EXPLANATION OF OBSERVATIONS i6i 



Feinde besetzt ", (The road and the bridge are held 

 by the enemy), which was given to the horse one day and 

 correctly repeated by him on the following day, was not 

 an answer elicited from the horse by means of a question, 

 but rather a system of automatic reactions which were 

 induced by certain involuntary movements of the ques- 

 tioner as stimuli. Far from showing a wonderful 

 memory in these feats — as is claimed for him by the 

 very non-critical compiler, Zell ^' — Hans, on the contrary, 

 has at his service a remarkably small number of asso- 

 ciations. For, besides possessing the powers of any 

 ordinary horse, he recognizes only a few meager visual 

 signs. To be sure, we find in the literature a horse that 



of a metal strip that was balanced horizontally upon a pivot, and was 

 supposed to be put into motion in the presence of metals. Ritter used 

 this instrument in his numerous experiments with the Italian Campetti, 

 a man who had achieved a measure of fame in Europe for his ability to 

 discover springs and metals by the use of the divining rod. Carrying 

 the "balancier" on the tip of the middle finger of his left hand, Cam- 

 petti — whose integrity one cannot cavil at — had to touch repeatedly a 

 plate of zinc or pewter, and had to count aloud the number of touches 

 he made. The following curious law was found to obtain (that was 

 probably suggested to the subject by Ritter without his being aware of 

 it) : with the first contact the " balancier " turns to the left, with the 

 second to the right, and with the third it remains at rest. At 4 it turns 

 once more to the left, at 5 to the right, at 6 it remains at rest, etc. It 

 remained immovable only at the so-called trigonal numbers (3, 6, 

 9, 15, 21, etc.). Ritter tells us that when Campetti did not really count 

 or did not think of the number, then it would not have any influence 

 whatever upon the action of the instrument. This Ritter ascribes to 

 the agency of electricity (which in the i8th and 19th centuries was made 

 to play very much the same role that Satan had played in the i6th and 

 17th centuries). 



The similarity of these two cases and that of Mr. Schillings is evident. 

 When the questioner of the horse and the bearers of the " balancier " 

 and of the divining rod are confident of success, they succeed. When 

 they do not expect success, they fail. 



