TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G 357 



obsolete, except for the single purpose of introducing a quota- 

 tion, and then, nine times out of ten, it is supplemented with 

 the dash. 



Turning now to the first division — that of the arbitrary 

 signs proper— we enter a region where there is some degree 

 of system and accuracy. The Arabic figures are the typical 

 example of the economy and value of this method of expression. 

 Imagine the cumbrousness of calculation in words spelled out 

 at length ! Imagine the task of performing an intricate mathe- 

 matical operation with the aid of Eoman numerals, in which 

 the same number may be represented in two or more ways, 

 and in which the symbols may represent a minus as well as a 

 plus value ! The whole system is full of pitfalls for the unwary. 

 In an excellent book of reference a table of this notation gives 

 CM as representing 100,000, when in reality it is the symbol 

 of 900. 



Next in value to the figures come the familiar mathematical 

 signs. And, whatever grammarians may say, mathematicians 

 will appreciate their importance. They are above and beyond 

 any phonetic or grammatical symbols, because they can be 

 read at sight by men of any language. So with the astronomical 

 signs. The old symbols of the heavenly bodies and of their 

 aspects have an appropriateness and beauty by which they have 

 long survived the lore that gave them birth. At first applied to 

 occult astrological purposes, they are to-day the shorthand of 

 the astronomer. And I may here remark the curious fact that, 

 of astronomical signs proper, as distinguished from astrological, 

 we have none, and that they would be a boon. (A few Greek 

 initials, like 8 for declination, can scarcely rank as such.) 

 While there are symbols for all apparent positions — as conjunc- 

 tion, opposition, sextile, quadrature, and trine — there are none 

 for real relations. Consequently a column of phenomena in a 

 modern almanac presents a strange mixture of symbols and 

 text. Signs representing greatest distance and closest approxi- 

 mation, for example, would do away with the necessity of 

 writing in full the words "perigee," "apogee," "perihelion," 

 and "aphelion." 



In the devising of new signs, however, philosophers have 

 shown a sad lack of invention. Take, for example, the sign for 

 Uranus — the initial of the discoverer with a circle pendent — 

 a sign, by the way, which is not recognised on the Continent. 

 The signs for the four planetoids first discovered were tolerable, 

 but those afterwards devised and now happily abolished reached 

 the lowest depths of symbolical absurdity. As, for example, 

 Iris — " a semicircle representing the rainbow with a star 

 within it and a base-line for the horizon ; " Flora — " the rose 

 of England;" Metis — "an eye and a star — sagacity and 

 prudence;" Egeria — " a star and a plate;" Irene — "a dove 



