S8o Aceounis of Booh. 



Millin), that though this method is extremely concife, eafy to be acquired, and rapid in the 

 execution, he has fticceeded in retaining every fyllable, vpv^l, point, mark, and even accent. 



The gain of two-thirds of the time employed in writing is certainly very extraordinary. 

 Profeflional men in the law have more occafion to employ copyifts than thofc of any other 

 bufmefs- Their work is reckoned by the flieet confifting of feventy-two words. Com- 

 mon copylfts can write eighteen or nineteen (heets in an hour, with the words at full length ; 

 and it is reckoned fpeedy writing to complete twenty-four in the fame time. The moft 

 fpeedy writer I ever employed as an amanuenfis could write thirty (heets from didlation in 

 the hour : but! never, employed him fo regularly as to know whether he could continue for 

 days at that rate. T myfelf write at the rate of twenty- feven, and I have had feveral afliftants 

 who have written at about the fame fpeed. Out of three fhort-hand writers I have em- 

 ployed, the fwifteft did not write more than four or five and forty flieets in the hour, and 

 that not very corredl ; which may be reckoned barely twice as fwift as the common writers. 

 I fuppofe the profeffed fliort-hand writers in our courts do much more ; but they on- 

 doubtedly have many fingle charafters, and abridgments of whole fentences, and common 

 forms which muft add to their difpatch. Deliberate reading fo as to pronounce every fyl- 

 lable with extreme precifion, or clear oratorial matter, is meafured by about i2o fheets in 

 an hour: — diftinft colloquial reading by about i6o flieets. From the performance of the 

 fhort-hand writers compared to the extent to which they abridge their words, I have no 

 doubt but that we form our common letters in lefs time than they do their fimple charadlers, 

 and that this difference arifes from our greater pra6lice. Hence it fliould feenl as if, for 

 common purpofes at leafl, it would be better to abridge in the ufual characters than in thofe of 

 Ihort-hand. 



I have fent for this work, which may probably deferve further notice when I receive it. 



Hiftoire des Mathematiques, &:c. Hiftory of the Mathematics, &c. a new Edition, confi- 

 derably augmented, and continued to the prefent Time. By J. F. Montucja, of the Na^ 

 tional Inftitute or France, 2 vols. 4to. 1465 pages, type Cicero. 



Cit. Lalande has given a fhorc account of this well-known and efteemed work in the Mag. 

 Encyclop. III. 257. The firft edition appeared in 1758) and the author has employed him- 

 felf, during the iong'feries of years elapfed fince that time, in increafing and perfeding it : but 

 his employment in the public buildings did not leave him time en'iugh to attend to the fe- 

 cond edition. In 1792, the author being difgufted with the circumftances of the times, was 

 tempted to renounce it : but Lalande, and the bookfeller Panckoucke, urged'him to proceed; 

 and in 1794, the work went to prefs. Thefe two firft volumes bring the fubjeft, as in the 

 firft edition, to the end of the Jaft century ; but the two others will carry it to the end of the 

 prefent. Half the third volume is already printed, and there is reafon to hope that both will 

 appear, notwithftanding the great age of the author, who was born on the 5th September, 

 1725. This edition is confiderably augmented 5 the number of letters in the firft edition, 

 being tb prove in the prefent as 232 to 336. 



