EXPLANATION OF OBSERVATIONS i8i 



here again, evidence of the presence of visual signs, 

 given unwittingly and involuntarily, just as I am sure 

 that they were involved in the two preceding cases, and 

 similarly in the case of the Huggins dog. Since the ef- 

 fective signs were discoverable in none of these canine 

 predecessors of Hans, an investigation would be desir- 

 able, based upon the insight gained as a result of these 

 experiments upon Mr. von Osten's horse. Unfortunately 

 this is impossible, since the dogs in question are dead. 

 But others like them undoubtedly exist in many places. 

 We might mention that when Hans first came under the 

 limelight of public attention, there was also frequent 

 reference to the Huggins dog, but he soon dropped out 



the colt what was wanted, Rouhet would concentrate with his whole 

 mind upon the object intended (a watch), and at the same time he would 

 bend forward slightly. In the third test, that is at the end of fifteen 

 minutes, he had accomplished his purpose, and in the tenth lesson, no 

 more mistakes occurred. The colt would fail to respond, however, as 

 soon as he refrained from making any gestures, or was in a laissez faire 

 frame of mind, or when he thought of other things. He therefore be- 

 lieves that there must have been some kind of immediate, though in- 

 explicable, connection between the brain of the trainer and that of the 

 horse. I think the explanation is evident : the connection was not as 

 he thought, an immediate one, but arising through the mediation of the 

 man's attitude (" attitude un peu baissee "), and of his movements 

 (" gestes "), both resulting from his intense concentration (" tension de 

 la pensee "). 



In general we may say that, no matter what content we may wish to 

 put into the term " suggestion," not a single fact has since come to 

 light which would justify, and much less demand, the application of the 

 term to lower forms, unless we would expand the definition of the term 

 to the extent of comprising every kind of command, every arousal of 

 ideas, whatsoever. But it would then be nothing but a new name for 

 old knowledge 62 and would lose all explanatory value. (Hypnotism, 

 so-called, in the case of horses, I shall discuss elsewhere in another' 

 connection.) «« 



