Singidar arithmetical Powers of a Child. 191 



Many persons of the first eminence for their knowledge 

 in mathematics, and well known for tlieir philosophical 

 inquiries, have made a point of seeing and conversing with 

 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 o^ minutes or se- 

 *' conds in anv 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, 

 ** any number, consisting of six or seven places of figures, 

 ** being proposed, he will determine, with equal expedition 

 ** and ease, all (hz factors of which it is composed. This 

 ** singular faculty consequently extends not only to the 

 *' raising ofpoivers, 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 division bv any other num- 

 *f ber) ; 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 an- 

 swered by thi"? 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 promotins: the 

 views of the father, this child undertook, and completelv 

 succeeded in, raising the number 8 progres^iveli/ up to the 

 sixteenth power ! ! I and in naming the last result, viz. 

 281,474,9/6,710,656 he was rigiit in every figure. He 

 was then tried as to other numbers, consistina of one 

 figure; all of wliich he raised (by actual multiplication and 

 not by memory) as high as the tenth power, with so much 

 facility and dispatch that the person appointed to take 

 down the results, was obliged to enjoin him not to be so 

 rapid ! With respect to numbers consisting of two figures, 

 he would raise some of them to the sixth, seventh, and 

 eighth \^owvT ; but not always vvith equal lacility: for the 

 larger the products became, the more difficult he found it 

 to procee'l. He was asked the scjur&e root of 106929, and 

 before the number could be written down, he immcdialehf 

 answered 3 27. He was then required to name the cvhe 

 root of 268,336,125, and with equal faijllty and prompt- 

 utss he replied 615. Various other queslit-iis of a similar 



nature, 



