The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-02-16

an authority of the day, made a new
science Of optics"
These three men represent the high
water mark of child genius, unless
young Sidis is to rank with them.
They were gifted not in any one sub
| ject to the exclusion of others, but in
every domain of thought they chose
to enter. And their genius did not
die with maturity. They went on
from good to better and made each
| his indelible mark On the worlds his
tory.
In the same class, though less ia
nous, was the late Professor Of AS
tronomy at Williams College, Tru-
man Henry Stafford, who died in
1901. He had an extraordinary gift
for mental calculation, which first
showed itself at the age of three
years. At seven he was studying al
zebra and geometry, and at eight
higher mathematics and astronomy.
Wanting logarithms he found them
for himself at this age by a theory of
his own.
At ten he computed almanacs and
a year after brought out an almanac
of his own, which had a large sale,
and in which the calculations in re-
gard to the moon were made by a
new and l~abor-saving device. At ten
he squared in his head the neat sum
of 365, 365, 365, 365, 365, 365 in
not more than one minute. But he
was not only mathematical. He was
interested in history, the natural
sciences and philosophy. He took his
Harvard degree at the age of eigh-
teen and specialized on astronomy,
which he taught for many years.
Carl Frederick Gauss, the famous
| German mathematician, when he was
three years old, overheard his father
making a calculation in regard to the
wages of some workmen. Young
Carl suddenly looked up and called
his fathers attention to the fact that
he had made an error in his figures
in n place. This boy entered the
gymnasium at the age of eleven and
mastered all studies with the greatest
rapidity, so that at fourteen he was
thoroughly well informed in litera-
ture, science and philosophy. His
mathematical faculty increased rather
than diminished with years, and much
of modern mathematical science is
due to his labor.
George Parker Biddle, another eel
ebrated boy mathematician, was
taught, when six years old, to count
up to 100. This was all the teaching
in mathematics he ever received, but
four years later he had evolved a sys-
tenn to take the place of logarithms.
He did not show any remarkable ap-
titude for other studies, but ranked
| we'll and became an excellent engi-
neer, with his mathematical faculty
unimpaired throughout life.
Zerah Colburn, the Vermont farm
er boy who startled the world a hun
dred years ago, lost his strange fac
| ulty in later life, and though he had
a fair education and did well enough
he never distinguished himself in any
way after reaching maturity. He
made extraordinary calculations at
six, and at sever he had raised, in his
head. the number eight to the six
teenth power For the benefit Of
those who do not care to figure for
half an hour the answer to this little
sum is PSI, 474, CTS, 10, 656. He
was considered a backward child be-
fore his unusual gift was discovered,
but he was not, apparently, deficient
in other ways. The trouble had been
only that he had been secretly deyct-
ing himself to reasoning out mathe-
NAUTICAL problems, and had not given
thought to other matters.
He stands high among mathemati-
cal prodigies pure and simple, even
though he falls below the standard of
several others. These wonders at fig
ures are not ~infrequently of the type
Of Jedediah Buxton, a worthy Eng
lishman born some 200 years ago
with a remarkable mathematical
sense. He devoted himself from the
age of twelve to keeping in his head
an itemized account of all the free
beer ever given him, and found this
edifying occupation so absorbing that
he never had mind to attend to minor
matters of a scientific nature.
Thomas Darlington Macaulay should
perhaps have been ranked with the
universal geniuses, but it is true that
his precocious gift was largely in the
direction of literature. He read in
~cessantly from the age of three. At
seven he had composed a very fair
compendium of universal history from
the creation to the year 1900. At
eight he had written a treatise des-
tined to convert the natives of Mala-
bar to Christianity. AS a recreation
from this weighty work he wrote in
the same year q romance in the style
of Scott in three cantos entitled The
Battle of Cheviot."
A little later came a long poem on
the history of Olaf Magnus and a vast
pile of blank verse entitled "Fingal, a
Poem in Twelve Books" But he dis
liked mathematics, and did not pass
his examination in that subject-thus
standing out among all child prodi-
gies. His memory was such that he
literally never could forget anything,