used by different Nations, 321 



my "peculiar attention, were discovered in a manuscript in the 

 library of the old Abbey of St. Germain du Pres, by my friend 

 and instructor, M. Silvestre de Sacy. This great orientalist 

 says, " I.e Go6ar a^uarapportavfic le chifire indien^mais iln'a 

 pas de zero*.'* ,»l> 7'-^^i^n^y >!!> om fan nf?.it t>7/ :ii nl .tu.' ^ 



To me, however, it seems, that the figure of the cypher there 

 is found; it is, however, not placed aside the figures, but over 

 them, as in the scholion of Neophytus. It is, indeed, the signs 

 of the cypher or the points, which have caused to be given to 

 these characters, the strange name of gobar or dust characters. 

 He who sees them for the first time is doubtful whether they 

 represent a transition from figures to letters, or not. It is only 

 with pain, that the Indian 3, 4, 5 and 9 can be distinguished. 

 Dal and ha are, perhaps, the Indian figures of 6 and 2 distorted. 

 , The indication by means of points is thus effected : — 



3 instead of 30, 



4. . instead of 400, 



6.-. instead of 6000. 

 These points recall to our memory a mode of notation used 

 by the Greeks f, but not frequently met with, and be- 

 ginning only with the myriad. Here, a * * is used for 10,000, 

 and ^ : : for 200 millions. One point, which, however, is never 

 employed, serves to express 100 in this system of geometrical 

 progressions. In Diophantus and Pappus, a point is found be- 

 tween the alphabetical figures, instead of the initial Mu (My- 

 riad). In this method, therefore, a point multiplies to figures 

 to the left 10,000 times. It would seem that some obscure 

 ideas of notation, by points and cypher, had been brought from 

 the East into Europe by the Alexandrines. The figure of the 

 cypher is, indeed, used by Ptolomaeus, and even as an indi- 

 cation of something that is wanting. He employs it in the 

 descending sexagesimal scale to indicate the wanting degrees, 

 minutes, and seconds. Delambre even pretends to have found 

 the figure of the cypher in the manuscripts of Theon, in his 

 commentary on the Syntaxis of PtolomaeusJ. The cypher, 



♦ See Gramm. Arabe, p. 76, and the observations added to pi. viii. 



•f- Ducange, Paleogra,p. xii. 



X Histoire de TAstronomie Ancienne, t. i., p. 547 ; t. ii., p. 10. The passage of 

 Theon is not to be found in his printed works. Delambre is inclined to attribute 

 the origin of the Greek figure of the cypher sometimes to an abbreviation Qf ov^iv 



