164 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN


pfennig pieces whose faces had become worn beyond
recognition for us. None of these accomplishments have
stood the test. We havé iio" reason to“bélieve that Hans
can see the objects about him more clearly than other
horses, regarding whom one usually assumes that they
receive only vague visual impressions. Horses do not
as a rule seem to be near-sighted as is often asserted by
the layman, but rather somewhat far-sighted, or if we
‘may believe Riegel,” who tested some six hundred
horses, they probably have normal vision. But we are
told that many horses—and according to some authors all
—have an innate imperfection which detracts con-
siderably from the clarity of vision. This imperfection
-consists in an irregular formation of the sclerotic coat
and of the lens of the eye.* The two organs do not have
“the same refraction in all parts. As a result, objective

Mae arr ..
