The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31
REAL PRODIGY
FOND or STUDY SINCE HE WAS
 HUT ONE YEAR OLD.
William James siais . Learned Citizen at Early Age If 6-Has WRit-
 ten Text Books.

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 Some details of the achievements of William James sidis. the 1i-year- -oId prodigy who has just entered Harvard with the highest honors are published here. says a Boston special to The New York Times. and go to show that the youth who is gravely declared to be the most learned undergraduate that has ever entered the Cambridge institution. is wonderfully successful result of a scientific forcing experiment. and as such furnishes one of the most inter esting mental phenomena in history. His precocity is the fruit of parental theory of mind growth put into prac- tice from the very beginning of his life.
 Young sidis is the son of pr. Boris .sidis. c Boston psychologist. who years before the boys birth had developed very advanced Ideas on the subject of child training. On the basis that as soon as child begins to grow It's brain is less and less sensitive to training as age increases. pr. sidis had planned and developed an elaborate system of training. This system he applied to his son.
 . set of alphabetical blocks when he was a little over q year old When this young son, sitting on the nursery floor. said .'ba ba," pr. Sidts took two of these blocks. denoting. A and B re- spectiveiy, held them before his eyes. and showed him first the "B'' block and then the "A" block.
 Later ur. Sidis reversed this order and showed him the other sound that was represented by thee two letters. In q little while. on being shown. hrsr the "A" block and then the "B' black, the child would say "Ab." Thus. not yet years old. he learned to talk. read and spell all at once
 Studied the Calendar.
 Before he was two and half years old precocious William James would sit on the floor In the midst or his blocks and spell out various words. This was his way of playing, This child was next taught to count. Then. because he wanted the child to know some thing about the Idea of time. pr. Siois gave him some calendars. explaining to him, the meaning of them. For weeks he played with these.
 one day he startled his parents ny announcing that he was able to tell on what day of the week any given date would fall It was first thought that in his play with the calendars he had memorized some of the dates. Upon investigation. however. 1t was tound that he had worked out all by him- self a method of counting. enabling
  demanded of him.
 when William James Cor "Jimmyo was 8 1-2 years old he could use the typewriter, and at { he was an expert operator. He was also much interest ed in fairy stories. learned them py heart, and was soon studying eloou- tion and learning how to recite them to the best advantage.
 Expert Accountant Early. ( Aa Ir,a hA rva was not only able to read. write and speak English and to use a typewriter but he was an expert accountant, had begun to study French and Latin, and had written a text book on anatomy and another on English grammar presumably for his own use.
 Entering a grammar school when years old, he moved up several grades in six months, and entered Brookline High School at years. In six weeks there he had completed the mathemat- ical course and begun writing DOCK on astronomy. Then he plunged into the study Of German, cFehSh. Aasa" and Russian.
 On leaving school he began the study of mathematics in real earnest. In- tegral and fnfnitesimal calculus De- came his hobbies. and in addition he invented a system of iogarithms based on the number 12 instead of 10. This was inspected by several well known mathematicians and pronounced per feet in every detail
 Much has already been made of the story of the three years spent In en- deavoring to secure admission to Har- yard, Sidis's age being an obstacle which the university authorities could not see their way clear to override till this year.