THE COMPUTING BOY. 



VI. 



291 



Vindication of the Claims of the American Boy 'to extraordinary 

 Talents and original Discovery, In a Letter from Mr. W. 



Saint. 



i 



To Mr. Nicholson. 



SIR, 



N reading your last number, I was struck with surprise (in Observations 



common, it should seem, with most of your readers) to and fat ; t8 i". 



J , ; ' support or the 



find that you had inserted a letter from the Mornuig Chronicle > talents, and 



which purported to give an account of the manner by which originality of 



/ . i r , • , , • -, i i the methods ot 



the American coy performs his calculations with such wonder- computing by 



derful celerity. Now I am persuaded, Sir, that, had you had Zcrali Col- 

 sufficient leisure to examine into the merits of that letter, and 

 into the claims of its author to the important discovery which 

 he affects to have made, you would not have given publicity, 

 (and, what is of still greater consequence, yon? sanction) to a 

 statement so little calculated to effect the object of its author, 

 which was " to reduce the child to what he really is— a very 

 clever boy, but no prodigy." 



Your insertion of this letter, after the very excellent account 

 you gave of the boy in a former number, has tended to produce 

 a belief in the minds of such of your readers as are unaccus- 

 tomed to abstruse calculations, that what this child does may 

 likewise be effected by any other boy of good abilities, and thus 

 a prejudice may be excited against this youthful and astonishing 

 calculator, which may prove equally injurious to his own fame, 

 and to his father's pecuniary interest. I have, therefore, to re- 

 quest, Sir, that you will assist me in my efforts to vindicate the 

 reputation of this extraordinary boy, by inserting in your next 

 number, if convenient, the following remarks on the letter 

 alluded to, in which I have endeavoured to show, that Mr. 

 A. H. E. has not succeeded in discovering the method by 

 which this boy performs his calculations with such surprising 

 celerity. 



In the application of M. Ralliers method to the extraction 

 of the cube root, Mr. A. allows, that " the result is ambiguous 

 where the numbei proposed'terminates with an even digit, or 

 with a 5 j" he proceeds, however, to explain how the difficulty 



may 



