68 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



obtained, except in the case of Mr. Schillings and myself. 

 The numbers 2, 3 and 4, on the other hand, were very 

 easily obtained and, above all, 3 seldom failed. 3 seemed 

 to be the horse's favorite number and was very frequently 

 given instead of other numbers. Thus, one-sixth of all 

 the horse's incorrect responses which were given to me 

 were in terms of the number 3. The numbers 5 and 6 were 

 a little more difficult to obtain and above 10 the difficulty 

 increased rapidly. Indeed, I never saw Hans respond 

 with a number exceeding 20 to any questioner, Mr. 

 Schillings and Mr. von Osten excepted. I saw the nine 

 vain attempts of Count zu Castell to get the number 15, 

 and Count Matuschka's eight unsuccessful attempts to 

 obtain the number 16 as a response. But even with Mr. 

 von Osten and Mr. Schillings such failures were not 

 infrequent. Thus, Mr. von Osten tried five consecutive 

 times to obtain the number 24. I myself did not fare 

 any better at first. But the following table shows what 

 practice can do. If we compare the percentage of correct 

 responses (involving the numbers i to 7 — for which alone 

 I have sufficient material, viz., 80 to 100 cases), obtained 

 in the first half of our tests, with that of the second half, 

 we get the following : 



For number : 1234567 



In first half of tests : 49, 92, 89, 86, 74, 62, S3 % 

 " second " " : 92, 95, 92, 98, 97, 86, 96 % 



From this we see how hard it was at first to get the 

 number i and that failure was as frequent as success, and 

 how much easier it was on the other hand to get the 

 numbers 2 and 3 (and which, therefore, do not show any 

 great improvement in the second half of the tests). 

 Beyond the 3 the percentage of correct responses de- 

 creased and the number 7 stood at the same level as the 



