THE SEPTEMBER-COMMISSION 257 



Mr. von Osten withdrew, and in comparison of notes 

 which followed, Mr. Busch, as well as all the others, 

 declared that they had discovered nothing of the nature 

 of a visible sign. Mr. Busch said that he had also kept 

 an eye on the spectators and had noticed nothing there. 

 Nevertheless, he desired to see Mr. von Osten go through 

 one series with no one else but himself (Busch) present. 



This was done, and on this occasion a number of tests 

 were made in the recognition of colored cloths. The 

 horse was required to indicate, by tapping, the place in 

 the series which the cloth occupied and was then asked 

 to bring the green or the red, as the case might be, in 

 his mouth. Furthermore, he was asked to approach that 

 one of the five gentlemen standing at a distance, whose 

 photograph had been shown him. Then he was requested 

 to spell the words " Rat " and " Busch " according to the 

 method which he had been taught. Nearly all of these 

 tests were likewise successful. 



In the conference which followed, Mr. Busch again 

 declared that he had noticed no trace of a sign ; he main- 

 tained that, in the selecting of colored cloths (especially 

 when they were placed so closely together) and in the 

 approach toward a person, there was no possibility what- 

 ever that some trick was being used. 



During the session of September 12th, Mr. von Osten 

 agreed to two sets of experiments. 



I. Another man was to put the question to the horse. 

 Mr. von Osten himself was to stand, back to back to the 

 questioner and to bend forward, so that he was effectually 

 hidden from the horse's view, yet could, by means of 

 occasional calls, make his presence known to the animal. 

 The assumption was that it would be conducive to suc- 

 cess if the horse knew that the master was present and 



