i 4 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ances of ' Jim Key ' includes among its dozen numbers such items as 

 these : ' Jim shows his proficiency in figuring, adding, multiplication, 

 division and subtraction for any number below thirty.' ' He spells 

 any ordinary name asked him.' ' He reads and writes.' ' Gives quo- 

 tations from the Bible where the horse is mentioned, giving chapter 

 and verse ' ; and in addition acts as a post-office clerk or handles a cash- 

 register. When these problems are reduced to equine terms, they prove 

 to be simple variations of a single theme. To aid the figuring, the 

 numbers are placed in natural order on large frames, five in a row, and 

 five rows ; and the letters, in alphabetical order, are similarly displayed. 

 The numbers to be added or subtracted are proposed by some one in 

 the audience, and repeated by the showman. The horse then proceeds 

 to the card bearing the number that indicates the result, takes that 

 card between his teeth and gives it to his master. The same is done 

 for words composed of letters, each letter being selected in turn. 



This is absolutely the whole performance; and even when most 

 generously interpreted bears a decidedly remote resemblance to what 

 the posters describe. The interesting part of it all is that so many 

 who witness this simple exhibition are quite ready to conclude that 

 before ' Jim Key ' chooses -his card, he goes through those mental 

 processes which each one of the audience performs when he works out 

 the answer to the problem as announced. This assumption is not alone 

 wholly uncalled for, but is actually preposterous. One of the elemen- 

 tary facts that students of mind, whether of human or of animal minds, 

 clearly grasp, is that there are vastly different ways in this complex 

 world of ours, of doing the same thing. The same result is reached 

 by wholly different means. To neglect this distinction would be to 

 conclude that because one man — or, if you like, a horse or a squirrel — 

 avoids a certain mushroom on account of its unpleasant odor, and the 

 botanist does so by recognizing it as a specimen of Amanita muscaria, 

 that all have displayed the same kind of intelligence, have used the 

 same reasoning, because in the end they reach the same result — the 

 avoidance of the fungus. To the simple, but comprehensive statement 

 that the horse gives not the slightest indication of going through any 

 of these processes in order to select his card, it need only be added that 

 he gives decided indication of going through a very different land of 

 process. It is not at all necessary to know precisely what special sign 

 the horse observes in guiding his selections, in order to determine 

 (which is the important thing) that it is some kind of simple sign, an 

 operation that falls within this general type. The type of ' Jim Key's ' 

 operation is simply that of learning to go first to a certain one of five 

 rows, that is either the middle, or the top, or the bottom, or the one 

 between middle and top, or the one between middle and bottom; and 

 then in turn to select one of five cards arranged horizontally that offer 

 a similar choice. Whether the cards bear numbers or letters or Chinese 



