I04 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



action was expressed in a movement toward the left, and 

 vice versa, if it had been on the left, it was bent to the 

 right. If the subject had been bending his head forward 

 and to the right, he then raised it upward and to the left, 

 etc. In all of these changes of position I noticed an in- 

 termediate posture which, to be sure, it was not always an 

 easy matter to discover, — viz.: an upright position in 

 which there was discernible no manner of head-movement 

 or only a slight tremor. If the subject was lying on his 

 back with his head supported, then there was noticeable a 

 very slight movement to one side. In this same way a 

 number of other positions were tested in order to dis- 

 cover for each the characteristic movement expressive of 

 release of tension. It would therefore appear that the 

 raising of the questioner's head, which served as the 

 signal for stopping for Mr. von Osten's horse, was but 

 one instance of a general law which may perhaps be stated 

 thus : The release of muscular tension which occurs with 

 the cessation of psychic tension, tends to bring about that 

 position of the head (and body) which, at the time, repre- 

 sents the slightest amount of muscular strain. — ^These 

 movements seldom were pronounced enough to be com- 

 pared to motion through a distance of one millimeter, in 

 a very few cases only did they attain to the magnitude of 

 one or two millimeters. I failed to note them entirely, 

 however, in only two individuals, two scientific men whose 

 mode of thought was always the most abstract, and one 

 of these was, in spite of repeated attempts, unable to elicit 

 any response whatever on the part of the horse. 



In the cases of the more suitable subjects I was able 

 to indicate not only the number they had in mind, but 

 also the divisions in which the number was thought, thus 

 12 as 5 and 5 and 2, or the same number as 2 and 5 and 5, 



