ANNUAL RECORD 



OF 



SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 



1875. 



A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 



THE EARLY USE OF THE DECIMAL POINT. 



Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher, in some remarks on the history of the 

 introduction of the decimal point into arithmetic, concludes 

 that this invention must be attributed to Napier, the immor- 

 tal inventor of logarithms. The earliest work in which the 

 decimal separator was employed seems to be Napier's post- 

 humous work in 1619, at which time it appears that he was 

 aware of all the attributes that enable the decimal point to 

 complete systematically our method of notation. About the 

 same time Briggs employed a bent or curved line, for which, 

 in printing, he substituted merely a horizontal bar drawn un- 

 der the figures that were to be considered as decimals ; but 

 Napier himself has left so many instances of the actual use 

 of the decimal point as to render it pretty certain that he 

 thoroughly appreciated its use. Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1873, 12. 



TABLES OF ELLIPTIC INTEGRALS. 



The committee of the British Association, which has for 

 some years had in hand the preparation of a list of tables and 

 the calculation of new mathematical tables, report the com- 

 pletion of the tables of the elliptic functions, on which six 

 or seven computers have been constantly engaged for two 

 years past, under the superintendence of the Messrs. Glaisher. 



A 



