12 INTRODUCTION 



problem. Then the question discussed was whether 

 ' tricks ' were involved ; now the question is : What is the 

 mechanism of the process? The question of the good 

 faith of the master was taken up once more only because 

 the facts that were brought to light by the later experi- 

 mentation seemingly brought forward new grounds for 

 distrust. But by placing this discussion toward the end 

 of our report we wished to indicate that everything that 

 is said of the present status of facts, is quite independent 

 of the view taken concerning Mr. von Osten. Even as- 

 suming that the horse had been purposely trained by him 

 to respond to this kind of signal, the case would still 

 deserve a place in the annals of science. For visual signs, 

 planned and practiced so that they could not only be 

 more readily perceived by the animal than by man, but 

 could be transferred from their inventor to others without 

 any betrayal of the secret, — this would be an extraor- 

 dinary invention, and Mr. von Osten would then be a 

 fraud, but also a genius of first rank. 



In truth he probably was neither,, but I was brief 

 in my report, for otherwise I would have been obliged 

 to go into more detail than the case warranted. And a 

 judgment passed upon a human personality is quite a 

 different matter from a judgment upon a horse. If it is 

 unscientific to make unqualified statements concerning: 

 a horse after the performance of only a few experimental 

 tests, it is certainly an unwarranted thing to pass a moral 

 judgment upon a man upon the basis of meagre material. 

 Anyone who would assume the role of judge should bear 

 in mind that here too we have more than a hundredfoli 

 the material which they could bring forward, and among 

 it some which, if taken alone, would be more unfavorable 

 than any that they had. But here all things should be 



