ither do I forget that in this field also (as in every field of
psychological experiments) there may be an interfering although
subconscious misuse of spurious factors, such as signs (not intentional
or perceptible) by the experimenter to the subject experimented with; a
certain amount of falsification in interpretation of results on the
part of the experimenters, etc.... But the irreducible residue of the
facts is, in my opinion, still enormous as compared with the little
that could perhaps be eliminated by these means from the discussion.
Therefore, in the absence of anything better for the moment, and
subject to further information, I hold to the hypothesis of a psychic
automatism of the mediumistic type, as a concomitant phenomenon
developed from the normal "rapport" which is _necessary_ and pre-existent.

This "rapport" is that of a master to a child; but to a very special
kind of child, a "child" moreover who, from the biological point of
view, has not been corrupted by the thousands of years of reasoning and
society that weigh on the human child. It is, therefore, nearer to the
"fountains of life" if I may be allowed to express myself in that way;
and nearer to the mathematical potentiality (which was at first
unself-conscious, but which has subsequently been developed). But, of
course, it is not enough for mathematics "to be" in something, for that
something to begin at once to tap numbers. The table of the mediumistic
seances contains much mathematics (in its physical assemblage), but in
order to make it "tap" there must be somebody to move it: in fact, a
"medium." In my view, as soon as the animal subject has been able to
understand "numbers"--and this postulate of the new zoopsychology, I
repeat, I believe to be indispensable to the whole edifice--the animal
finds itself sufficiently in harmony with the master to become capable
(in principle) of all the subsequent "wonders."

This it is which constitutes the first discovery, as I have called it,
of the "new zoopsychology." And on that discovery, in my opinion, are
based through various gradations its chief results, on the supposition
that at a certain moment there takes place a new specific action, the
"declanchement" of the mediumistic relationship between the animal and
the experimenter. And it may be that the development of such a very
special relationship between man and animals may be comparatively easy.
That is, it may be that the animal is relatively e