Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1906-12-27
WIZARDS OF MEMORY
FAMOUS MEN WHO HAD WONDER
Z" Full POWERS or RETENTION.

N
Prodigy. and Rev. DIR. John Wallis.
Writers on psychology and phlloso-
ply have cited many examples OF pro
digious memory. No doubt some of
these are exaggerations. others are fab
uious. and only n comparatively few
admit of verifcation. Recently | have
found In my reading three cases SO
well authenticated that they may be
used to illustrate the wonderful power
Of a well cultivated memory In a mind
Of strong native endowment. In each
Instance, too, this remarkable reten-
~tiveness seems in no way to have re
tarded the fullest development OF other
mental powers.
Probably The most remarkable of the
three was the memory of Leonard
Euler. Euler was a native of Basel,
but most Of his life was spent in st.
Petersburg. He was born in 1907 and
great power and a most prolific writer.
More than half OF the f~orty-siX quarto
volumes Of mathematics published by
the st. Petersburg academy between
1927 and 1883 were from his pen. At
his death he left more than 200 manu-
script treatises.
In the later years Of his life he was
totally blind. Then, and probably ear
Her, too, he carried In his memory a
table of the first six powers Of the
sseries OF natural numbers up TO a
It Is related that on one oc-
casion two OF his students attempted to
calculate a converging series. As they
progressed they found disagreement In
their results. These differed by a unit
at the nftieth figure. The question was
referred to Euler, who decided to make
the calculation. He did this mentally,
and his result was found to be cor
rect.
1t was not only in mathematics that
Euler gave proof OF a prodigious mem
DRY. He was well read In general liter
ature and WIS an excellent classical
scholar. Virgil was one of his favorite
writer's. Ii is said that he knew this
so well that he could repeat the
"Aeneid' ''from beginning to end with
out hesitation and indicate the first
and last line Of every page of the edi.
ton which he used"
The seventeenth century furnishes
the other two instances, to which | call
especial attention. The first Is that Of
the Italian scholar Antonio da Marco
Magliabechi. Magiabechi was the lit
erary prodigy Of his time. Royalty and
other distinguished ~personages paid
tribute to his wonderful learning. His
contemporaries have said that his
memory was so prodlgious that he was
able to retain verbatim most of the
OF his 'multltudinous books"
A comparatively recent writer has
declared that Magliabechi could name
all the authors that had written upon
any subject, giving the name Of the
book. the words and often a page. This
Is doubtless exa~ggeration; but, on the
other hand, IL should be remembered
that the number Of books on any sub
ject were much fewer then than at the
present day. Besides this, there are
two stories that have come down from
Magliabechi's time to ours that give
color to Its truth. On one occasion a
of Florence desired to test
Magllabechi's memory and ascertain
for himself whether the wonderful
told were truth or fiction. He
him a manuscript to read; then,
days after Its return, pretending
to have lost II, he asked Magliabechi to
recall II, which, 1t Is said. he did with
e~xactness. At another time
the grand duke Of Florence asked II he
could procure a certain book for him.
came the response: mo,
Ii is impossible. There Is but one
In the world. That Is In the grand
seignior's library at Constantinople and
Is the seventh book on the seventh
shelf on the right hand as you go In"
The other Instance In the seventeenth
century Is that of the Rev. DIR. John
Wallis. 1t Is not, however. as a theo-
that Wallis name Is enrolled In
the temple of fame, but as a mathema-
ticlan. In mathematical history he
ranks as the greatest Of Newton's Eng
lish precursors. He was started on his
mathematical career by reading Ough-
tred's 'Clavic Mathematical" but the
special bent of his genius came from
Torricelli's writings on 1.-The Method OF
Indivisibles." To this he applied the
analysis and produced his
great work, the "Arithmetica Infinitori-
um"-"the most stimulating mathe-
NAUTICAL work so far published In Eng
Here he makes the successful
attempt to solve a number Of the more
problems Of the calculus by the
of series TO infinity. The
work was n Of great influence. New
ton read II while an undergraduate at
the university and from II Immediately
derived his binomlal formula. The
power Of concentration and OF memory
were both very strong with wallis-so
strong, 1t Is said. that on one occasion
"wbile In bed In the dark he extracted
the square root Of a number Of fifty
three places to twenty seven terms and
repeated the result twenty days after
These examples Of retentive mem$sy
are quite well authenticated and give
FEASIBILITY to the possible truth OF 9TH
srs frequently cited. Pliny tells us
that Cyrus the Great knew the names
Of all his soldiers, and Cicero In his
de senectute" says that Themistocles
eould call by name the 10000 citizens
Of Athens. From Cicero. too. we learn
Of the remarkable memory
eophocles. who In old age when