Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-11-18

In 1853, VITO Mang1amele, a Sieil;..
boy eleven years Of age, was examines AZ
Arago and several other eminent rnemhy
Of the French Academy Of Sciences TT
him, questions equally knotty with ~
above were given, and these together WIN
such posers as: . What number compIis.
with the following propositions: ths, 70
its cube be added to five times its squays
and then forty-two times the number az
the number forty be subtracted from . ,al
result, the remainder is equal TO zeras :,
To this the boy gave the correct ansv..
| five) just as the questioner had renaa,as
the sentence for the second time A.
earlier case is that If ,Tedea;ah
Buxton, q child almost totally M
educated. OF him il is related ,bs,
| if he heard sermon or other speech hs
| instinctively counted the words: If a rs
Rod of time were mentioned in his hes,.
/ ing he computed the seconds; if he walked
over piece of ground his mind was busiIv
employed in calculating the number ~
inches. He solved mentally such prob.
/ lem as How many cubical eighths of AN
| inch are there in a quadrangular MACS
which measures 231, 1879 yards lone
5,642, 1872 yards wide, and "a .965 yanfs'
thick? And, besides, he possessed the
curious faculty of being able to suspend
| his calculations at any point, turn to other
subjects for any length of time, and vet 70
sumo his mental work at the proper place
| Like Mangiamele, he could give no Az
count OF how he accomplished his task
| The last instance is that of Georee
Parker Bidder, who subsequently became
noted English civil engineer. His gift
| lay more in a natural taste for figures than
! through the instructive calculating power
which Colburn, Mangiamele and Buxton
possessed. He accustomed himself b
count up to 600, 900 and thus became "a
miliar with large numbers. He, besides
was an inventor, and devised new arith.
metical processes. From all accounts il
would seem that his was an acquired
power, aided of course by natural genius.
and this view finds further confederation
| from the fact that in after life Bidder re.
tanned his abilities, while the three other
individuals lost theirs. In 1856 he gave
an account Of how his operations were
worked, which goes still further to show
| them to be the results of acquired skill
more especially as neither Colburn, Bux.
/ ton nor Mangiamele were ever able to give
any explanation whatever of their mental
processes. Bidder, therefore, is hardly to
| be considered in conjunction with them
writer and his theory, the latter is essen.
TALLY that the calculator does not regard
the numbers set before him as distractions,
but rather as definite groups of concrete
| objects, as, for example, dots. The men
tai process required then to multiply
twenty-four by three is to picture twenty
four az two columns of dots of ten each,
and one column of four. To multiply by
three, the imperfect columns are imagined
as brought together, making one column
Of ten, and two over The one is added TO
six columns pictured at the same time,
making seven columns of ten, and one Of
two that is, seventy-two. We need not
explain the supposed method of division,
as il Is essentially similar; for we believe
the objection will at once occur to the
reader that this plan cannot answer for
dealing with great numbers, as ii can in
no wise be conceived that any mind can
form perfect picture of millions multi.
piled or divided by millions 1t is very
possible for the mind to be trained 80 as
to conceive detail TO an astonishing degree;
and imagination, in conjunction with
memory, in some people will reproduce
scenes with every feature intact, of which
| only the most Observation-Disclosures would
remain fixed in the average mind Robert
Houdin, the French conjurer, could walk
quickly past shop window once, and
then name every article in it, and the size,
color, and position of each. This was
purely acquired, though Houdin had the
ability to make the requirement in the be-
ginning. Every artist who produces
design draws upon the same faculties; SO
do skilled chess-players, who are able to
play dozen or more games at once; so
dr rnuaiciana who cap haar a harmon, or
melody by looking at the printed score.
All of these instances we should class with
Bidder, but not with Colburn or the other
two mentioned.
What Turner was in color and Mozsr
in music, we believe Colburn and his
peers to have been as regards numbers.
Turner's perception of graduation of color
mot mere light and shade, but color
was instructive, purely Unborn. He felt
color, not outlines or form; and no one,
before or since, in that respect has ever
approached him. Mozart felt music; at
the age Of six he could compose diff.
cult harmonies; he could distinguish ac-
curately and instantly announce varia-
tons in sound equal TO one sixty-fourth
OF tone. Now no one pretends to ex-
plain Turner's coloring or Mozart's music
from mental standpoint, for the simple
reason that there is no explanation. Both
artists were born with wonderful gifts,
gifts as inexplicable to their possessors
as they are to the average man and there
the matter rests. Colburn, Buxton and
the Sicilian boy had like sensation Of
the relations of numbers They went
through kind of calculating process,
probably as instinctively as Turner han.
died brush to place his colors, or Mo
Fart moved his fingers to grasp the chords
Of the harpsichord or organ. This mental
operation, we believe, however, was I'M
conscious cerebration; and the same &C.
MUS or instinct, or whatever term by
which we may agree to designate the fac
ulty, which rendered ii unnatural for Tur-
ner TO make inharmonious contrasts, or
Mozart to strike discords, prevented Col
burn and the others from false calcula-
ton, and caused them to feel, rs II were,
the relations of numbers. Scientific Amer
lean.