Arguments in favour of a decimal Notation. 365 



absurdly followed than has been done by our French neigh- 

 bours, with regard to the quadrantal arc, as shown above, 

 were we to listen to any proposals, however ingeniously urged, 

 for abandoning the decimal notation, after it has become in- 

 corporated in every operation and act of civilised society, 

 wherein numbering or computing is concerned. All the extra 

 labour and difficulties of which Mr. T. complains, with re- 

 gard to decimal computations, arise from an absurd adherence 

 to the number 3 and 4 in dividing our measuring rods or rules : 

 and I have been pained at the reading of the latter half of 

 Mr. T's letter, at reflecting, that instead of these speculations, 

 which I cannot but view as worse than useless, he might, most 

 beneficially for his own reputation and the progress of know- 

 ledge, in his several most useful and practical writings, have 

 recommended engineers and artisans, and himself (an advo- 

 cate " for the foot as a measure") have set the example, of 

 taking sfnall dimensions, not in inches, but in the hundredths 

 of a foot, which are provided on the edges of all, but the very 

 commonest, of our pocket rules. 



As to our monies, to which Mr. T. alludes, near the top of 

 page 304, it has been well shown in your 49th volume, with 

 what extreme ease and accuracy, and with what slight efforts 

 on the part of Government, they might all be reduced to a de- 

 cimal scale. As to calculations of time, to which he next ad- 

 verts; in adding up any series of minutes and seconds, or in 

 perform i ng subtraction, no labour or difficulty worth mention 

 occurs from the carrying and borrowing of 6 (in effect 60) in 

 the second decimal place; and as to multiplying or dividing of 

 these, or other sexagesimals, they never occur, but to a par- 

 ticular and very limited class of persons, who either have, or 

 may have by them, tables for facilitating these kind of calcu- 

 lations: — as to weights and measures next mentioned, the at- 

 tempt to reduce these in England to decimal scales, is too 

 arduous and hopeless of success at present, to be undertaken. 



Decimal coins and money accounts, if adopted by the go- 

 vernment, as already indeed is the. case in enumerating their 

 millions, and with all sums above 20 shillings, and even these 

 last are decimally stated when above 9 : — when these are be- 

 come familiar to the public, particularly to the youths in our 

 schools; and when dimensions taken in decimals of a foot (as 

 already they mostly are of an inch, to the disuse of the barley- 

 corn) are pretty generally adopted by engineers, surveyors, 

 and the directors of artisans, and by experimentalists and 

 writers generally ; then, something important may be done. 

 In the mean time, a repeal of the " imperial gallon" clauses, 

 with the substitution in a new Ad, of clauses, ascertaining 



(as 



