34 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



course of the experiments carried on in the courtyard. 

 Whenever a doubt arose as to the number of taps made 

 by the horse (though this did not frequently occur), then 

 the series in question was immediately repeated. 



In this report of the results of our experiments, the 

 reader must bear in mind that it was impossible to adhere 

 to that order and distribution of tests which we are wont 

 to require in the case of psychophysical experiments con- 

 ducted under regular laboratory conditions. All sorts of 

 difficulties had to be overcome: unfavorable weather, the 

 crowds of curious ones, certain peculiarities of the horse 

 — such as shying whenever the wind rippled the canvas 

 of the tent — and last but not least, the idiosyncrasies of 

 Mr. von Osten who repeatedly attempted to interrupt the 

 progress of the experiments. 



Since it was evident that different kinds of processes 

 were involved in solving the problems and since the solu- 

 tions would be indicated by tapping, or by movements of 

 the head, or by walking over to the object to be desig- 

 nated, the results of these three sets of experiments have 

 been grouped under three corresponding heads. 



/. Problems solved by tapping 



The following tests were made in which the method 

 was such that when the problem was presented to the 

 horse, the correct solution was known to none of those 

 present, least of all to the questioner. This method we 

 shall designate in the following report as "procedure 

 without knowledge " whereas we shall call the method in 

 which the answer was known to the questioner, "pro- 

 cedure with knowledge ". 



In order to discover if the horse could read numbers, 



