffectual if his will was not that the trance should ensue. He soon began to extend the distance between himself and his 'subject,' and instead of producing the effect from one corner of a room to another, he could produce it from one house or one street to another. The first trial from a distant street was specially interesting. While concentrating his thoughts on the desired effect, at 3 P.M., Dr. Heri- court was summoned to see some patients, and for a time forgot all about Mme. D. He then remembered that he was engaged to meet her on the promenade at 4*30, but not finding her, he bethought him that possibly his experiment had succeeded, and towards 5 o'clock he vigorously willed that she should wake. In the evening Mme. D., spontaneously, and without