ough the mediation of the
man's attitude ("attitude un peu baissee"), and of his movements
("gestes"), both resulting from his intense concentration ("tension
de la pensee").

In general we may say that, no matter what content we may wish to
put into the term "suggestion," not a single fact has since come to
light which would justify, and much less demand, the application of
the term to lower forms, unless we would expand the definition of
the term to the extent of comprising every kind of command, every
arousal of ideas, whatsoever. But it would then be nothing but a new
name for old knowledge[62] and would lose all explanatory value.
(Hypnotism, so-called, in the case of horses, I shall discuss
elsewhere in another connection.)]

After the publication of the December report, Hans acquired a reputation
for excellence in thought-reading and thus the discussion of
thought-reading among animals in general became once more the order of
the day. That is to say that many of our domestic animals are--like the
human mind-reader (a la Cumberland),--supposed to have the ability to
infer the thoughts of their masters from slight, involuntary movements.
They are thus aware when the feeding hour approaches, when they may go
out in the open, etc. They also appear to be aware that their welfare
lies in our hands, and therefore would seem to have a vital interest in
divining our intentions and our wishes. Not only our spoken words, but
also numberless movements--usually without our knowing it and often
contrary to our desire--speak a clear language. As is well said by the
American neuropathologist, Beard,[65] (who first explained the
phenomenon of thought-reading, on the basis of the perception of very
minute muscular jerks, and therefore called it "muscle-reading" or
"body-reading"): "Every horse that is good for anything is a
muscle-reader; he reads the mind of his driver through the pressure on
the bit,--though not a word of command is uttered." We know that in the
case of perfectly trained horses the rider's mere thought of the
movement which he expects the horse to make, is seemingly sufficient to
cause the animal to execute it.[AD] Such cases are of course very much
like that of our Hans, excepting that instead of visual signs they
involve aids of a mechanical nature, which, however, does not alter the
general principle, since both of them are of the nature of sensory
stimulation