5 COMMUTATION BY A CHTLD. 



Remarkable extraordinary abilities of this child) have kindly undertaken to 

 powers of com- attend to the progress and execution of the work, and to see to 

 child.° n m a t,ie distribution of the plates, viz. Sir James Mackintosh ; Dr. 

 W. H. Wollaston, Sec. R. S. ; William Vaughan, Esq. ; John 

 Bonnycastle, Esq., Math. Prof, j Francis Wakefield, Esq. j 

 William Allen, Esq., F. R. S. F. L. S j John Guillemard, Esq., 

 F. R. S. F. Amer. S.; Samuel Parker, Esq. 5 Francis Bailey, 

 Esq. 



Subscriptions are received by either of the above gentlemen, 

 or by Messrs. Johnson and Co., No. 72, St. Paul's churchyard : 

 and printed receipts will be given for the same, which must be 

 produced and given up at the time the plates are delivered. 



Zerah Colburn is at present to be seen at the Exhibition 

 Rooms, Spring Gardens. Many persons of the first eminence 

 for their knowledge in mathematics, and well known for their 

 philosophical inquiries, have made a point of visiting him : and 

 they have all been struck with astonishment at his extraordinary 

 powers. It is correctly true, as stated of him, that — " He will 

 " not only determine, with the greatest facility and dispatch, the 

 " exact number of minutes or seconds in any given period of time; 

 " but will also solve any other question of a similar kind. He 

 " will tell the exact product arising from the multiplication of 

 '* any number, consisting of two, three, or four figures, by any 

 " other number consisting of the like number of figures. Or, 

 €t any number, consisting of six or seven places of figures, 

 (t being proposed, he will determine, with equal expedition and 

 " ease, all the factors of which it is composed. This singular 

 " faculty consequently extends not only to the raising of powers, 

 " but also to the extraction of the square and cube roots of the 

 " number proposed ; and likewise to the means of determining 

 " whether it be a prime number (or a number incapable of divi- 

 " sion by any other number) j for which case there does not 

 * " exist, at present, any general rule amongst mathematicians." 

 All these, and a variety of other questions connected therewith, 

 are answered by this child with such promptness and accuracy 

 (and in the midst of his juvenile pursuits) as to astonish every 

 person who has visited him. 



At a meeting of his friends, which was held for the purpose 

 of concerting the best method of promoting the views of the 

 father respecting his education, this child undertook, and com- 

 pletely 



