REACTION OF THE HORSE 217 



again, it was necessary for Mr. von Osten to invent a 

 suitable means of expression for the horse, and once more 

 this had to be borrowed from the treasury of gesture- 

 language. Tapping with the hoof was naturally hit upon 

 as one of the normal, expressive movements of the horse. 

 This has long been used by trainers, in preparing horses 

 for show purposes. The method used in training the 

 horse to make this response is of no import, whether it 

 was by touching his foot with the hand, or tapping his 

 leg, or by any other means. 



It is possible that many will declare, as being non- 

 sensical, any attempt to introduce number-concepts * into 

 an animal's mind, because the necessary motor basis is 

 lacking. We will not, just at this point, stop to discuss 

 whether or not it was not possible to develop number- 

 concepts from purely auditory or visual representations. 

 It is evident, however, that Mr. von Osten believed that 

 a motor basis of some sort was essential. In the case of 

 man this basis is found in the enunciation of the number 

 names (or in the manipulation of the fingers). Mr. von 

 Osten seemed to think that he was justified in assuming 

 that, even in the case of the horse, some form of inner 

 articulation of the word-sounds was possible ; — at the 

 same time, in so doing, he did not blink at the psycho- 

 logical difficulty of this hypothesis. The tapping of the 

 foot was to be regarded merely as the expression of the 

 process of inner counting, but not as the motor basis of 

 the process. For this latter purpose tapping would be 

 quite inadequate, for the number complexes which arise 

 in the summation process of counting, could not be dif- 



*The author intends to take up the problem of counting, so-called, on 

 the part of animals and of the principle involved, in another work soon 

 to be forthcoming. 



