NOTES. 293" 



retain the sum of each gi'oup in his brain and add it to the next * 

 till the groups were exhausted. Here, however, is a clue to the 

 mental process that flashes with such truly astounding rapidity 

 through the boy's brain, and it clearly shows that there is no thought 

 reading, or, as I understand it, no hypnotic action. 



To test the theor}- of his retention of the figures as set, I purposely 

 challenged his answer, restating the same with an intentionally 

 altered figure. His reph' was to instantly correct me by restating 

 the figures as I first quoted them, adding that with those figures he 

 could give no other result ! 



After giving him 7/22 as the ratio (nearly) of the circumference of 

 a circle to its diameter, I stated .tt^ following problem. A railway 

 line is 70 miles long, and one of Ime wheels of an engine that runs 

 along this line is 10 feet in diameter. How many revolutions would 

 that wheel make in doing the -^fetance ? His answer was given 

 almost in a moment, and was 1 1 ,^^0 if the wheel was 10 feet wide and 

 29,400 times if the wheel was 4 feet wide. I leave the reader to 

 work out the exact sum and see how long he takes. 



In point of height the lad is rather above the average for a person 

 sixteen years of age, which is what he states his age to be. He has 

 an additional little finger on each hand, and an extra toe on each 

 foot, besides being knock-kneed. His face is that of an ordinary 

 Tamil boy. with no particular development of the skull so far as I 

 could detect without careful measurement. His, lips are thick, 

 protruding, with rather fat cheeks. The nose is small, much de- 

 pressed between the ej^es, and somewhat Simian. The chin is small, 

 rather pointed, and some what retreating. His voice is variable, and 

 much changed by any excitement as would follow in an argument 

 over a solution given, but in this respect he is in no \^'ay abnormal. 

 He appears to be childlike, and while I was questioning him he would 

 play with one of the gentlemen who accompanied him, much as a 

 kitten would play on being tickled. 



His movements impressed me with the idea that he was highly 

 nervous, and equally that he was completely oblivious of his own 

 abnormalit3^ 



He would laugh without provocation, and when answering a 

 question involving long figures he would appear to be extra- 

 ordinarily amused. 



Bej'ond this, and a sort of indifference to anything other than 

 calculation, his whole manner was that of a completely illiterate 

 child. 



He stated, on being questioned if among any of his relations were 

 there any who could read or write, that only one, who had married 

 a female of his family, could read ; so that I failed to find a trace 

 from his own statements — and I see no reason to doubt them — of 

 anything that might be brought to bear on the question from the 

 standpoint of hereditary gift. 



