"My Thought Book."
1821, J. P. Thomas.
ACCOUNT OF ELIZABETH HAYWOOD,
THE WONDERFUL CALCULATING GIRL.*
NATURE, like a sober and skilful operator, generally works by fixed rules of action, but sometimes she playfully and innocently sports with the objects of her wise creation, and presents to us a singular specimen of wonderful eccentricities, as if she were willing continually to excite our astonishment, by the production of some novel wonder—some amusing peculiarity—some interesting variety. The existence of every created being, and almost every quality of that state of being, is incomprehensible to man. The philosopher may, with more discrimination than the common observer, account for the modes, and he may possibly better ascertain the principles, but he cannot satisfactorily analyse the original existence of a created being, except by deriving it from the fiat of an omnipotent God, so that his inquiry must end in faith and wonder, rather than in independence and knowledge. Yet it must be admitted, that extraordinary deviations from common or fixed qualities of being, attract, in a superior degree, the attention of man, who sometimes asks:—what is the reason of these lusus naturæ—these sports of nature—these eccentricities of creation? The atheist derives them from the absurd contingency of the random possibilities of vagrant chance, as if two or three irregularities would supersede the uniformity of the perfection of a million of regularities, whilst the materialist ingeniously states them to arise from an exquisite and imperceptible difference of formation in the corporeal seat of intellect. If I dared to hazard a bold conjecture upon the subject, I should humbly suggest, that although God, influenced by motives of sovereign intelligence and supreme wisdom, generally ordains the completion of one common mode of creation, he is sometimes willing to convince his living creatures, that his eccentric will is eccentric law, and to confirm or increase their sense of his greatness, and of the stupendous distance of the created from the creator, by the remarkable creation of a being of extraordinary powers or endowments, or a body of some peculiar qualities.
The subject of this sketch is one of those astonishing living prodigies, which, like comets, seldom visit the world; and when they do, the blaze of their grandeur not only excites our wonder, and invites our contemplation, but naturally attracts our minds with increased attention to that universal author, who, with peculiar favor, bestows upon such eccentric beings, extraordinary endowments. Elizabeth Haywood is an interesting little girl, aged only twelve years, and possesses the most eccentric, or rather wonderful powers of innate mental numerical calculation. Without the least mechanical or external ussistance, and with the utmost facility, accuracy, and decision, she solves both simple and complex arithmetical questions in much less time than would be required by other persons assisted with pen and ink, or pencil, &c.
When I asked her to inform me of the number of barleycorns in twenty-five miles and three quarters, she replied correctly in about a minute:—'4,894,560,' at the same time, observing to me, 'that is too easy a question, sir, will you be pleased to exercise me upon a more difficult one?' I asked her what kind of question she wished me to propose, when she replied, 'if you please, sir, I will multiply any given sum of five figures, by another given sum of five figures, and then I will multiply the product by a third sum of five figures.' I therefore requested her to multiply 56,983 by 72,385, and then to multiply the product by 43,984. She replied in about three minutes, 'the first product is 4,124,714,455, and the second product, or sum total, is 181,421,440,588,720.' By a calculation with pen and ink, I ascertained that those stated products were perfectly correct, and that upon paper, the sum required one hundred and twenty-five figures. Wishing to give her a more interesting calculation, I asked her, if she formed fifteen calculations every day, Sundays being cxcepted, for twenty-three years, and supposing that she was presented with one shilling for every such calculation, and if she expended seven shillings per day, what would be the amount of her savings at the expiration of the twenty-third year? She replied: 'I wish that I could be so successful, sir, and I should be then able to make my poor father comfortable for life.' She answered my question in about two minutes and a half. She frequently adds, with ease, four lines of pounds, shillings, and pence, with nine figures to the pounds, in each of the lines. On the morning of the day on which I am writing this memoir, I asked her to multiply 64,928 by 9,628: in about three minutes, she answered, '625,126,784.' Willing to know, if possible, the extent of her amazing powers, I asked her if she could calculate the number of minutes and seconds in 29,800,000 years, she replied, 'that, sir, is one ef the most difficult questions ever proposed to me; but I can accomplish it I know,' and she answered me in about six minutes, viz.:—'15 billions, 662 thousands, 880 millions of minutes, and 939 billions, 772 thousands, 800 millions of seconds.' In this calculation she reckoned the year at my request, as consisting of 365 days in the year only, without leap year, &c.
She informs me that in a multiplication question, she sometimes multiplies by a larger even number than the sum requires, and then subtracts the difference; thus, if she were desired to multiply 4,878 by 500, she will multiply 4,880 by the 500, and then subtract from that product, twice 500 = 1,000, which produces the answer. When she first calculated, she did not properly understand numerical terms, and therefore improperly denominated her figures; thus she would say twenty-seven hundred, instead of two thousand seven hundred, &c., &c. She is, in other respects, an ignorant girl, and can neither read nor write. She lives by the precarious earnings of private exhibition—a mode of subsistence which obligation, rather than inclination, obliges her to pursue, and she says that she should be very glad to be permanently provided for. and not to be obliged to be continually depending upon prospects, which although in a degree realised, are at least uncertain, and unpleasant to her feelings, but she says she could not make up her mind to any offers, however flattering, to leave her home, to which she is fondly attached. Her memory must be extremely retentive, as she remembers, without difficulty, sixty-three figures after they have been twice repeated to her, even if they be all odd figures, and when there are not cyphers amongst them. Bidder, the celebrated calculating boy, has been kindly provided for, as I believe, by the duke of York; therefore this girl is the only calculating child whom the public has an opportunity of seeing.
When in the act of calculation, she generally places one of her hands on her chin, and lowering her head, appears most attentively engaged in intense and abstract reflection.
It is worthy of remark, that an inlerruption does not disarrange her mental calculations, in the midst of which she sometimes rises to pursue some ordinary avocation, and converses upon common topics of discourse with those who are in the same room, and then sits down, and resumes her calculation, sometimes raising her head, and saying—'I shall soon have done.' When she has completed her calculation, she rises and says—'Now will you be pleased, sir, to put down my answer?' which she gives in proper numerical order, beginning at the highest figure, and properly denominating all her figures, thus:—'four millions, eight hundred and ninety-four thousand, five hundred and sixty.' When a question is put to her, she carefully and slowly recounts ench figure aloud to her auditors, desiring them to correct her, if any of the figures which she repeats be wrong.
Notwithstanding her abstraction of intellect when engaged in calculations, she is at other times very lively and playful. She has never exhibited her powers in public, and she contributes much to the support of her father and little brother, by her calculation before private company. With such well-earned resources she entirely supported her father during a late severe illness.
The father of this wonderful girl is a poor silk weaver, earning about twelve shillings a week by his business. He was accustomed to employ his daughter in his business, to wind his quills, which she informs me that she took great pains to count.
She first began to calculate in her extraordinary way, about fifteen months ago:—she states, 'I do not know how I acquired the power of calculation, unless it was by counting my father's quills; it came to me within three months: I do not know what first induced me to calculate, I could not calculate at all in the same way before about fifteen months ago, when I first began to calculate in my present way, by my head.'
To account philosophically for the very extraordinary powers of this wonderful mental calculator, would, as I imagine, be a fruitless task, and would end in conjecture; and I therefore content myself with simply submitting to the public, a brief and correct statement of every interesting particular relative to this wonder of human nature.
The child's mother is dead, and she has only one little brother living. She resides at No. 5, New Street, Half Nicol Street, Bethnal Green, and attends to exhibit her powers to private parties, at their own houses, upon a short notice being given.
* I have transferred this account from the Londoner of September 23, 1820, which work I had the honor of editing.