ANOTHER JUVENILE PRODIGY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5628, 29 November 1879, Page 7

ANOTHER JUVENILE PRODIGY.

The latest addition to the long list of juvenile prodigies, in respect to memory and mathematical accuracy, is reported from Maine. He is, says the Bangor Commercial, the sou of a former postmaitsr of that place, and is now ten years of age. He is untaught, save in the art of reading, to which he apppars to give more attention than wiser pareuta would allow. His strong point i 3 memory. He recollects not only everything that he reads, but everything that he does, remembers on what day he did it, where he was at tho time, and what were the circumstances that 1M him to do it. For instance, he will tell vb.ere ho was on any day within the past two year; , , and what he was doing. Further, ho remotebors and can tell everything that his friend*; have done, providing he has seen them di) it, nnd can tell on what date and on what day of ihe week th°y did it. Tho first that his fronds noticed of his precocity wan about iv year p.go, w" a tk?y accidental y discovered that he wns aunost infallible on any date he had ever scon or heard. Walking in company with some relatives in a cemetery it Wisj observed that he wjuld look at a tombstone, read the date of th.3 death recorded, and the exact age of the person buried there, then glance up and tell on what day of the week the dead peraon was born. This happened on several occasions, and but little attention was paid to it. Fiually one oE his relatives took paina to look into aa old almanac covering some of the dates ho had mentioned, and found that tho day of tho week had been given correctly in every instance. This caused them to ask him questions, when it was discovered that he could almost instantly tell the day of the week on which any date within tho last 75 years fell. In a series of teats made by tho Commercial writer, the boy gave the day of the week coiresponding to a largo number of dates between 1812 and IS4O, gave it correctly in every instance, and averaged five Beconds for each t»st. Tho longest time required was eight seconds, the shortest three seconds. His habits are described as "peculiar." "He never plays with other boys, but is continually bnsy in reading. Oftentimes ho takes an unabridged dictionary and studies it hour after hour, nover seeming to consider it anything but a pleasure to do it. In fact he takes no comfort unless, busying hia brain about eouisthing. If there is anything he does not understand he keeps at it till he doos understand it, and then it is next to impossible for him to forgot it. One would naturally suppose that a child with such unusual ■powdis would gradually fail and fade away, but, tingularly enough, ho is constantly growing stronger and more healthy." It ia to be hoped that tho last assertion 19 strictly true, and that the precocious youngster will not exhaust his brain-power in infancy. The chances, however, are heavily against him. Hie name is Charles Fuller.