Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-18

Some Things You Want to Know
Feats of Memory.

classify the same number Of fishes. In
1895 an illiterate peasant woman went to
st. Petersburg and gave exhibitions show
ing that she could recite without a slip
1900 folk songs and poems.
Perhaps the most remarkable instance of
a precocious nllterate mind is related as
the experience Of the learned DR.. Moi
fstt, a missionary to Africa. He had
preached a long sermon to a tribe of
woodsmen, and after 1t was over sat down
to rest. A little while later he saw a conn
motion among the tribesmen some dis
lance off, and went to Investigate. There
he found a tribesman on a stump. deilv-
erins his own sermon verbatim. not even
neslecting a single infection or a single
gesture. The savage was given the mama
of the great human photograph"
The English Mathematician waIas was
able without any aid to his memory. 10
extract the square root Of a number Of
fitty-three digits. George Coburn, born in
vermont. at the aged of 6 was able to .ell
now many seconds there were In any given
number OF days or years, and at 7 years
old he raised eight to It's sixteenth power
without the slightest aid to his memory.
and did 1t in two minutes He could find
the square root Of a number OF six digits
in twenty seconds. George Bidder, an Eng
lshman, was able to calculate the interest
on 4,+A pounds, sterling, for 4,A4 days, at
AZ per cent, in two minutes.
1t is said that many OF the Polynesian
tribal chiefs can recite their genealogy so
far back that 1t takes days and weeks for
the recital, and yet never make a slip;
while many Of the Brahmin priests carry
10000 verses of the Rig Veda in their heads.
Many a son Of Islam knows his Koran by
rote, and 1t is said that Prof. S. N. McCann,
now of Bridgewater, Va, but for years a
missionary in India. has almost completed
the memorization of the Bible. He had
learned the New Testament nearly fifteen
years ago.
The greatest example of i~nfantile pre-
cocity in the world is said to have BEEN
Christian Henry Heinecken, born in Ger
many in 1921. At fourteen months he knew
the history of the Bible; at thirty months
he understood geography, history, the use
of maps, had mastered anatomy and
learned 5000 Latin words. In his fourth
year he completed a course in ecclesiastical
history, the doctrine of divinity, proofs OF
the Bible, knew 200 hymns and their tunes,
eighty psalms and 1850 verses from the
classics. Besides, he had mastered arith-
metic and four languages. No wonder he
died before he was 81
The great critic Joseph Scaliger is said
to have been the most profound scholar in
history, so far as stored knowledge is con
cerned. He learned all the works OF Homer
by rote in twenty-one days, and in three
months more he had mastered the rest Of
the Greek poets. In two years he was able
to quote verbatim any passage from the
whole range of classic literature.
Whence comes the memory? Surgical
experience has taught something about II.
Many instances are recorded where a blow
on the head has blotted out the memory
entirely, and that when surgeons operated
on the victim with success the memory
would begin again as from the time of no
blow. In one case a soldiers skull was
injured by a flying piece OF shell. For
years his mind was a blank. Then a skilled
surgeon performed an operation and his
memory started again from that fateful
day on the battlefield.
BY FREDERIC j. HAsHIN.
Tonnorrow-LANDING OF THE NAY
FLOWER.