So, now that the ability to count and solve problems had become fixed--as the old gentleman thought--he began to instruct the horse in other branches. Since everything had been translated into terms which were to be expressed by means of tapping with the foot, and thus really put into terms of number--which was perhaps natural for an old teacher of mathematics--the same mechanism was involved in these accomplishments as in those of counting, etc. Mr. von Osten saw the animal's intelligence steadily increase, without having the slightest notion that between his words and the responsive movements of the horse, there were interpolated his own unconscious movements--and that thus instead of the much desired intellectual feats on the part of the horse, there was merely a motor reaction to a purely sensory stimulus. It has been a common custom of man to posit some extraneous cause for movements resulting from certain involuntary motions of his own, of which he is not aware, (witness the divining-rod).[AM] And furthermore, when these results appear to be rational, the tendency is to seek their cause in some extraneous intelligence, not his own. Just as the spiritualists ascribe the "messages" which are revealed to them through table-rapping, to certain rational spirits, so Mr. von Osten credited the intelligence of the horse with the result produced by his own involuntary signs--i. e., with the proper solution of problems. [Footnote AM: G. Franzius,[99] privy counselor of the admiralty, master of the dry-dock at Kiel, is responsible for the undeserved revival of the ancient belief, long buried by science, that the divining branch is put into motion solely as the result of the influence of hidden springs or treasures, and without any agency in the person who is holding it. The untenability of this theory comes home to us most forcibly when we recall how various are the kinds of things which have been discovered by means of the branch. First there is gold and water, which are the only ones mentioned by Mr. Franzius. The water can be thus discovered only when it flows below ground, say that which is passing through the mains of a city, whereas the water of the Rhine or the Elbe would have no effect on the branch. Besides gold, every other kind of metal has been supposedly located by the branch,--as well as coal, gypsum, ochre, red-chalk sulphur and petroleum,--according to the desire of the one searching. Thus, the very same branch that just a moment ago was influenced by the least bit of underground water, may remain unaffected by the presence of a large body of water, if in the meantime I have changed my plan and decide to search for coal or for gold. But that is not all. The branch will point out a murderer or the place where a murder has been committed, it will discover the thief or his trail, as well as the things stolen or merely touched by him.