58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 274. 



teen is ten times eight, ten times eight is eighty, and — 

 a — a — carry one. \_Exit.'\ " 



The latest numbered edition of Cocker I have met 

 with is called the 55th, hy Geo. Fisher, London, 

 1758, 12mo. 



Rather too scientific. — The piece broken off 

 from a mass of saltpetre, to test it, was called the 

 refraction ; and this word passed into a technical 

 term for the pcr-centage of foreign matter found 

 by common chemistry. A scientific journal took 

 it that the goodness of saltpetre was measured by 

 its refraction of the rays of light, and undertook 

 to add that the less the angle of refraction the 

 better the quality of the salt. 



Arithmetical Scale. — I know of but two at- 

 tempts to alter our arithmetical scale altogether. 

 Perhaps others can bring forward more. 



" Tlie Pancronometer, or universal Georgian Calendar 

 . . . and the Reasons, Rules, and Uses of Octave Com- 

 putation, or Natural Arithmetic. By H, J. London, 

 1753, 4to." 



The word Georgian looks so like Gregorian, that 

 probably many |)ersons passed the book over as 

 one of those which the change of style produced 

 by the score. The author's system of arithmetic 

 is that in which local meaning proceeds by eights : 

 thus 10 stands for eight, 100 for eight eights, &c. 

 He has a mania for the comparative and super- 

 lative terminations. His leading denominations 

 are units, ers (eights), ests, thousets, thouseters, 

 thousetests, millets, milleters, &c. He calls the 

 square of a number its power, and the cube — by 

 an oversigljt, not the powe.vi but — the poweres^. 

 Eight feet make a feete?*, eight feeter.v a feetei/, 

 eight pounds make a pounder, &c. If the crotchet 

 which possessed this unfortunate H. J. were to 

 return with seven others as bad as itself, thus, 

 and thus only, would this crotchet of a system, as 

 itself tells us, be made a crotcheter. But, strange 

 as H. J. may appear, there is a stranger, not 

 meaning eight, but only one. 



" Calcolo decidozzinale del Barone Silvio Ferrari . . 

 . . dedicato alia natione Inglese." Torino, 1854, 4to. 



This work has probably been suggested by the 

 discussions on the decimal coinage. The s^ystem 

 is duoiiecimal. The author goes farther than 

 H. J., for he takes old words under new meanings. 

 Thus 10 is called ten, but means twelve; 100 is 

 called a hundred, but means twelve twelves. Of 

 course I translate the Italian into English. New 

 names and symbols are wanted for old ten and 

 old eleven (which now mean twelve and thirteen). 

 They are hnppa, denoted by a sign like w, and 

 pendo, derived from pendulum, with a symbol 

 like 6 turned left side right. Thus what we call 

 twenty-four is twenty, what wo call a hundred and 

 twenty is kappatij (ten twelves). What we call 

 twenty-three is ten-pendo (twelve and eleven). 

 The year of grace now commencing is one thou- 



sand and kappaty seven, 10w7 ; 1000 meaning 

 1728, wO meaning 120, and 7 being unchanged": 

 and a happy new year it would be if we had to 

 commence it with this new reckoning. We should 

 pay money at the door of a show to see a man with 

 ten fingers ; and it would seem very strange, in a 

 philological point of view, that, after the traitor 

 had hanged liimself, the number of apostles left 

 should be designated by pendo. 



The author dedicates his work to our country. 

 His system, he says, — 



" Abbisogna di mettere le prime sue radici in nn ter~ 

 reno vergine, in cui non abbia a perire oppresso dall' ombra 

 delta rigogliosa pianta decimale." 



This means that our persistence in refusing to de- 

 cimalise our coinage, weights, and measures, is 

 enough to make any one think we are open to an 

 offer to rid us of the decimal numeration alto- 

 gether. A. De Morgan. 



JOHN BCNCLE. 



On looking over a collection of old letters, I 

 found several from T. Amory (John Buncle), 

 and very curious ones they are. I send you a 

 copy of one, which you may perhaps think worth 

 preservirtg in your entertaining and instructing 

 pages. C. DE D. 



" My dear Miss , 



" I send you a curious paper for a few minutes' amuse- 

 ment to you and the ladies with you. It was written 

 above thirty years ago. Perhaps you may have seen it in 

 the magazines, where I put it; but the history of it was 

 never known till now that I lay it before you. 

 I am. 



Miss , 



Your faithful, humble servant, 



Amouri. 

 " July 8, '73, 

 Newton Hall. 



"A Song 

 In praise of 3Iiss Rowe, 



Written one night extempore by a club of gentlemen in 

 the count}' of Tipperary in Ireland. It was agreed that 

 each member should, oflT-hand, write four lines, and 

 they produced the following verses : 



1. 



" A whimsical pain has just caught me, 

 Much worse than the gout in my toe ; 

 What damsel on earth could have taught me 

 To love, but enchanting Moll Rowe ? 



yVritten hy Sir Harry Clayton. 



2. 

 " When chatting, or walking, or drinking, 

 No person or subject I know; 

 For all my whole power of thinking's 

 Employ 'd about sweet Molly Rowe. 



By John 31acklin, Esq. 

 3. 

 " Some people love hunting and sporting, 

 And chace a stout buck or a doe, 



