CONCLUSION. 285 



him to sit dowi), and shows him a piece of cake. He is 

 then questioned, and barks his answers. Say he is 

 asked what is the square root of 16, or of 9 ; he will 

 bark four or three times, as the case may be. Or 

 such a sum as -^^^ he will always answer correctly. 

 The piece of cake is, of course, the meed of such 

 cleverness. It must not be supposed that in these 

 performances any sign is consciously made by his 

 questioner. None whatever. We explain the per- 

 formance by supposing that he reads in his master's 

 expression when he has barked rightly; certainly he 

 never takes his eyes from his master's face." * 



This observation seems to me of great interest in 

 connection with the so-called " thought-reading." No 

 one, I suppose, will imagine that there was in this 

 case any "thought-reading" in the sense in which 

 this word is generally used. Evidently "Kepler" 

 seized upon some slight indication unintentionally 

 given by Mr. Huggins. The observation, however, 

 shows the great difficulty of the subject. 



The experiments I have made are, I feel, very 

 incomplete, but I have ventured to place them on 

 record, partly in hope of receiving some suggestions, 

 and partly in hope of inducing others with more 

 leisure and opportunity to carry on similar observa- 

 tions, which I cannot but think must lead to interesting- 

 results. 



♦ M. L. Huggins, " Kepler : a Biograpliy." 



