In the autumn of 1885 Professor Pierre Janet of Havre witnessed some trials made by Dr. Gibert of the same town on Madame B., a patient of his own. Madame B., whose fame has now reached beyond her native land, is described by Professor Janet as an honest peasant woman, in good health, with no indications of hysteria. She has been hypnotised since childhood by various persons, and is occasionally liable to spontaneous attacks of somnambulism. One of the most remarkable features presented by Madame B.'s induced trances is that she can be awakened by the person who hypnotised her and by no one else; and that his hand alone can produce partial or general contractures, and subsequently restore her limbs to their normal condition. "One day," to quote Professor Janet ("Note sur quelques Phénomènes de Somnambulisme," _Revue Philosophique_, Feb. 1886), "M. Gibert was holding Madame B.'s hand to hypnotise her (_pour l'endormir_), but he was visibly preoccupied and thinking of other matters, and the trance did not supervene. This experiment, repeated by me in various forms, proved to us that in order to entrance Madame B. it was necessary to concentrate one's thought intensely on the suggestion to sleep which was given to her, and the more the operator's thought wandered the more difficult it became to induce the trance. This influence of the operator's thought, however extraordinary it may seem, predominates in this case to such an extent that it replaces all other causes. If one presses Madame B.'s hand without the thought of hypnotising her, the trance is not induced; but, on the other hand, one can succeed in sending her to sleep by thinking of it without pressing her hand."