The Daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1845-1850, 1845-10-06

! published at Gambler, Ohio, is from the pen of
Rev. Geo Dennison, formerly professor OF mathe-
mates in Kenyon College, and now resident of
Newark, Ohio.
WON DERFUL CHILD.
Mr.. Editor Perhaps you have seen in the
political papers of the day mention of child in
this vicinity OF most astonishing intellectual abi
ty. Being on a visitto my father, | Yesterday
went to see this child, and verify believe him to
surpass anything of the kind on record in the his
tory of man, and to open door by which we are
permitted for a time to what our minds are
and what they can become when this natural
body shall have been exchanged for the spiritual
This child's name is T. H. Stafford, Jr. he is
now nine years and six months Of age, of small
stature and pallid countenance ; his little arms
not much larger than my two fingers he is of
noble carriage, frank, and yet not forward. His
eye is his most remarkable feature, being very
large and very bright and when excited 1t rolls
in its socket with an almost spasmodic force,
while his little hand is thrown over them both in
such way as to indicate pain. | am told there
Is scarcely anything in the circle of sciences with
which this child Is not acquainted. History, and
particularly natural history is his favorite | ex-
amined him, however, in nothing but mathemat-
les and astronomy. His father and myself were
old Sunday school scholars together, and every
opportunity was given me to test the child thor
oughly.
[ will now proceed to give some account of a
long examination. While the child was not vet
come from the field, where, with his little sister.
he was gone to gather wild berries, / examined
an almanac in manuscript for A. d. 1916, all of
which this child had wrought out alone muchot
it including one of the eclpses, before witnesses
with whom am acquainted. About II DAYS have
already been spent by an adult in copying in fair
hand the almost illegibe writing of his tny fin
We we @ mil tha aotio "a
t,ecipses which he himself had made, and subse-
&uenty calculated, when he came in | told him
o. the blind student in Kenyon College, who was
studying the differential and integral calculus
He seemed much pleased, and said he did not
! thru he could have done that without sight |
thRh asked him ofthe projection which lay before
usH he Immediately commenced full explana-
ton and felt, his little hand ran rapidly over
tHe diagram, and listened to his childlike ex-
! Hessons, as ii wele In the presence of some su-
Perior being In soire instances | puzzled him,
put never did he appear fretful and when told
him anything he did not already know, he always
repaid it with smile.
asked him, two equal circles cut each 9TH
er to the extent of lip their diameter, what area
would be thus cut away. Quicker than l could
think, he said the Hath part" | then asked
him II 3-l2, or digits, were thus cut, and he in
stanty said s'I6'' | asked him how he knew,
and he said ''3-l2=l-4, and IA squared is 10
asked him why he squared 1t. He said, sit is
so in semi-circle and must be so in a circle.''-
then told him the rule of homoogous sides and
he smiled and said he understood it. | then ask
ed him, if two legs of right angled triangle were
given, one II and the other IS, what the hypo-
thenuse would be and he instantly replied,
''2O wouldn't it Yes l then said, suppose
the legs were and is, then what In half a
minute, and without pencil, he replied, ss17-
! $685. then asked if the legs were and Is
hat tI,orl or
but took no pencil and replied, .'16-453." | ask
ed him why he carried this last to three decmals
| when he had carried the other to four. He SAID
the other was easier, and tried to tell why it was
so. asked him if he could carry that to any far
Their decimals with pencil He said he thought
ne could, and taking the pencil, in, say three
minutes, returned the following "I6, 552944I49.n
believe there is error in about the 18th deci-
NAL, although neither of US went over it again to
! ind it. He could have detected it as quick as
thought had he tried.
asked him the product ofl-14x7.654. He in
stantly replied l-1308. | asked him the square
root of s. He instantly replied 2.236O67, saying
he had slot of them in his momory and did net
have to cast them.
| gave him the following questions The
square of 465 He said 's2I6225.'' The cube of
26 He answered 1876. | asked him if I
might try him on the fourth power He said yes
il would not go beyond two figures. l asked
MN the lourth power OF rs. His eve Whirled
and he sprang like an arrow to the door, hung by
one hand to the door post, and came in say three
iourths OF minute, and replied, thirty one mill
hon SIX hundred and forty thousand six hundred
and twenty-five, 81 ,64O,625.) His father asked
him to verify that with pencil. He replied. sit
Just as well to take the cube of rs from the book
and multiply it by rs, and IL is ga of 100 add
two ciphers, multiply by and divide by4 p all
OF which was done as quickly as | have written
1t, and with the same result as before. | asked
him what were the factors of 7640 "4Oxl9l or
2Ox3S2, or 2xSS20, or 5xl52S." asked him the
factors OF the decimals 1854. He immediately
SAID sit is not regular, it will take double factor
l.lxl.7xO. 6xO7;" which as wrote down omit
ted the points before the and Z, and he Instantly
TOOK the pencil and made them himself
AS he had performed all these in his head. |
was DESTROYS of knowing what his process was
therefore gave him sum of four figures to be
multiplicity another of four figures on the slate.
lie took the first figure and ran it through as we
DO from right to left and then wrote the second
line back again from left to right, and so on. He
did not multiply one figure Of the multiPlicandb by
itself, but always 2 e. g. in the case gave him
the multplicand 5642, and the left hand fig
ure of the multplier 8, and, instead of saying
times are s, and setting it under the 2, he said