OF WILD ANIMALS 45 



his 'replies' were given in the form of scrapings with his right 

 forehoof. 



"Whether the questioner was von Osten, who had worked 

 with him for seven years, or a man like Schillings, who was a 

 complete stranger, seemed immaterial; and this went farthest, 

 perhaps, in disposing of all talk of 'collusion* between master 

 and beast." 



Now, by the bald records of the case the fact was fixed for 

 all time that Hans was the most wonderful mental prodigy 

 that ever bore the form of a four-footed animal. His learning 

 and his performances were astounding, and even uncanny. I 

 do not care how he was trained, nor by what process he received 

 ideas and reacted to them! He was a phenomenon, and I 

 doubt whether this world ever sees his like again. His mas- 

 tery of figures alone, no matter how it was wrought, was 

 enough to make any animal or trainer illustrious. 



But eventually Clever Hans came to grief. He was osten- 

 sibly thrown off his pedestal, in Germany, by human jealousy 

 and egotism. Several industrious German scientists deliber- 

 ately set to work to discredit him, and they stuck to it until 

 they accomplished that task. The chief instrument in this 

 was no less a man than the director of the "Psychological 

 Institute" of the Berlin University, Professor Otto Pfungst. 

 He found that when Hans was put on the witness stand and 

 subjected to rigid cross examinations by strangers, his answers 

 were due partly to telepathy and hypnotic influence* For ex- 

 ample, the discovery was made that Hans could not always 

 give the correct answer to a problem in figures unless it was 

 known to the questioner himself. 



To Hans's inquisitors this discovery imparted a terrible 

 shock. It did not look like "thinking" after all! The mental 

 process was different from the process of the German mind! 

 The wonderful fact that Hans could remember and recognize 

 and reproduce the ten digits was entirely lost to view. At 

 once a shout went up all over Germany, in the scientific 



