Daily Arizona silver belt. (Globe, Gila County, Ariz.) 1906-1929, 1908-01-11
WIZARDS OF MEMORY
FAMOUS MEN WHO HAD WONDER
Full POWERS OF RETENTION.

Of Leonard Euler, the Mathemati-
Prodigy. and Rev. DIR. John Wallis.
Writers on psychology and philoso
phy have cited many examples of pro
Iigious memory. No doubt some OF
these are exaggerations, others are fab.
ulous, and only comparatively few
admit Of verlflcation Recently l have
found Ia my reading three cases so
well authenticated that they may be
used to illustrate the wonderful power
of well cultivated memory In 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
died in 1873. He was teacher of
great power and most prolific writer.
More than hale Of the forty-six quarto
volumes Of mathematics published by
the St. Petersburg academy between
1927 and 1888 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. ana probably ear.
lier, too, he carried In his memory
table of the first six powers of the
''series Of natural numbers up to
hundred" 1t 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 q unit
ut the fiftieth figure. The question was
referred to Euler, who decided IN make
the calculation. He did this mentally.
and his result was found to ba cor.
rect.
II was not only In mathematics that
Euler gave proof of prodigions mem.
DRY. He was well read In general liter
allure and was an excellent classical
scholar. Virgil was one Of his favorite
writers. 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 ed
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. Mag.iabechl was the 1T
erary prodigy Of his time. Royalty aud
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 tie
contents OF his "mu.t.tudlnous booka."
A comparatively recent writer has
declared that MaglIabechi could name
all the authors that had written uIJun
any subject. giving the name of the |
book, the words and often page. This |
Is doubtless exaggeratlon; 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 ire |
two stories that have come down from |
Magllabechl's time to ours that give
color to its truth. On one occasion q |
gentleman of Florence desired to rest |
Magliabechis 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 Magliabc hi to |
recall II. which, 1t is said, he dii with |
remarkable exactness. At another time
the grand duke of Florence asked II he |
could procure a certain book for him. |
Immediately came the response: mo. |
sire; II Is impossible. There Is but one
In the world. That Is In the grand |
seignior's library at Constantlnople and
Is the seventh book ON the seventh |
shelf on the right hand as you 60 in"
The other instance In the seventeenth |
century Is that Of the Rev. DIR. John |
Wallis. IL Is not, however. as q theo-
logan that Wallis name Is enrolled In
the temple of fame. but as mathema-
ticlan. In mathematical history he
ranks as the greatest OF Newton's Eng
lish precursors. He was started on his
career by reading Ough-
tred's "Clavic Mathematical" but the
special bent Of his genius came from
Torrlcelli's writings on 1.-THE Method of
IndIvisibIes." To this he applied the
Cartesian analysis and produced his
great work, the "Arithmetica Infinitori-
most stimulating mathe-
NAUTICAL work so far published In Eng
land" Here he makes the successful
to solve number of the more
simple problems of the calculus by the
of series to infinity. The
work was one of great influence. New
ton read II while an Undergraduate at
the university and from II Immediately
derived his binomial formula. The
power Of concentration and of memory
were both very strong with Wallis-so .
strong, II 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"
Thaoa axa p,plao NJ rafoptivo ~, nv, aru