2o6 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



scribed on page 93), and to control properly the un- 

 avoidable variations which will occur.* 



• The mental state just described is probably essentially the same as 

 that of the spiritualistic " mediums " when they are occupied with table- 

 rapping and table-moving. In both'cases concentration is very intense, 



in other words, the field of attention is limited. We saw that this state 

 not only favors the tendency toward involuntary movement, but on ac- 

 count of the absorption of the individual's attention by a certain limited 

 content, the person will be unaware of the voluntary movements as 

 they occur. And we are not necessarily here dealing with neurasthenic, 

 hysteric, or other diseased nervous conditions. In the case of table- 

 rapping there are movements of the hands, in our case there are those 

 of the head. Our head, balanced as it is upon the cervical vertebral 

 column, is continually in a state of unstable equilibrium and therefore 

 peculiarly susceptible to movement-impulses of every kind. But I could 

 induce not only movements of the head, but also of the arms and legs, 

 and this by having the subject assume a posture which enabled him to 

 hold arms or legs in as unstable a position as possible. He might 

 stretch out his legs horizontally before him, or he could raise them ver- 

 tically upward as in the hand-stand in gymnastic work. An extract 

 from a treatise by Count A. de Gasparin,''' which appeared about the 

 middle of the last century, may serve to show how close the corres- 

 pondence between the two processes, that of getting the table to rap 

 and that of causing Hans to respond, really is. The report of this 

 writer, based upon the detailed record of his tests in table-moving and 

 table-rapping, closely parallels in many minute detail the observations 

 which were made in the course of our experimentation with Hans. The 

 case is all the more remarkable when we bear in mind that this writer 

 did not seek the cause of the phenomena, as we did, in involuntary move- 

 ments, but thrusting aside this explanation, he posited the cause in the 

 agency of some mysterious fluid. It may not be amiss to say that this 

 as well as most other references were consulted after the present experi- 

 ments and introspections had been completed. Of the page references 

 preceding the following citations, the first always refers to the page in 

 the French original, and the other, enclosed in brackets, to the parallel 

 passage in the present monograph. 



P. 49 [31]. Some questioners are especially suitable (" experimenta- 

 teurs hors ligne "), but in their absence, other persons may also operate 

 successfully ("lesucces, quoique moins brillant alors, n'est pas impos- 

 sible.") 



