By the Name of Rice

Thadeus Colburn, and moved to Vermont. Now
Zeriah Rice Colburn had a son whom she named in a
curious manner. She called him Abiah, beginning with
her A-b-abs and adding the last syllable of her own
name.
Abiah Colburn, when he had a son, began at the other
end of the Alphabet, added the last syllable of his own
name and called him Zeriah or Zerah. This Zerah
Colburn was one of the greatest natural mathematicians
the world has ever produced and a brief sketch should
here be given, that we may keep his memory green.
11" Zerah Colburn was born in Cabot, Vermont, Sept. 1,
1 804 and died Mar. 2, 1 840. When only six years old
he began to manifest extraordinary powers of computation.
He mentally solved problems involving the use
of numbers containing four and five places of figures
with greater ease and rapidity than that to which experienced
mathematicians could attain.
The Question "How many days and hours in 1811
When
years" was answered correctly in 20 seconds.
he was nine years old he was able to solve Questions
like the following "What : is 999,999 2 x 49 2 x 25 " The
result occupied 17 places of figures. He immediately
gave the factors of 294, 967, 297, which French mathematicians
had supposed to be a prime number. His
performances show that his mental processes were inconceivablv
rapid and his memory very powerful.
After exhibiting his son in the middle and southern
states, Abiah Colburn took him to England, Scotland,
and Ireland and finally placed him in the Lycee Napoleon
in Paris where he remained 18 months. He
attracted the attention of the Earl of Bristol, who
placed him in Westminster school for three years.
After his father's death, in 1824, young Colburn re-
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