Show REMARKAIILE IDIOTS Dr Frederick Peterson discusses In the last number very astonishing ore clal apllludet exhibited by many Idiot who have become notable at mutual prodigies lightning calculator and the like lie designates them In the title of his paper ai Idiots Savant and shows that their peculiar powers due chiefly to extraordinary memory visual or auditory and facility Imitation Imita-tion e o wilt the lowest order ot general gen-eral Intellectual ability marking the congenttlvety defective and Ihe degcn crate Of course a notable example of such ipeclal aptitude U I Blind Tom the irorgla musical prodigy lie IOU horn blind and Intelligence was confined con-fined to sound lie learned to repeat readily but they had no meaning lo him hit spontaneous language accordIng accord-Ing to Dr Peterson being little more than Inarticulate sounds Hli musical faculty was purely Initiative He could Imitate any sound and play on the piano I pi-ano Irom meniery any piece of music no matter how Intricate note for note after hearing but once All dusts ol Idiot are peculiarly tusceptlbte to rylhmlcal sounds and hence a musical aptitude In them It I not to astonishing ai the mathematical Thl arithmetical faculty due to a phenomenal phenome-nal memory and to Imitation hat been displayed chiefly In an astonishing poster post-er of reckoning or ol calculating only Tom Fuller a Virginia lightning calculator of the last century was an Illiterate native African of prodlgtoua power of calculation Asked how many seconds In a year and a half he responded In two minutes 473000001 how many seconds a man had lived who was 715 years 17 days u hour old he answered In a minute and a half 1210 Soo Bon Ai a tlrlklng example of remarkable artistic faculty In an Idiot Dr Pelerion relrri to the case ol Godlrled Mind an Imbecile who died In 1814 and many of Ihe example of whose paintings are In European art galleries lie achieved distinction In the drawing and painting ol cal and became known ai the cats Raphael In all the cases of special aptitude In Idiots strongly ai these stand out In contrast to their gcnerrl feebleminded ness there li I originality no power of Invention spontaneity It li all mere Imitation mere memory The Idiots savant says Dr Peterson are mere copyist In music modeling designing or painting and ai a rule the aptitudes are precociously developed and are Ire quenty lost before reaching adult life Popular Science Monthly |