Still, if we admit the theory of intelligence, we must also admit
that the horse knows what he is doing, since it is not until
after learning what a squared number or a square root means that
he appears to understand or that, at any rate, he gradually works
out correctly the ever more complicated calculations required of
him. It is not possible to give here the details of this
instruction, which was astonishingly rapid. The reader will find
them on pages 117 et seq. of Krall's book, Denkende Tiere. Krall
begins by explaining to Mohammed that 2 squared is equal to 2 X 2
= 4; that 2 cubed is equal to 2 X 2 X 2 = 6; that 2 is the square
root of 4; and so on. In short, the explanations and
demonstrations are absolutely similar to those which one would
give to an extremely intelligent child, with this difference,
that the horse is much more attentive than the child and that,
thanks to his extraordinary memory, he never forgets what he
appears to have understood. Let us add, to complete the magical
and incredible character of the phenomenon that, according to
Krall's own statement, the horse was not taught beyond the point
of extracting the square root of the number 144 and that he
spontaneously invented the manner of extracting all the others.
27
Must we once more repeat, in connection with these startling
performances, that those who speak of audible or visible signals,
of telegraphy and wireless telegraphy, of expedients, trickery or
deceit, are speaking of what they do not know and of what they
have not seen? There is but one reply to be made to any one who
honestly refuses to believe:
"Go to Elberfeld---the problem is sufficiently important,
sufficiently big with consequences to make the journey worth
while--and, behind closed doors, alone with the horse, in the
absolute solitude and silence of the stable, set Mohammed to
extract half-a dozen roots which, like that which I have
mentioned, require thirty-one operations. You must yourself be
ignorant of the solutions, so as to do away with any transmission
of unconscious thought. If he then gives you, one after the
other, five or six correct solutions, as he did to me and many
others, you will not go away with the conviction that the animal
is able by its intelligence to extract those roots, because that
conviction would upset too thoroughly the greater part of the
certainties on which your life is based; but you will, at any
rate, be persuaded that you have been for a few minutes in the
presence of one of the greatest and strangest riddles that can
disturb the mind of man; and it is always a good and salutary
thing to come into contact with emotions of this order."
28
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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