Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1911-10-12
Test of the Minds Ability
But l have never been able to find q
young man of that capacity.

But l nave never been able to n 8
young man of that capacity.
Il learned a year or two after I be-
came an officer of the Clearing House
association that l could not count in
excess of 500 or 600 without having
pencil and paper before me. And
when I learned that fact in reference
to myself, it occurred to me that this
institution afforded a good opportunity
OF testing the capacity of the human
mind to count consecutively. There
are, Of lcOurse, some phennnaenal<~-l5
most abnormal. intelfects which are
able to count without the assistance OF
pencil and paper far up in the thou
sands. Zenas Colburn, the mathemati-
cal prodigy, could do that, although nc
never knew how he did it.
Zone day there came to see me a
| young man from somewhere in the
west who had been recommended to
me highly because he was OF excep-
tional capacity as a mathematician.
HE asked me to test him with col
umns of figures. I made two parallel
columns, each one containing, I should
say, Is separate sets of figures, some
of them in hundreds-as, for instance,
S95. Then 1 put the example before
him, he looked at it a minute, and,
with a sort of Whit of his breath, set
down the correct answer, having add
led the figures almost in the twinkling
of an eye.
II tested him the same way with
Dcomplicated examples in subtraction.
MULTIPLICATION and division and he
gave me the correct nswe almost in
an instant.
We'll. I said to him that those were
remarkable qualifications, but what I
was looking for was a young man who
could count without assistance abuve
l 900.
"He seemed disposed to laugh at my
suggestion, intimating that it was easy
enough to do that.
Il told him to go ahead, sit there in
my presence, begin with n and count
up. He got along all right until he
reached 600. Then he began to stag
ger mentally. l saw him eye a pen
Gil and pad of paper, but I would not
let him have these aids. You. see.
having got up to 600, he wanted to
start all over again. He broke down
completely before he reached 700, al
though l think he went farther in his
mental count than any young mar
whom I eve tested.
Il presume that a young man Of
mathematical ability can train himself
to count much higher than 1000, but
my experience as manager of the
clearing house has satisfied me thai
the average intelligent young man
even though he be possessed of fail
mathematical ability, cannot count con
secutively without aid much above
500 or 700.
) OF course, from one point of view
this is Of no consequence in the man
agement of this association. But
have heard so much said about the ca
: pacity of the human mind to grasl
figures that I have always tested tina
capacity when opportunity afforded.
: think l have demonstrated that it i
practically impossible for the human
> mind to count c~onsecutively and with
) out aid much above 1000. And hav,
never found anyone-banker or en-
ploye-whose mind has been able t
: grasp the magnitude Of the figure
which represent the transactions O
this association. for they reach far u
into the trillions."
Copyright, 1911. by E. J. Edwards. a,
Rights Reserved.)