DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0141
JEDEDIAH BUXTON. 121
resolving a question, he could desist and resume the opera-
tion again where he had left off, the next morning, or in a
week, a month, or several months, and proceed regularly till
it was completed. His memory would doubtless have been
equally retentive with respect to other objects, had he attend-
ed to them with equal diligence; but his perpetual applica-
tion to figures prevented the smallest acquisition of any other
kind of knowledge. He was sometimes asked, on his return
from church, whether he remembered the text or any part of
the sermon; but it never appeared that he brought away one
sentence, his mind on a closer examination being found to
have been employed, even during divine service, in his favorite
operation, either dividing some time or some space into the
smallest known parts, or resolving some question that had
been proposed as a test of liis abilities.
His method of working was perfectly his own, and by no
means the shortest or the clearest, as is evident from the fol-
lowing example:—
He was required to multiply 456 by 378, which he accom-
plished as soon as a person in company had produced the
product in the common way. On being requested to work
it audibly, that his method might be known, he first multiplied
456 by 5, which produced 2280, which he again multiplied
by 20, and found the product 45600, which was the multi-
plicand multiplied by 100. This product he again multiplied
by 3, which produced 136800, or 456 x 300. It therefore
remained to multiply by 78, which he effected by multiply-
ing 2280, (the product of the multiplicand multiplied by 5,)
by 15. The product, being 34200 he added to the former,
which made a total of 171,000; and to complete the opera-
tion multiplied 456 by 3, which produced 1368. Having
added this number to 171,000 he found the product of 456
X 378 — 172,368. Thus it appeared that his arithmetic
was so completely his Own, and that he was so unacquainted
with the common rules as to multiply, first by 5 and then 20,
vol. iv. n
resolving a question, he could desist and resume the opera-
tion again where he had left off, the next morning, or in a
week, a month, or several months, and proceed regularly till
it was completed. His memory would doubtless have been
equally retentive with respect to other objects, had he attend-
ed to them with equal diligence; but his perpetual applica-
tion to figures prevented the smallest acquisition of any other
kind of knowledge. He was sometimes asked, on his return
from church, whether he remembered the text or any part of
the sermon; but it never appeared that he brought away one
sentence, his mind on a closer examination being found to
have been employed, even during divine service, in his favorite
operation, either dividing some time or some space into the
smallest known parts, or resolving some question that had
been proposed as a test of liis abilities.
His method of working was perfectly his own, and by no
means the shortest or the clearest, as is evident from the fol-
lowing example:—
He was required to multiply 456 by 378, which he accom-
plished as soon as a person in company had produced the
product in the common way. On being requested to work
it audibly, that his method might be known, he first multiplied
456 by 5, which produced 2280, which he again multiplied
by 20, and found the product 45600, which was the multi-
plicand multiplied by 100. This product he again multiplied
by 3, which produced 136800, or 456 x 300. It therefore
remained to multiply by 78, which he effected by multiply-
ing 2280, (the product of the multiplicand multiplied by 5,)
by 15. The product, being 34200 he added to the former,
which made a total of 171,000; and to complete the opera-
tion multiplied 456 by 3, which produced 1368. Having
added this number to 171,000 he found the product of 456
X 378 — 172,368. Thus it appeared that his arithmetic
was so completely his Own, and that he was so unacquainted
with the common rules as to multiply, first by 5 and then 20,
vol. iv. n