Jacques Inaudi

[2] Inaudi was referred to by the Nobel-prize-winning immunologist, Élie Metchnikoff (Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov), in his book The Nature of Man: Studies in Optimistic Philosophy (1905).

Metchnikoff regarded Inaudi as an example of a mutation, in the sense announced by the Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries (Die Mutationstheorie, Vol.

But he soon showed aptitude for Mental calculation and was taken to Marseilles where, at the age of 12, he met Bénédit Jules Dombey, a sales representative, who was to become his impresario and whose daughter he married.

Other French scientists took an interest in his abilities: some, such as Camille Flammarion, enthusiastically; others, especially mathematicians, emphasized the fact that Inaudi's methods were based mainly on his personal talents (such as prodigious memory) or “tricks,” and therefore could not be proposed for widespread use.

Among his abilities, he could add or subtract numbers of even 20 digits or more together, or extract square and cube roots, in a matter of minutes; and he could readily indicate the day of the week of any date from the 17th century onward.