The San Francisco call., 1910-04-05
THREE lNSIANCfSOF
WONDERFUL MEMORY
Freak Mentalities That Seem
Not to Forget Anything
Once Learned

WRITER'S on psycnology ana pnilos-
ophy have cited many examples of pro-
digious memory, says a contributor to
the Inter Ocean. No doubt some of
these are exaggerations, others are fab
ulous and only a comparatively few
ADMIT or Verlhcation. An investigator
has found three cases so we'll authen-
tcated that they may be used to illus
trate the wonderful power of we'll
cultivated memory in mind of strong
native endowment. In each instance,
too, this remarkable retentiveness
seems In no way to have retarded the
fullest development of other mental
powers.
Probably the most remarkable of the
three was the memory of Leonard Euler
Euler was native of Basle, but most
of hfselffe was spent in st. Petersburg.
He was born in 1907 and died in 1888.
He was teacher of great power and
a most prolific writer. More than half
of the 46 quarto volumes of mathemat-
les published by the st. Petersburg
academy between 1927 and 1888 were
from his pen. AT his death he left more
than 200 manuscript treaties.
In the later years of his life he was
totally blind. Then, and probably ear
lier. too, he carried to his memory
table of the first six powers of the
series of natural numbers up to 100"
Of his students attempted to calculate
a converging series.
AS they progressed they found dis
agreement in their results. These diff
fered by a unit at the fifteenth figure.
The question was referred to Euler,
who decided to make the calculation.
He did this mentally and his result was
found to be correct.
1t was not only in mathematics that
Euler gave proof of a prodigious mem
ory He was well read in general liter
ature and was an excellent classical
scholar. Virgil was one of his favorite
writer's. 1t is said that he knew this
author so we'll 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 edition he
used"
The seventeenth century furnishes
the other two instances which warrant
careful attention The first is that of
the Italian scholar. Antonio de Marco
Magliabechi. Magliabechi was the lit
erary prodigy of his time. Royalty and
other distinguished personages paid
tribute to his wonderful learning. His
contemporaries have said that his MEM
ory was so prodigious that he was able
to retain verbatim most of the contents
of his ''multitudinous books"
A compa ra lively recent writer has de-
clared that Magliabechi could name all
the authors that had written upon any
subject, giving the name of the book.
the words, and often a page. This is
doubtless exaggeration. but, on the
other hand, it should be remembered
that the number of books on any sub
ject were much fewer than at the pres
ent day. Besides this, there are two
stories that have come down from Mag
liabechfs time to ours that give color to
Oh, 81 lam IN
OF Florence desired to test Magliabechi's
memory and ascertain for himself
whether the wonderful stories told
were truth or fiction. He gave him 81
manuscript to read; then. some days
after it's return, pretending to have
lost it, he asked Magliabechi to recall
it, which. it is said, he did with re-
markable eXactness. AT another time
the grand duke of Florence asked if he
could procure certain book for him.
Immediately came the response: NO.
sire; it is impossible: there is but one
in the world; that is in the grand
seignor's library at Constantinople,
and is the seventh book on the sew
enth shelf on the right hand as you
go in
The other instance in the seventeenth
century is that of the Rev. DR.. John
Wallis. It is not. however, as. the
ologian that Wallis name is enrolled
in the temple of fame, but as a mathe-
matician In mathematical history he
ranks as the greatest of Newton's Eng
lish precursors. He was started on his
mathematical career by reading Ought
reds CLAWS Mathematical but the
special bent of his genius came from
Torricellis writings on THE Method of
Indivisibles. To this he applied the
Cartesian analysis and produced his
great work. THE Arithmetica Infint-
torium'-"the most stimulating math-
ematical work so far published in Eng
land Here he makes the successful
attempt to solve number OF the more
simple problems OF the calculus by the
summation Of series to infinity. The
work was one of great influence. New
ton read it while an undergraduate at
the university, and from it Immediately
derived his binomial formula. The
powers of concentration and of memory
are both very strong with Wallis. So
strong, 1T is said, that on one occasion,
while in bed in the dark, he extracted
the square root of a number of SO
places to 27 terms and repeated the
result 90 days afterward."
These examples of retentive memory
are quite we'll authenticated and give
plausibility to the possible truth of
that Cyrus the Great knew the names
of his soldiers, and Cicero in his DE
Senectute' says that Themistocles could
call by name the 100000 citizens of
Athens. From Cicero, too, we learn
something of the remarkable memory
of Sophocles, who in old age, when ju-
dicial proceedings had been instituted
to determine his mental competency,
recited to the judges the Octopus" at
Colona to prove his mind was not fall
ing.
Plato makes Hippias boast that he
could repeat 500 words after hearing
them once, but this is nothing COM
pared with the claims of Seneca. In
his declamations in speaking of the for
mer tenacity of his memory. he says
that he was able to repeat 1900 names
in the order in which they had been
given to him.
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