The times., 1901-05-26
MANIPULATORS OF FIGURES
Marvels of Head Work That Puz-
Zle Mathematicians.
Wonderful Performances of Light
ming CaIculntors Who Are without
Any Basis of Practical knowledge
in Any Science-A Boys Powers.

Some skeptical persons who witnessed
Inaudi's extraordinary performances in
mental arithmetic at the London Hippo
drome a short time ago, expressed an un-
easy feeling that they might probably
have been duped after all: that the Won
derful sums in addition, subtraction, di-
vision, and extraction of root which were
proposed to him from the audience. and
which he seemed to perform with such
ease and expedition, to say nothing of his
repeating without error the long rows of
figures written on a blackboard behind
his back, might have been all carefully
arranged and learned beforehand. Their
skepticism, however. was entirely ground
less lnaudi first gave evidence Of his
curious aptitude for mentally manipulate
ing figures when he was six years old. At
the age of seven he could multiply with
five figures correctly. And for some years
after this he relieved the tedium of his
lonely life as a Piedmontese shepherd boy
by sedulOusly cultiVating this eXtraOrdi-
only instance ON record Of boy of little
or no education being able to do sums
which might puzzle a senior wrangler,
and whose ineXplicable powers have Ger
tainly afforded a further puzzle to the
professional psychologist.
a farm labOrer from DerbyShire named
Jedediah Buxton, who was examined be-
fore the Royal Society in 1854, was pos
sesSed of very similar power. Although
his grandfather was vicar and his father
SchoOmaster of the parish in which he
was born, yet Jedediah, either from nat
uraI inCapacity or from preoccupation
with his aTithmetical pursuits, never even
acquired the rudiments of learning; even
could or would nor so much as learn to
write, and was content to work as farm
laborer to the end of his days. But at
very early age he appears to have had an
inuitiye perception of the relative proper
tiOnS OF numbers, and to this subject he
devoted he whole pf his attention His
method was so much his own that he
seems to have been quite unacquainted
with the common rules ON one occasion,
having been required to multiply loo by
378 aInd having done II as quickly as one
Of his examiners could do it in the ordi-
nary way. he was asked to work the sum
audibly. in order that his method might
be discovered. 1t then appeared, curious
ly enough, that he went to work in very
roundabout way.
First he multiplied the 456 by s. which
produced 2,2SO; this he again multiplied by
20, and found the product to be 1850. Of
course, he might much more readily have
achieved this result by simply adding two
noughts to the multiplicand. This he evil
IDENTIFY did not know. However. he next
went on to multiply the number he had
now arrived at by 3, which gave him the
sum of the multiplicand multiplied by 300,
and 1t then remained Tor MIN 10 multiply
it by the remaining Is. This he effected by
the awkward process Of multiplying by
10 the $50 which was the product obtained
Dy MS IESl DlulllDlltdllbil u tOp ~ D. lIS
product thus obtained he then added TO the
i36. 500, which was the sum of 456 multiplied
by 800 This produced 171OO0 as the sum Of
i5G multiplied by 3l5 1t remained for him,
therefore. to multiply the original number
again by 3. and add the sum of II to 1ilOo0.
and by this certainly rather cumbrous pro-
cess he found the product OF 406 multiplied
by 37S to be l72 36S.
Jedediah had no more general knowl-
edge than any average peasant boy of
ten years of age. and showed no memory
for anything but figures. He was some
times asked when he returned from
church If he could repeat the text or any
part of the sermon, but he could never
remember a single sentence. In one mat
FER only. excepting his figures. did he ever
show the slightest interest, but his de-
sire to see the King and the royal fam
lily was strong enough to induce him,
when forty-seyen years of age, 10 walk
to London for that purpose. He was en-
tertained by the editor of the Gentle
mans Magazine at ST. Johns Gate, and