MISCELLANIES. 



509 



answered in a similar manner. 

 One of the party requested him 

 to name the factors which pro- 

 duced the number 247483, which 

 he immediatel)' did by mention- 

 ing the two numbers 941 and 263 ; 

 which indeed are the only two 

 numbers that will produce it. An- 

 other of them proposed 171395, 

 and he named the following fac- 

 tors as the only onesthat would pro- 

 duce it, viz. 5-^-34279, 7+24485, 

 59x2905, 83x2065, 35x4897, 

 295x581, and 413x415. He 

 was then asked to give the factors 

 of 36083 ; but he immediately re- 

 plied that it had none ; which, in 

 fact was the case, as 36083 is a 

 prime number. Other numbers 

 were indiscrimiiiately proposed to 

 him, and he always succeeded in 

 giving the correct factors, except 

 in the cause of prime numbers, 

 which he discovered almost as soon 

 as proposed. One of the gentle- 

 men asked him how many minutes 

 there were in forty eight years; 

 and before the question could 

 be written down, he replied, 

 25,228,800; and instantly added, 

 that the number of seconds in the 

 same period was 1,513,728,000. 

 Various questions of the like kind 

 were put to hi(n ; and to all of 

 them he answered with nearly 

 equal facility and promptitude, so 

 as to astonish every one present, 

 and to excite a desire that so ex- 

 traordinary a faculty should (if 

 possible) be rendered more exten- 

 tiive and useful. 



It was the wish of the gentlemen 

 present to obtain a knowledge of 

 the method by which the child was 

 enabled to answer, with so much 

 facility and correctness, the ques- 

 tions thus put to him : but to 

 all their inquiries upon this sub- 



ject (and he was closely examined 

 upon this point) he was unable to 

 give them any information. He 

 positively declared (and every ob- 

 servation that was made seemed to 

 justify the assertion) that he did 

 not know how the answers came 

 into his mind. In the act of mul- 

 tiplying two numbers together, 

 and in the raising of powers, it was 

 evident (not only from the motion 

 of his lips, but also from some sin- 

 gular facts which will be hereafter 

 mentioned), that some operation 

 was going forward in his mind; 

 yet that operation could not (from 

 the readiness with which the an- 

 swers were furnished) be at all 

 allied to the usual mode of pro- 

 ceeding with such subjects ; and, 

 moreover, he is entirely ignorant of 

 the common rules of arithmetic, 

 and cannot perform, upon paper, a 

 simple sum in multiplication or di- 

 vision. But in the extraction of 

 roots, and in mentioning the fac- 

 tors of high numbers, it does not 

 appear that any operation can take 

 place, since he will give the an- 

 swer immediately, or in a very few 

 seconds, where it would require, ac- 

 cording to the ordinary method of 

 solution, a very difficult and labo- 

 rious calculation ; and moreover, 

 the knowledge of a prime number 

 cannot be obtained by any known 

 rule. 



It has been already observed, 

 that it was evident, from some sin- 

 gular facts, that the child operated 

 by certain rules known only to 

 himself. This discovery was made 

 in one or two instances, when he 

 had been closely pressed u pon that 

 point. In one case he was asked 

 to tell the square of 4395; he at 

 first hesitated, fearful that he 

 should not be able to answer it 



correctly : 



