SOO PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1701. 



above half a pound, and some of them almost as large as a man's fist. Ludo- 

 vicus Vives mentions such a tooth, but a little larger ; which was showed to 

 him for one of St. Christopher's teeth, and was kept in a church that bore his 

 name.^ Just such another tooth was seen by Acosta in the Indies, dug out of 

 the ground, in one of their houses there, with many other bones, which put 

 together represented a man of a formidable size. And so must we have judged 

 of these teeth, and of the body to which they belonged, had not other bones 

 been found with them, which could not be human bones. Some that have seen 

 the teeth, and by some other circumstances, are of opinion, that they are the 

 bones of an hippopotamus, or sea-horse. The mould about them, and in 

 which they all lay, resembled a sea-earth or fulling-earth, without a stone, un- 

 less you dig 3 feet deeper, and then it rises a perfect gravel. 



An Account of a Person who could neither Read nor Write, yet could Reckon 

 Sums to great exactness. Communicated bij Mr. Locke,* dated Kotterdamt 

 March 25, 1701. N° 272, p. 893. 



Yesterday I had here a young lad of 1 7 years old, that can neither read nor 

 write, yet by his head will reckon any of the most difficult sums you can give 

 him, even to the utmost fractions. I gave him an average to make of a ship 

 run ashore, to save ship and goods were worth 136795 14; the charges on the 

 salvage 2931,16. I asked him how much that was per cent.? he told me 

 after a little talking to himself, that it was 21 gild. 9 st. and a small fraction. 

 I asked him what 4943,3, 2848,4, 2244,7, 2194,7, 544,19, 351,18, and 

 52,16 must pay respectively, and he told ine exactly to so many stivers and 

 _«_^J2_. I aked how he came by that knowledge ; he said by selling sea snails 

 and muscles, for which he received nothing but doits, so he brought his father 

 home so many doits, but could never tell how much money they amounted to, 

 till he asked his father how many doits made a gilder, and being 160, then he 

 reckoned how many in 10 and 100, and so from one thing to another. He has 

 a table of multiplication in his head of half a yard long or more ; I tried him 

 by a table I have, and he answered me as readily as you can upon the ordinary 

 table of multiplication ; and he divides almost with as much ease as he multiplies, 

 and reduces things to the least denomination in fractions. He wanders from 

 town to town, to see who has any thing to cipher, and so gets some money; 

 but he would fain learn to read and write. This I mention because it is so 



* It does not appear that this was the great Locke, as according to the accounts of his life, Mr 

 Locke never was in Holland after the revolution in lO'sy 3 and besides, the style and writing of this 

 paper, seem not like Locke's. 



