568 D. The next case is quoted from Dr. Dufay's paper already referred to {Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 411). The author's caution in interpreting the phenomena adds to the value of his observations. The account is dated Blois, May 1888. It will be remembered that in the case quoted in 552 A, Dr. Dufay hypnotised an actress from a distant part of the theatre, but in that case it did not seem absolutely certain that she could not have suspected his presence in the theatre and his intention.

... Madame C. was thirty-five years of age, of a nervous temperament, and slightly rheumatic. For some time she had been subject to periodical attacks of headache and sickness, which the usual remedies had failed to relieve. Under these circumstances, I did not hesitate to try the effect of magnetism on my first visit to her. At the end of five minutes the pain passed off and the sickness ceased, and on every subsequent occasion the same thing took place. If my arrival was delayed the troubles continued; but hardly had I pulled the bell, and before the door was opened, Madame C. fell into a calm sleep. It was quite a different thing if any one else rang the bell, for then the invalid complained bitterly of the noise that was splitting her head.

Later on she even felt my approach from the further end of the street: "Ah! what happiness!" she would say, "here is the doctor coming, I feel myself cured!" and Monsieur C. would open the window to make certain of it, and would see me in the distance. And his wife never made a mistake. Sometimes he would try to encourage her by telling her that he saw me coming, but she knew that this was not true, and the sickness continued.

In a case of this sort, how could I hesitate to make an attempt at influencing her from a distance ? Moreover, I was driven to it by circumstances. At the height of an attack Monsieur C, who had already been twice to fetch me, discovered where I was to be found. Being with a patient whom I could not leave for several hours, I assured Monsieur C, without being at all certain of it myself, that his wife would be asleep and cured when he got home again. I had the satisfaction of verifying this three hours later, when I ordered a profound sleep to last till the following day, which repaired the fatigues of the morning. " Thus the possibility of magnetising at a distance is not to be doubted," say my notes. But nowadays the objection of self-suggestion presents itself: I was expected; Monsieur Chad promised to bring me with him.

Am I going to find a more convincing example ? Yes, certainly. It was, however, an act of simple curiosity without any therapeutic aim. 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 says 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".

" Make yourself easy as to that, you will see me just as surprised as grateful the day when you make me this valuable present. But why do you mention it to me now? "

"Because you ought to know why I am pleased at not being able to go away".

I then explained to the husband and the mother that I had allowed myself to make an experiment, and it was settled amongst us that Madame C should not be told of it. I then woke her as usual by means of passes from within outwards in front of her eyes, and she was told that she had fallen asleep after lunch, while reading the newspaper, which did not astonish her at all....

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 M. 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 M. 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 M. C. that the moment had come; without entering his wifés 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....

I had no doubt as to the reality of action at a (perhaps unlimited) distance, when I observed this case, about twenty-five years ago. But now, so much am I struck by the improbability of the story, that I am more ready to admit that Madame C., at the moment when the pain and sickness commenced, thought that her husband had heard her moans and had hurried to secure my assistance, since she was unaware of my absence; that her conviction that I should give her relief as usual had sufficed to produce sleep by self-suggestion, and that the waking had taken place under the same influence, after a lapse of time sensibly equivalent to that during which I usually caused her to sleep....