THINKING ANIMALS 175 



number of balls, because I covered them partly with my 

 head and hands, tapped out the correct number. 



" The same thing happened when I took in one hand a 

 card, the signs on which it could only have read with 

 difficulty, the light being rather bad. The most curious 

 thing about it was that the taps were then made upon the 

 whole more rapidly and less strongly than usual ; and 

 that several times later on the horse gave the same number 

 itself with some little difficulty. 



"It is also curious that it should have repeated the 

 performance, seeing that it was only once rewarded for it, 

 and that, because it was agreed that it had done its reading 

 well. I must add that the person who assisted me told 

 me that generally, even when it was giving correctly the 

 number decided on, it hardly looked to see how I was 

 placing the balls in the box. . . . 



" Once when I was arranging three balls, because some 

 one standing behind the horse had made me the sign 3, 

 the horse tapped its three beats behind my shoulders 

 while stretching out its neck by my side in order to try to 

 take a salad leaf, thus showing that it was taking very little 

 interest in the sign which I held out to it and in the taps 

 which it was making. 



" Certainly, this time at least, the animal seemed to 

 perform an automatic action, and it seemed to me that we 

 had guessed subconsciously what the horse intended to do. 

 This may appear a crooked hypothesis, but it is less difficult 

 for me than to think that the horse had read in my mind 

 the number which I had there. It certainly did nothing 

 on most occasions to upset the fairly clear and precise 

 impression that it was obeying some more or less complex 

 determinism." 



It seems to me difficult to avoid the impression that 

 what has just been stated does not reveal a simple 

 telepathic relationship but something rather more 

 deep. The want of interest by the animal in its 

 behaviour is for me symptomatic, and agrees perfectly 

 well with the sensation of the observer that he also 

 had to obey some obscure determinism. I see here 



