The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-10
STRANGE MEMORY OF FAMOUS MEN Some Scholars Who Never
 Forget Facts SEVERAL EXAMPLES Macauley Could Have Restored Six Books of Paradise Lost" From
 Memory If They Had
 Been Lost

Dteu LOSl
 John William Perrin, Ph.D., Librarian of
 Case Library, Cleveland, O., in the New
 York Eevening Post
 Writers on psychology and philosophy | have cited many examples of prodiSious memory. No doubt some of these are ex- | aggerations, others fabulous, and only comparative few admit of verification. Re gently have found in my reading num- l Der of cases so well authenticated that they may be used to illustrate the won derful power of well cultivated memory in mind of strong native endowment. In each instance, too, this remarkable reten- tiveness seems in no way to have retarded the fullest development of the other men, tai powers.
 Possibly the most remarkable of the cases that I shall cite was the memory of Leonard Euler Eulan was a native of Basic, but spent the most of his life in 1 St. Petersburg. He was born in 1707 and died in 17S3. He was educated at the Uni versity of Basic, where he was a student under John Bernoulli. He early gave ev- | idence that he possessed unusual mental abilities and when but 19 years of age | ranked second in a contest for prize | offered by the Paris academy for the best | treatise on the masting of ships. In 1730 | he went to St. Petersburg as professor of | physics, but gave up his professorship after three years for a place in the St Petersburg academny From this time the special field of his labors was in mathematics. The results he attained are | most astounding. More than half of the 46 quarto volumes of mathematics pub lished by the academy between 1727 and 17S3 were from his pen. At his death he left more than 20O manuscript treatises. Tn the later years of his life he was al most totally blind Then. and probably | earlier he carried in his memory a table of the first six powers of series of nat ural numbers up to one hundred" It is related that on one occasion two of his students attempted to calculate a con- verging series. As they progressed they found disagreement in their results. These differed by a unit at the 50th figure. The question was referred to Euler who de- cided to make the calculation. He did this mentally and the result was found to be correct.
 Knew the Aeneid By Heart
 Condorcet, in his 'Eulogy of Euler. paid high tribute to his memory. Tt is wen known" he says, ito all who have the l slightest tincture of mathematics that there exist in the modern analysis (and Euler himself greatly multiplied the num- ber) formulae of a common and almost
 
 daily present in his mind, and repeated in conversation with such readiness and &C., curacy 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 arith- metical computations without the aid of writing was, if possible, still more aston l lshng. But 1t was not only in mathe- matics that Euler gave proof of prodi- gious memory. He was well read in gen. eral literature and was an excellent class 1 ical scholar. Virgil was one of his flaw orite writers. It is said that he knew this writer so well that he could repeat the Aeneid from beginning to end without hesitation, and indicate the first and last line of every page of the edition which 1 he used"
 Jedediah Buxton was another mathe- nautical prodigy having phenomenal memory who lived in the eighteenth cen tury. But he was different type of man from Euler. He was born of "poor. Hitter ate peasant parents' about 170S and was 1 brought up to no calling but stlpportat himself through life by the hardest kind Of manual labor. He had not even the rudiments of an education and because 1 Of this 1t is self evident that his mar l Vellous knowledge of the power of num- oers, their relative proportions and pro gressive demonstrations. was instinctive. | whenever he was called upon to make a calculation he applied the whole force of his powerful mind so completely that he frequently lost sight of external objects and when he recorded them it was only l Tn respect to their number. If any snaee l or 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 breadths in IL that is the number of 18th parts of an inch it contained.
 Measure of, Land By Strides It is related of this extraordinary man in Volume LX of he Dublin University Magazine that he would stride over 2 piece of land or field and tell the com tents with as much exactness as if he had measured it with a chain" In this way he measured the whole lordship of timeton "a village near Chesterfield) and some thousand acres belonging to Sir Joshua Rhodes. When he had finished the work for Sir Joshua he brought him the results mot only in acres roods and percheS, but even in square inches" Prom ably his greatest feat was the detern,, nation of the number of cubicaI eiei,tbs or an inch in triangular body whose three sides were respectively 23 145. .7S9 yards. 5,642,7S2 yards, and 54,965 wards This complicated question was put in him suddenly while he was walking in the field with fellow faborers. After five hours he gave the exact result
 The 17th centuriy furnishes two in stances to which desire to call sna ,ial attention. The first is that of an Italian scholar. Antonio de Marco Magliabecohi librarian of Cosmo TIT, Grand Duke or Florence. Magiliabecch was the Iitersrv prodigy of his time. Royalty and other distinguished personages paid tribute to his wonderful learning. His contemno- raries have said that his memory was so prodigious that he was able to retain vor- oatim most or the contents of his 'mul tltudinous books" A comparatively recent writer, too, has declared that he coul,I name all the authors that had written upon any subject, giving the name of tbn book, the words. and often the paee This is doubtless exaggeration. But. nm Enc other hand it should be remembered that the number of books on any subject was much fewer then than now Besides thia there are two stories that have come down to lS from Magliabecchis time. that give color to it's truth. On one occasion gentleman from Florence desired to test Masliabecchi's memory and ascertain for himself whether the wonderful stories told were truth or fiction. He gave ehiu a manuscript to read then. some days q fter its return pretending to have lost if Inc asked Magllabecchi to recall it. which if is said he did with remarkable exactness At another time the grand duke asked if he could procure for him certain book. one that was particularly scarce. "marlxed four R's rarissimus' as Dominic Sampson would have described it. Immediately came the response: '.No sire: it is i,n- l possible Your hlghness's treasury voull not buy t for you. for there is but one in