Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-01-22
IS STUDENT WONDER
BOY WILL END COLLEGE TEpM
AT AGE OF FOURTEEN.
Norbert Wiener, Son of Cambridge
Professor, to Graduate from
Tufts in June-Also Good
in Athletics.

boston.-At Tufts college a boy will
graduate next June at the age of ID
ana we Will have to take off our
mortar board caps to him. He is
Norbert Wiener, the son of a Harvard
professor. This remarkable how was
born in Columbia, Mo-, November 90
1884. He could repeat the alphabet
at the age of IL months, could read
and write at three years, and at the
age OF eight he was fitted for college
in mathematics, philosophy, modern
languages and the sciences.
1t required less than three wears
OF schooling after donning short trou,
sers for him to prepare for college
Boys seldom do this in less than ten
or II years; usually it requires an
even dozen, and often longer.
When Norbert Wiener entered Tufts
in the autumn of 1906 he had gone
farther in chemistry and philosophy
tnan the average senior. He was re-
qulred to take several entrance ex-
amlnatloEs, mathematics among them,
in which he was found to be far in adj
vance of the freshman class.
So as freshman he did upper
class work in the theory of equations
and in determinants, whiAe in philoso.
ply it was found necessary to place
him in class by himself. He had
read Spencer, Haeckel, Darwin, Hulk
ley and many Others Now he has
read Locke, Hobbies and other Eng
lish philosophers; he has translated
Homer and several plays of Aeschv lus,
as well as similar amount If Latin.
In mathematics he has delved into
the Galois theory Of equations and has
completed differential and integral cal
culus. He will continue this branch
this year and will study the philosoph-
les of Leibnitz. Spinoza and Kant.
In Greek he will read Herodotus and
Sophocles; the rest of his time will be
taken up by biology and organic chem
istry. In June, 1909, he will have com
pleted the regular four-year course in
three years, receiving the degree of
bachelor of arts before he has reached
the age of Is. But the work he has
covered will equal the amount usually
completed by a candidate for the de-
gree of doctor of philosophy
In the autumn following his gradua-
ton at Tufts college he will enter the
Harvard Graduate school, where he
will elect work in higher mathematics,
with supplementary course in biol
ogy or chemistry. After receiving the
ore
many students are not yet contem-
plating the entrances examinations
he will spend two or three years in
Germany or France, devoting himself
to philosophy or science.
That is, at an age when the average
of him for his bachelors degree young
Wiener will be doing advanced scien-
tific work among the gray-haired
savants of German university.
Prof. Leo Wiener of the department
of Slavic languages at Harvard is of
is native of Missouri. The other
children of the family do not differ
from other boys and girls of their age.
Apart from the fact that his capac-
ity for learning is phenomenal, Nor
bert Wiener is like other boys. His
physical development is excellent; he
is a good tennis player and an expert
swimmer. He is a tall boy and a
strict vegetarian. His head is normal
in size, but his blazing, black eyes are
almost uncanny in their power. Per-
sonally he chooses mathematics as his
favorite study. Philosophy he calls
his ''fairyland.'