'S20 Eoctraordinary talent for Calculation of 



Art. XVI. — Account of the extraordinary talent for calcula- 

 tion of Vincenzio Zuccaro, a child seven years old. 

 Some months since a child seven years old, named Vincenzio 

 Zuccaro, excited at Palermo the attention of the public, by 

 his remarkable talent for arithmetical calculation. This child, 

 who has not received any kind of instruction, solves the most 

 complicated problems in arithmetic with surprising facility. 

 He seems to be endowed by nature with a sort of instinct, 

 which makes him discover, as by intuition, the different rela- 

 tions of numbers. 



The reports which were circulated on that point were very 

 little believed. We resolved to make the child submit to a pub- 

 lic examination, in order to exhibit his talent to perfection, in 

 order that he and his family, who are very poor, may reap 

 some advantage from it. This examination took place on the 

 80th of January 1829, in the hall of the Academy of Good 

 Taste, at Palermo. More than 400 persons of the higher 

 ranks were present at it, and two professors of mathematics 

 were specially charged to interrogate the child, and to write 

 down his answers and solutions. 



A great number of questions were proposed, some of which 

 were difficult and complicated. The child answered all of them 

 with a readiness and confidence which excited general admira- 

 tion among the audience. 



We shall here give an account of one of these questions, 

 not as one of the most difficult, but because a circumstance 

 which took place in the time of its solution by the child cor- 

 roborates what we have said above, that the child discovers, 

 as by instinct, the mutual relations of numbers, and that with 

 such a clearness to himself, that he supposed every body else 

 has the same rapidity of intuitive conception. The follow- 

 ing is the problem : — 



" A steam boat departed from Naples to Palermo at mid- 

 day, and sailed ten miles an hour. At the same time a ship 

 departed from Palermo to Naples, and sailed seven miles an 

 hour. Supposing the distance from Naples to Palermo 180 

 miles, we ask how many miles each of the ships will have sail- 

 ed when they meet, and at what hour the meeting will take 

 place ?^' The child, after having considered for a few seconds, 



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