Mnemonic - Articles

- page 1 - THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY VOL. IV APRIL, 1891.       No. 1 ARITHMETICAL PRODIGIES. E. W. SCRIPTURE, PH. D. (Leipzig). I. A great deal has been said and written about these phenomenal persons in a very uncritical manner; on the one hand they are regarded as almost supernatural beings, while on the other hand no notice has been taken of them scientifically. Nevertheless, we can perhaps gain light on the normal processes of the human mind by a consideration of such exceptional cases. The first object of the present article is to give a short account of these persons themselves, and to furnish for the first time an approximately complete bibliography of the subject. Thereupon the attempt will be made to make such a psychological analysis of their powers as will help in the comprehension of them, and will perhaps furnish more than one hint to the practical instructor in arithmetic. NIKOMACHOS. - Lucian said that he did not know how better to praise a reckoner than by saying that he reckoned like Nikomachos, of Gerasa.1 Whether this refers to the reckoning powers of Nikomachos (about 100 A. D.), or to the famous Introduction to Arithmetic written by him, we are left in doubt. De Morgan inclines to the former opinion,2 Cantor holds the latter.3 The literal translation of the pas- 1Lacianus, Philopatris, "ariqmeeiz wz Nikomacoz." 2Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography v. Nikomachus. 3Cantor, Vorlesunyen uber Geschichte der Mathematik, Leipzig, 1880, I, 363.

- page 2 - sage places Nikomachos undoubtedly among the skillful calculators. AFRICAN SLAVE DEALERS. - Perhaps brought to the front or produced by the necessity of competing with English traders armed with pencil and paper, many of the old-time slave-dealers of Africa seemed to have been ready reckoners, and that, too, for a practical purpose, - a point overlooked by more than one of the later calculators. "It is astonishing with what facility the African brokers reckon up the exchange of European goods for slaves. One of these brokers has perhaps ten slaves to sell, and for each of these he demands ten different articles. He reduces them immediately by the head into bars, coppers, ounces, according to the medium of exchange that prevails in the part of the country in which he resides, and immediately strikes the balance."1 The ship-captains are said to have complained that it became more and more difficult to make good bargains with such sharp arithmeticians. It was also an African who was the first to appear in this role in America. TOM FULLER. - The first hand evidence in regard to Fuller consists of the following: A letter read before the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery by Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, which is published, more or less completely, in three places;2 and the obituary which appeared in the Columbian Centinel.3 On the foundation of these documents several later accounts have been given.4 1[T. Clarkson.] An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African. 2d Ed., London, 1788. (The passage quoted does not appear in the American editions, Fhila., 1788, 1787, 1804). 2American Museum, Vol. V, 62, Phila., 1799. Steadman, Narrative of a five years expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, South America, 2v. 4o, London, 1796, Vol. II, 260. In the French translation, Vol. III, 61. Needles, Historical Memoir of the Penn. Society for the Abolition of Slavery; Phila., 1848, p. 32. 3Columbian Centinel of Boston, Dec. 29, 1790, No. 31 of Vol. XIV. 4For example, Gregoire; An Enquiry concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties, and Literature of Negroes, followed with an Account of the Life and Works of Fifteen Negroes and Mulattoes; Translated by D. B. Warden; Brooklyn, 1810. (The translation is from Gregoire's original manuscript.) Brissot de Warville; New Travels in the United States of America, performed in 1788; London, 1792, p. 287; 2d Ed., London, 1794, vol. I, 243; Boston, 1797 (reprint of 1st ed.), p. 158; in the original French edition, vol. II, p. 2. Williams; History of the Negro Race in America; New York, 1883, vol. I, 399. Didot's Nouvelle biographie generale v. Fuller.