The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-10-23
Had Remarkable Memories
Other Famous Men Besides Cyrus, Who Knew Every
Man in His Army, Who Never Forgot.
fNew York Evening Post.)

Writers on psychology II phi
lcsophy have cited many examples of
%prodisious memory. No doubt some
OF these are exaggeration. others fabu-
Z, nit of vcrilication. Recently l have
found in my reading a number Of cas-
cS so we'll authenticated that they may
be used to illustrate the wonderful
power OF Il well-cultivatcd memory in
Il mind of strong endowment. In zach
instance. too. this remarkable prctcn-
%tivcness seems in no way to have re-
tarded the fullest development OF the
other mental powers.
Possibly thomost remarkable of tho
cases that shall cite was the memory
of Leonard Euler. Euler was a native
of R,slc. hut spent the most of his
life in st. Petersburg. He was born In
1907 and died in 17S3. He was edu-
Gated at tho University OF Basic. where
he was a student under John Bern
quill. He early gave evidence that he
possessed unusual mcntal abilities.
and when but 10 years Of ranked
second in a contcst for a prize offered
by the Paris academy for the best
treatise on the masting of ships. III
1870 he went to st. Petersburg as pro-
fcSsor Of physics. hut gave up his pro-
censorship after three years for a
place in the st. Petersburg academy.
From this time tho special field of his
labors was in mathematics. The re-
suits he attained are most astounding.
More than half of the sc nuarto VOL
academy between 1927 and 1888 were
from his en-. AT his death he left
more than 200 manuscript treatise.
In the later a of his life he WINS
almost totally blind. Then. and prob
ably earlier. he carried in his memory
Il table of the first six powers Of Sc
ries OF natural numbers up to 100" 1t
is related that or one occasion two of
his students attempted to calculate n
they found disagreement in their re-
suits. These differed by a unit at the
tifticth figure. The question was re-
fcrrcd to Euler. who decided to make
the calculation. He did this mentally.
and his result was found to be cor
rect.
Condorcet. In his 'Eulogy OF Euler"
paid high tribute to his memory. 1T
is well known" he says. Ito all who
mates that there exist in the modern
analysis (and Euler himself greatly
multiplied the numbcr) formulate of a
common and almost daily application.
These he had almost daily present in
his mind. and repeated in conversation
with such readiness and accuracy that
DAlembert, who saw him in Berlin.
spoke of his power in this respect as
scarcely credible TO any but eye-wit-
nesses. His faculty in carrying on
arithmetical computations without the
aid OF writing was. If possible. still
more astonishing. But II was not on
ly In mathematics that Euler gave
proof Of p%rodigious memory. He was
we'll read in general literature and was
excellent classical scholar. Virgil
was n of his favorite writers. 1t IL
said that he knew this writer 90 we'll
that he could repeat the Aeneid from
beginning to end without hesitation.
and indicate the first n last thine Of
every page of the edition which he
used"
Jedediah Buxton was another ma
thematical prodigy having a phenom-
email memory who lived in the eigh-
teenth century. But he was a differ
ent type Of man from Euler. He IA
born Of poor, illiterate peasant par
ents" about 1905. and was brought up
to no calling. but supported himself
through life by the hardest kind OF
manual labor. He had not even the
rudiments Of an education. and be-
cause of this 1t is self-evident that his
mervelous knowledge of the power of
numbers. their relative proportions
and progressive demonstrations. was
instructive. Whenever he was called
upon to make n calculation he applied
the whole force of his powerful mind
so completely that he frequently lost
sight of external objects: and when
he recognized them 1t was only in re-
pect to their number. If any space Of
time was mentioned before him. he
would say that it contained SO many
minutes: and if any distance. he would
assign the number of "hair-breaths in
it," that is. the number of forty
eighth parts of an inch 1t contained.
1t is related of this extraordinary
man in volume so of the Dublin Uni
versity Magazine that he would stride
over a piece of land OF field, and tell
the contents with as much eXactness
as II he had measured 1t with a chain.''
In this way he measured the whole
Lordship of Elmeton "a village near
Chesterfleld) and some thousand acres
belonging to Sir Joshua Rhodes.