ANIMAL MYSTERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11327, 3 October 1930, Page 7

ANIMAL MYSTERY.

CALCULATING HORSES.

THE ELBERFELD C’APF

PUZZLED SCIENTISTS

Do animals reason? Only people who have never kept intelligent, dogs reply carelessly that what passes for thinking is nothing but animal instinct.

Most, people who have intelligent pets have witnessed some displays ol what seems like ‘‘thinking things out,” but there has been nothing so far to equal the marvellous powers developed in the Elberfeld horses. These hoTses learned to do arithmetic. We have all seen performing horses at circuses tlint, have been taught certain tricks. But it was until the year 1893 tllat a Dutch horse breeder, Herr Van Osten, observing that one of his horses called Hans, showed signs of unusual intelligence, began to teach the animal as if it. were a child.

This was the beginning of a movement by psychologists in all parts of fhe civilised world io make a serious study of the intelligence of the horse and dog, and to a lesser degree of the chimpanzee. Within a short time Van Osten had taught Hans to add and subtract,' the horse giving its answers by hoof taps. Han’s fame soon spread all over Germany, Professors, veterinary surgeons, heads of zoological gardens, and cavalry officers poured into Elberfeld, and a commission of inquiry was instituted.

DOCTORS’ TESTS. Celebrated doctors drew tin a report. to the effect that Hans could accomplish simple substruction, multiplication, and division, and also answer questions by means of hoof taps, the number of taps coinciding until previously selected letters of the alphabet. The doctors all declared there could have been no trickery, since the same results were obtainable whether A an Osten was present, or not; but at the same timo they admitted that, tho horse could only perforin these wonders of memory and intelligence when those present knew the results of the sums beforehand, or the answers to lho questions. In order to find some rational explanation of theso nstonishng facts, Herr Kraill, a rich merchant of Elbrrfeld, Germany, who was greatly interested in the experiments, purchased Hans, and a little later bought two young Arabian horses called Muhammed and Zarif. Ho employed the same method of training them as Van Osten had used, teaching them ns he would a class of kindergarten children, intelligent! y and affectionately. Within a short time he obtained the most surprising results, and became ' thoroughly convinced that horses are really “thinking” animals. Ho found that nans could give answers equally correctly iu tho dark and'in, daylight. In the case of Muhammed and Earif the lessons lasted from one to one and a half hours daily, the horses being taught to tap units with one foot and tens with the other. Thirteen days after his first lesson Muhammed correctly solved a series of additions, such as one plus five six, two plus four equals six, and even subtractions such as eight minus three equals five. Later the animal accomplished simple multiplication and division of single figures, and some few days’ afterwards passed on to calculations involving fractions. Some seven months from the time lie started learning Muhammed was able to extract simple square and cube roots! Meanwhile lie had learned to read, spelling out the words by tapping with his hoof tho number corresponding to the letter indicated.

In the same way, Zarif was also able to spell out words which he had never seen written. y

HOOF TAP SIGNAL

It was noticed that he combined the letters'" phonetically to coincide with the sounds heard, and often suppressed the vowels, but would add them correctly when told to do so! Noticing that the horses often tapped with their hoofs when no lessons were being given, Herr Kraill noted them to see whether they meant anvtliing in accordance with the conventional alphabet they had learned.

Ho found that such was actually the case. Ono day, having told Muhammed he should have some carrots, tho horse of liis own accord tapped out “funef” for “funf’, of five; and on another occasion' he spelled out “John hfr gbu,” which his owner understood to mean, “John bafo geben”, or “(Let) John give (me) oats.” These particulars are taken from a lecture delivered by Dr. de Yesme. These “Elberfeld horses” were visited by many scientists, who were satisfied that there was no deceit or fraud. Herr Kraill gave them every opportunity to make what tests they wished. Some tests, however, indicated that other factors entered into the problem, making its solution vastly more complicated. Professor Ciaparede. of the University of Geneva, examined the phenomenon more exhaustively than the others, and the results he obtained were for the most part negative. Sometimes the horses gave correct answers when .their grooms were present, sometimes they did not. and when he was alone with them none seemed able to give correct replies. Then the celebrated author and playwright, Maurice Maeterlinck, tried what he' could do with them, alone or with their groom present, and in every instance the answers given were corn et.

TELEPATHY THEORY'. How could this be accounted for? If it be a question of telepathic communication between the examiner and the horse,, it was thought that the solution might be comparatively easy.. But how can we account for those cases in which the horses’ replies were correct when neither the exam-

iuer nor any one else present knew what the figures were •on the card which the horses were told to add', subtract, or reverse in their order. With the outbreak of the Great War the Elberfeld horses were commandeered hy the German military authorities, and suffered" the same fate as thousands of'other unfortunate animals.