The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-11-30
WIZARDS OF MEMORY
FAMOUS MEN WHO HAD WONDER
Full POWERS OF RETENTION.
The Remarknbl and Authentic Cases
of Leonard Euler. the Mathemnti-
clan; Magliabechi, the Literary
Prodigy, and Rev. DIR. John Wallis.

| clan; Magliabechi, the Literary
| Prodigy, and Rev. DIR. John Wallis.
Writers on psychology and philoso-
ply have cited many examples of pro-
/ digious memory No doubt some of
/ these are exaggerations, others are fab
ulous, and only comparatively few
admit OF yerification. Recently I have
found in my reading three cases so
well authenticated that they may be
| used to illustrate the wonderful power
/ of 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 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 forty-six quarto
volumes of mathematics published by
the st. Petersburg academy between
1927 and 1873 We're 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
..series of natural numbers up to a
hundred" 1t is related that on ope &C.
casion two of his students attempted to
calculate converging series. AS they
progressed they found disagreement in
their results. These differed by unit
at the fiftieth 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
allure and was an excellent classical
scholar. Virgil was one of his favorite
writer's. 1t is said that he knew this
author 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. Magliabechi 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 prodigious that he was
able to retain verbatim most of the
1~sz T.
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 page. This
is doubtless exaggeration; but. on the
other hand, 1t 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 q
gentleman of Florence desired to test
Magliabechi's memory and ascertain
for himself whether the wonderful
stories told were truth or fiction. He
gave him manuscript to read; then,
some days after its return, pretending
to have lost it, he asked Maglia bechi to
recall it, which, it is said, he did with
remarkable exactness. AT another time
the grand duke Of Florence asked if he
could procure certain book for him.
Immediately came the response: mo,
sire; it 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. DR.. John
Wallis. 1t is not, however. as a theo-
Logan that Wallis name is enrolled in
the temple of fame. but as mathema-
tician. 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
Torricellis writings on 1.-The Method of
Indivisibles." To this he applied the
Cartesian analysis and produced his
great work. the ..Arithmetica Infinitori-
um"-'the most stimulating mathe-
NAUTICAL work SO far published in Eng
land" Here he makes the successful
attempt to solve number of the more
simple problems of the calculus by the
summation of series to infinity. The
work was one of great influence. New
ton read 1t while an undergraduate at
the university and from 1t Immediately
derived his binomial formula. The
power of concentration and Of memory
were both very strong with Wallis-so
strong, it is said, that on one occasion
while in bed in the dark he extracted
the square root of number Of fifty
three places to twenty seven terms and
repeated the result twenty days after
ward"
These examples of retentiTe memory
are quite well authenticated and give
to the possible truth of 9TH
ers 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
could call by name the 10000 citizens
Of Athens. From Cicero. too, We learn
something of the remarkable memory
Of Sophocles. who in old age when |
judicial proceedings had been institut. |