A child prodigy, Young learned to read by age two and twice finished the Bible by age six. He learned more than a dozen languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Arabic.. He was a musician proficient in several instruments, an accomplished actor, and a versatile athlete. When still a young man he inherited a substantial amount of money, allowing him the freedom to devote his time to research and experimentation. Today, he is highly regarded in a number of fields ranging from physics to Egyptology. Young was born in Somerset, England. He was encouraged by his great uncle, a prominent London physician, to study medicine, and in 1792 he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh. He soon traveled to Germany and earned his medical degree from the University of Gottingen in 1796. Young opened his own practice in London in 1799, largely subsidized by an inheritance left by his great...