who understood little math more complex than counting

[suprunp]

Benjamin Rush, the “father of American psychiatry,” described the lightning-quick calculating ability of Thomas Fuller, who understood little math more complex than counting.
(Scientific American Mind;Volume 14, Number 1;Islands of Genius)

Can I say here "...who understood little about math more complex than counting."?

Thanks.

 

[bhaisahab]

Benjamin Rush, the “father of American psychiatry,” described the lightning-quick calculating ability of Thomas Fuller, who understood little math more complex than counting.
(Scientific American Mind;Volume 14, Number 1;Islands of Genius)

Can I say here "...who understood little about math more complex than counting."?

Thanks.

Yes, you can.

 

[Raymott]

Benjamin Rush, the “father of American psychiatry,” described the lightning-quick calculating ability of Thomas Fuller, who understood little math more complex than counting.
(Scientific American Mind;Volume 14, Number 1;Islands of Genius)

Can I say here "...who understood little about math more complex than counting."?

Thanks.

You could, but the original is more common. In English, we "understand something" far more often than we "understand about something."
Mostly it just sounds wrong:
"Do you understand [about] what you're reading?"
"Do you understand [about] Italian?"

 

[BobK]

:up: But the second example is a bit dubious ;-) 'Understand' has a special meaning in the case of languages. 'I understand Italian' means I understand what is said or written'. And 'I understand about Italian' is scarcely intelligible; perhaps it means 'I know about Italian' (which, as you know, does not mean the same as 'I know Italian').

b

 

[Raymott]

:up: But the second example is a bit dubious ;-) 'Understand' has a special meaning in the case of languages. 'I understand Italian' means I understand what is said or written'. And 'I understand about Italian' is scarcely intelligible; perhaps it means 'I know about Italian' (which, as you know, does not mean the same as 'I know Italian').

b

That's partly what I meant. Since "understand" has more than one meaning, you can't always change "understanding" to "understanding about". I don't think "understand about math" sounds much better than "understand about Italian".