1890 BABBAGE'S CALCULATING MACHINE 161 



Pointing out that, as in other branches of history, 

 so here the historical accuracy of early tradition was 

 abandoned even by conservative critics, who at all 

 understood the nature of the problems involved, 

 Huxley proceeded to examine the story of the Flood, 

 and to show that the difficulties were little less in 

 treating it — like the reconcilers — as a partial than 

 as a universal deluge. Then he discussed the origin 

 of the story, and criticised the attempt of the essayist 

 in Lux Mundi to treat this and similar stories as 

 "types," which must be valueless if typical of no 

 imderlying reality. These things are of moment in 

 speculative thought, for if Adam be not an historical 

 character, if the story of the Fall be but a type, the 

 basis of Pauline theology is shaken ; they are of 

 moment practically, for it is the story of the Creation 

 which is referred to in the "speech (Matt. xix. 5) 

 unhappily famous for the legal oppression to which 

 it has been wiongfully forced to lend itself '"' in the 

 marriage laws. 



In July 1890, Sir J. G. T. Sinclair wrote to him, 

 callins; his attention to a statement of Babbasje's that 

 after a certain point his famous calculating machine, 

 contrary to all expectation, suddenlj- introduced a 

 new principle of numeration into a series of numbers,-^ 

 and asking what effect this phenomenon had upon 



^ Extract from Babbage's Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. 



Babbage shows that a calcnlating machine can be constructed 

 which, after working in a correct and orderly manner up to 

 100,000,000, then leaps, and instead of continuing the chain of 

 numbers unbroken, goes at once to 100,010.002. "The law which 

 seemed at first to govern the series failed at the bundled million 

 VOL III M 



