Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/179

Rh so could not induce him to perform his usual tasks. At once the writer called upon Professor Cooley, an expert on horses, who was in the audience, and who had seen the performance from the start, to take charge of the horse, which he did, with exactly the same result as the writer had. Next the principal of the high school in Miles City, who could not be accused of any skepticism regarding the horse's ability, or any want of sympathy for him, was asked to put King through his paces, but he could not get a single intelligent reaction from him. It ought to be added that the writer was simply neutral in his attitude toward the horse throughout the trainer's performances; he did not praise or censure; he simply took notes on each event, which impressed both the trainer and some of the observers as denoting a too critical and unsentimental relation.

It was to be expected that the trainer of King would explain his disappointing behavior as due to the paralyzing influence of strange personalities, and indisposition of some sort, for he had "never acted that way before." So another experiment was determined upon, and it was agreed that Dr. Boyd should handle the horse himself next time, and the writer would simply tell him what tests should be made. Now, it was mentioned above that in the language and arithmetic tests, the trainer as well as the audience saw the letters and figures, which made it impossible to eliminate the trainer's influence in guiding his horse, even though he might be unconscious of it. In order to try out this point it was decided, and it was thought without the trainer's knowledge, to prepare new blocks with letters and figures only on one side, and to arrange them on the rack so that the trainer could not see them while directing King, but so that the horse and the observers could see them. It was also decided to blindfold the trainer while the horse was being tested on his ability to discriminate colors, and to select special ones to give to persons to whom he had been introduced. Strangely enough, just before the tests were to be made the trainer declared that King had suddenly been taken sick, and could not be tested, though "nothing like it had ever happened to him before." To clear up the situtionsituation [sic], which looked very bad, Dr. Boyd promised to bring King to Madison, Wisconsin, for further experiments before January 15, 1912; but from that day to this (October 1, 1912) it has been impossible to get any response from him, though King is still amazing people with his "human intelligence."

Any one familiar with horses knows that they are capable of keen responses of a particular kind. They can very acutely distinguish tones of voice in respect to their denoting gentleness, or harshness, or weakness, or sternness in their possessors. Dogs have the same sort of keenness. Very young children, before they understand a single word as a symbol of meaning, can discriminate a number of shades in vocal