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In the preface the author says “This book has been written to satisfy the curiosity of the ever-growing public interested in abnormal mentalities and their practical manifestations. The author has devoted many years to a study of the subject and in his modest way he has to some extent been an exponent of some of the phenomena that he records.” The author has been successful in bringing together in book form more information on the subject that can be found in any one other place. He has given in detail the particular characteristics of those gifted people who exhibit unusual or curious mental capacities and who for generations have attracted the attention of both scientists and general public.
The material is presented in five sections. Section I devoted to arithmetical prodigies deals with the history and data of the subjects and submits numerous examples of extraordinary instantaneous mental calculations of great complexity and frequently carried out by illiterate children. Section II deals with chess and musical prodigies, and with the relationship between precocity and genius. Section III gives accounts of famous memorizers, and of their marvelous feats, and describes some of the mental procedures and mechanisms used to accomplish these astonishing results. Section IV is entitled “Mental Magic” and presents a number of arithmetical problems and exercises that may be performed by any one of average intelligence after some study and practice. There is a chapter here explaining some of the “lightning” calculations, and one on arithmetical recreations. The final section is on the psychological aspects with some discussion of the unconscious factors involved in the mental activity of the prodigy. There is an interesting appendix describing the old English talley sticks used for keeping accounts.
This book may be highly recommended to everyone who has an interest in the peculiarities of mental function. It is a well written analysis of the important factors, a sound app