A WONDERFUL CHILD.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 51, 7 December 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

A WONDERFUL CHILD.

A marvellous boy prodigy has been discovered in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, and is the subject of an article in the September 'Success.' The boy, who is only 11 years of age, is described as being already an accomplished mathematician, scientist, linguist, and author. At the age of three ana a half years, not only could he read and write, but he had also to use a typewriter, and at four year; was really quite expert in the use o. the machine. All the while he displayed an increasing thirst for knowledge. In his fifth year he took up the stud, of anatomy, his interest in this subject being aroused by discovering a humai. skeleton. "It was almost gruesome.' says Dr Sidis, the boy's father, "to set the enthusiasm with which he studies the bones, identifying each by clost comparison with the plates in a textbook on anatomy. Within a very short time he knew so much about the structure of the human body that he couk have passed an examination creditably." But it is his remarkable achievements in mathematics that excite the greatest wonder. His powers in this direction have been repeatedly tested by experts from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Some have come full of scepticism. All have gone from him in baffled amazement. When hwas only nine years old, a brilliant young physicist confronted the boy with a problem that had been given tc him when he went up for his Ph.D. examination at a well-known German University. The physicist had found great difficulty in solving it. The boy solved it with ease.

The library of this prodigy contains works on astronomy, physiology, geography, history, political science, ant languages. All of these he studies with geiHiine enthusiasm. For the past few moHhs he has been chiefly interested in the. study of American history. Not long ago he showed the writer a paper giving his conception of the "0 greatest events in the history of the Inited States. "It would have done credit to a University student. Indeed, it revealed a clearer insight into the philosophy of history than many a teacher of history ever attains." Besides English, he understands Latin, Greek, and German. At the age of seven, before he had ever heard of Esperanto, he invented a universal language of his own, to which he gave the name of "Vendwgood." The boy's father regards his son's attainments as being merely the natural result of a rational system of educational training- Dr Sidis holds pronounced views on this subject, and his theory is that |>y using tne latent reserve force inherent in each of us and by teaching tlio child to think, wonders can be accomplished in education. His son, who has practically never been to school, certainly says a good deal for the soundness of his theory. Apart from his studies, the boy is said to be just as full of animal spirits and interest in sports as any healthy young creature 9» bis agp.