REACTION OF THE HORSE 213 



This development would probably be as follows : — Mr. 

 von Osten, as the result of theoretical speculation or of a 

 misinterpretation of the facts of experience, having ar- 

 rived at the conclusion that the horse possessed extraor- 

 dinary capacity, finally undertook to instruct a certain 

 horse for a period covering three years. This one hav- 

 ing died, he, nothing daunted, undertook the education of 

 another one. What it was that influenced this old 

 teacher of mathematics to deprive humankind of the bene- 

 fit of his extraordinary pedagogical ability and love of 

 teaching, we do not know. It may be that he had had 

 bitter experience in that line, or again, mayhap the new- 

 ness and tremendousness of this other task stimulated 

 him. His first problem must have been to arouse the in- 

 terest of the animal in this process of education. It was 

 hardly to be believed that Hans would eagerly cooperate 

 in a process which promised to yield him no immediate 

 benefit. The teacher sought to overcome this lack of im- 

 mediate interest by the means of rewards. To Hans the 

 sweet carrot was as toothsome a bite as candy is to the 

 child. And since the horse was furthermore kept on low 

 rations on account of the relatively low amount of physi- 

 cal exercise he took, the anticipation of the carrots was 

 doubly enticing. 



The first thing that Mr. von Osten sought to teach the 

 horse, according to his own statement, was the significance . 

 of the names of colors and of the spatial directions such | 

 as " up ", " down ", etc. In the case of children there 

 is a simple test by means of which we may discover if 

 they have put any content into these words. The test is : 

 Do they, themselves, use them correctly? Do they call 

 the blue, blue, and the red, red? Since the horse could 

 not speak, his instructor had to give him some means by 



