Harding. — Certain Decimal and Metrical Fallacies. 99 



I have no details. The disturbance of measures by complete 

 duodecimalisation would amount to no more than systemati- 

 zation, and would be comparatively slight, but it would have 

 been otherwise with weights. It will be noted that a single 

 radix would have governed arithmetical notation, measure- 

 ment, and coinage. 



To those who have any knowledge of the life and work of 

 Isaac Pitman it is needless to say that he was the reverse 

 of an idle dreamer. He was one of the most industrious, 

 methodical, and practical of men, possessing extensive know- 

 ledge and an inventive mind. Without these qualities he 

 would never have made the practical success he did of his 

 system of phonography, which, on its own merits alone, dis- 

 lodged every previous system of shorthand, and still holds its 

 ground against all rivals. When he received his somewhat 

 belated honours from royalty, they were generally approved 

 as having been bestowed on a public benefactor. Any man 

 who looks forward in advance of his time must bear the 

 penalty of being ignorantly esteemed a paradoxer ; but even 

 in the field of speUing-reform, to which he devoted years of 

 apparently fruitless toil and expense, his work has not been 

 lost, for he has familiarised the millions who write short- 

 hand with the idea of a rational alphabet, of which they make 

 dailv use. But the reform of arithmetical notation, however 

 desirable in theory, seems to be too large a contract for any 

 man, or even any nation, to undertake, and its foremost advo- 

 cate was well advised to let it drop. 



As notational signs the Pitman figures could scarcely be 

 improved upon. While conforming in character to the familiar 

 numerals, they can also be read as the initial letters of the 

 words "ten" and "eleven" respectively. The following 

 table of various numbers compared in the two notations gives 

 an example of the symbols as they appear in actual use : — 



Apart altogether from any theory of reform, a little prac- 

 tice in this notation is a remarkably illuminating exercise in 

 arithmetic, showing, as it does, that the decimal system con- 

 ceals more than it discloses of the properties of numbers. 

 Awkward fractions disappear, while numerical relationships 

 come out in a simple and beautiful manner. One important 

 series after another, broken and marred by decimal misrepre- 

 sentation, falls into regular and harmonious sequence, and the 



