Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/180

176. A horse can learn the significance of certain words which denote pimple, definite reactions, as "gee," "haw," "get up," "whoa," and the like. He can be taught to respond in special cases to a considerable range of visual and auditory signs or cues, as may be observed in any circus. He can discriminate strangers from his caretakers, alike by smell and by sight, and also by the "feel" of the rein in driving him. The dominant emotion of the horse is fear, and he is keen in noting the characteristics of persons or places or objects which have been associated in his experience with pain or terror. He is extremely cautious, which keeps him ever on the alert, with the result that he will respond to simple stimuli in the form of "lessons" much more readily than the cow or the sheep, for instance. King is undoubtedly an average horse in this respect. As a result of repeated "lessons," he has associated a few visual and auditory signs with definite responses, and he has probably connected particular reactions with specific words, as "gentleman," or "show the gentleman" which is, of course, but one word to him, denoting a specific reaction, just as "whoa" does. Unquestionably much of his performance depends upon the peculiar vocal and bodily mannerisms of his trainer. When these are removed, King is at sea, hopelessly befogged when he is requested to do anything.

Those who exploit the intelligence of the horse, and other animals as well, usually try to show that they possess the traits of the human mind, in that they can understand sentences in ordinary speech, can read and spell and calculate numerically, can learn the names of people and discriminate their character, can interpret facial expression, and so on. Now, all these acts and processes demand a synthesis of particular experiences which it is safe to say the equine brain is incapable of under any kind or degree of education. If a horse could do these things, it would cease to be a horse. The reason a horse is a horse psychically is because it is limited to certain types of intellectual synthesis and affective reaction, all of which have been determined by its ancestral history. It would be just as sensible to say that a man could be educated to follow the trail of a fox from the scent of its track, as to say that a horse, or any other animal, can be trained to read or calculate sums or discern a skeptic in an audience. This is not reflecting in any way upon the intelligence of the horse; it is simply discriminating between the characteristic types of equine and of human intelligence. But if it were not financially profitable for some persons to possess horses with "human intelligence," we probably should never be called upon to wonder about them.