The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-06-07

he afterward referred to as 1.-THE volk Of
Siety court" During his stay in London
he was taken to Drury Lane thcater to
see Richard III" but neither the now
city nor the splendor of the show nor the
exhibition of passion, made any visible
impression upon him, and he occupied
himself in counting the number of words
which Garrick uttered during the per-
Torrance. The Gentlemen's Magazine
for QJune, 1854, informed the public that
Jedediahhad returned to the place Of his
birth without regretting anything which
he had left behind him in London, cheer
fully returneing to his customary work,
and quite convinced that slice Of rusty
bacon afforded a more delicious repast
than any thing he had obtained in the
great city.
Another untaught arithmetical genius,
Zerah Olburn, whose abnormal develops
ment raises an interesting problem, was
the son of an American peasant. He was
brought to London by his father in 1912.
when he was years old, when he was
examined and his peculiar powers tested
by Francis Bailey and other skillful
mathematician. 1t was found tnat all
though he was so ignorant of the ordin-
airy rules of arithmetic that he could
not perform on paper a simple sum in
multiplication or division, yet that he
could mentally multiply any number less
than ten into itself successfully nine
times, and give the results faster than
the person appointed to record them
could take them down. He multiplied
eight into itself fifteen times, or, to use
technical terms, raised 1t TO the
sixteenth power, and the result, consists
ing of fifteen digets, was found to be
right in every figure. This was aston
fishing enough, but was able to do things
even more wonderful. When asked what
number, multiplied by ITSELF gave 1861
929, he answered before the original NUNS
Der could be ritten down, that 1t was
| 327 And again, when asked what num-
| ber multiplied twice into itself, gave
| 6S, 1886, 1875, or, to put it technically, what
| was the cube root Of that array OF
| figures, he replied with equal facility and
| promptness that it was GAS.
| The mathematical experts who were
canning the boy found that it was im~
! possible to find the cube root Of these
| nine figures, in the shortest and most
convenient way, in less than three or
| four minutes. But what most surprised
| the mathematicians was that he could
almost as readily answer for which they
| had not been able to provide any sys-
! tematic procedure themselves. For 1n~
| stance he was asked to name two NUM-
| hers which multiplied together would
| give the number 2l7.4S3; and hi. imme-
diately named GAL and 263, which are said
| to be the only two numbers which WILL
! do So And when asked to name num-
| Der which would divide 36,0S3 exactly.
he unhesitatingly replied that no number
would do SO. If any of our matnematt-
cally minded readers will address them
selves to this problem, they will find that
:; it will give theme at least quarter OF
| an hours stiff calculation before they
can assure themselves that S6,0S3 is what
| is called a prime number, or number
| only Invisible by itself and unity, So
luton which this child was, in some mys-
| terious way, able to see Immediately
I the question was proposed to him.
olburn, like Buxton, seems to have
had method of his own, but he con-
stantly declared that he did not know
how the answers came into hts mind.
God put these things into my head
he said on being pressed for an explana-
ton, "and cannot put them into yours. :"
Jedediah lived to the age of IS with no
more general knowledge or stock of ideas
| than a child of ten. and he kept his ex-
( traordinary calculating faculty to the
! end; but Zerah, as the general culture OF
| his mind improved, found his special
| power to fade away. Francis Baily was
| of opinion that Zerah Colburn's fetes
J indicated the existence of certain prop
| critics of numbers which the mathema-
| ticians had not yet discovered. But 1t
| Is, perhaps, equally possible that they
indicate capacities of the human mind
| which have hitherto been undreamed OF.