120 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



knowledge of the essentials, at least. However, it would 

 be wrong to suppose that for this reason the results were 

 more favorable, owing, mayhap, to voluntary efforts on 

 the part of the subject. The contrary was true. The two 

 subjects who had no knowledge of the character of the 

 reactions upon which my responses depended, retained 

 their normal habits, unchanged, throughout the series, — 

 whereas the last-named two, afraid lest their knowledge 

 vitiate the result, lost more and more of their power of 

 concentration and within a short time were in a condi- 

 tion of tense inhibition, which is all the more conceivable, 

 since they had had no psychological training whatever.* 



Their movements, which at first were quite profuse, 

 decreased more and more, so that in the case of von 

 Manteuffel the percentage of my successful responses 

 sank from 73% correct responses in 90 tests to 20% in a 

 total of 20 tests, — and in the case of Schillings from 

 75-100% to 23% in a series of 35 tests. The curves 

 obtained with von Manteuffel as subject, which I am 

 here publishing (figures 8 and 15), are, however, true 

 to his normal habits. The same is true of the two first 

 curves of Schillings (figures 10 and 11), whereas the 

 third (figure 12) shows distinctly the traces of the state 

 of inhibition into which he fell, and represents the same 

 condition as when Mr. Schillings, while preoccupied, tried 

 to work with Hans. All the finer details of the pheno- 

 mena in question, were likewise unknown to these two 

 subjects. 



For purposes of a clearer understanding of the various 



* My own expressive movements, on the other hand, are as pronounced 

 as ever. I still find the attempt to suppress them as difficult now 

 as when I was working with the horse (page 57). I could not, o£ 

 course, procure a curve of these movements of my own. 



