Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-26
JACQUES INAUDI,
The Belgian NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., VINO
Deals with Figures After the Most
Miraculous Fashion,
And Who is Said 10 be a Spirit me-
dunn, Just as Blind TOm' the
Negro Pianist, Is.

| A recent Belgian paper relates marvels OF
| . naw LIGHTNING calculator. youth named
| jacques Inaudi far SURPRISING those IecoiIeu
| of Zsrah Colkura and others. Ii describes
| his first exhibition at pubic nan 10 an
| werp, called the Bsrdo. A large DiacApoaiu
was en- the stage. One OF the auolence, "uo
| is described as a mathematician OF consld-
| ersble force. wrote on it lines OF hgures, as
| they were called cut by the public, extend
log 10 trilIions, that lie, millions OF millions
Insudi'.Iback being turned to the blackboard.
Unoa these he performed stupendous opera
tions in addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division before the other "hsd time 10
begin" upon them. lightning no'
quicker" says the Precursor oil Antwerp:
The exact age of some one in The audience
was then asked for. One psrsen lof course
not Iady) gave his age as thirty.two years,
three months and two days. In 1tteen sec
onds Iuaudi announced correctly the plumber
of seconds he ad lived. Let any body hg-
ure that out with slate and pencil. Another
person then announced his age with a SIM
liar result.
num with a small b, that word having be-
come pretty we'll naturalized in that sense In
the French language then called on the
public for the figures on which he should
perform six different operations simulta-
neouslv, an addition and a subtraction rum
ming into trillions, not less ardueus multi
plication and division, and TWO root exfrac-
lions, the square and cube roots. Inaudi
simply heard the figures announced, never
tbrou sbout the whole exhibition turning his
face TO the board He asked for ak minutes
for the task, beginning, as usual, to repeat
The figures as they had been announced.
Chow much time have left?" he presently
said. "Three minutes" was the answer. u
have done," he replied, and the correct re-
suits of all the six operations ratified Oh
his lips And during the three minutes con-
sumed in this inconceivably gigantic labor
Of mental arithmetic he had been converting
freely with the audience, and answering all
their questions. The Precursor wonders that
the ceilings and walls of the Bardo were not
brought down by the storm of the applause.
Being four times recalled, at the fourth
time he offered to repeat, in their order, all
the vast array of the figures which had now
accumulated on the great blackboard, none
having been efaced. And he did it within
a minute, playing with the millions, billions
and trillions. No wonder that the Antwerp
journal exclaims that it was vertiginous. II
almost takes ones breath away to think OF
those six operations performed in three
minutes without sight of the figures, and
while conversing with the public and answer
ing all their questions. The Precursor thus
concludes:
Jacques Iuaudi is entirely self-taught,
and calculates after his own fashion. He
does not know how this science came TO him.
1t was an illumination. 1t seemed, he told
us, that veil was torn aside in his mind.
He was then six years old"
The Precursor does not give the age of this
youth or boy, merely calling him "the young
Inau]i." But the manifestation of the fac
ulty seems to have begun suddenly at the
age of six years. 1t is difficult TO accept its
expression of his "mental faculties" Surely
il could MOI have been his mind which worked
out the six formidable operations stimuli
taneously in three minutes, while the same
time he was conversing with the audience
and answering their questions. Nor could
there have been any tricks of preparation in
advance, or aid of a confederate, when the
figures were given TO him on the spot and
noted down as they were called out by q
crowded, promiscuous audience. 1t must
have been case Of what Spiritualists call
nediumship, in which an outside intelli-
gence acts through the mind and organs of
the medum-analogous TO ths, numerous
cases they record 10 which totally uulet-
tered mediums have spoken and written
in Languages unknown TO them, lam
guages both modern and ancient, in
Guiding Latin, Greek, Hebrew and
Oriental. On that theory it may well
have been the spirit of Zerah Colburn, or
some o1 the doteTlor isnthiuS caicutatufs,
probably themselves similarly mediumistic
in their day, though none of then, seems to
have equaled the performance OF Inaudi
1t tallies we'll with this theory that they all
seem to have lost the faculty they adj
vanced in years, whereas matured mental
powers and long practice ought then rather
to have increased their ability. We hope
that young Inandi's "Bsrnum" will bring
him over to this side OF the Atlantic, and
present him before an audience in the Acad-
envy OF Music.