530 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1748. 



the gilding does not seem to have been affected, so neither does the paint appear 

 to have been cracked any where, but where the gilding lay under. 



Remarks on Mr. Jeahes Plan for Short-hand. By John Byron, M.A., F.R.S. 



N° 488, p. 388. 

 In Mr. Jeake's paper it is inferred, from the continual succession of new short- 

 hands, that none of them were constructed on right principles, which, in the 

 opinion of the proposer of this plan, are briefly these : 1 . There are in nature 

 only 8 simple characters, viz. 4 rectilinear ones, ( | — / \ ) and 4 crooked or 

 semicircular ( "^ u ^ D)- ^- To avoid the ambiguity and confusion that must 

 arise from the use of compound characters, a perfect short-hand should consist 

 of these 8 simple ones only. 3. But whereas there are 3 times as many letters 

 (or more) in the common alphabet, the consequence is, that one character must 

 serve for 1,2, 3, or 4 letters ; as their frequency of occurrence, or affinity to 

 each other, shall suggest. 4. From these suppositions, among a variety of al- 

 phabets that would equally answer his intention, results the following, which 

 (omitting as needless the letters a, e, i, o, h) he proposes for the plan of a perfect 

 short-hand ; and computes, with great exactness, that it may be written in less 

 than one quarter of the time that common long hand will require. 



The Alphabet. 

 / — \ I C 3 O O 



d t. Ir. mn. uw. csxz. bfp' c g h q. y. 



This, with a specimen of the Lord's prayer, as written in it, is the whole of his 

 plan ; which, as far as it goes, might have a plausible appearance to a person, 

 at the first turn of his thought towards short-hand ; but a little practical atten- 

 tion must have shown him how liable it was to the very objection that he in- 

 tended to remedy, viz. ambiguity. 



The first mark, for instance, (L), in this short specimen, stands for these 4 

 several words which occur in it, viz. our, will, evil, ever ; and 40 more that 

 might be enumerated, must, whenever they occur, be represented by it ; not to 

 mention how often it must occasion ambiguity in the beginning, middle, or end 

 of a longer word, or marks, of which it is a constituent part only. 



Now, though in the Lord's prayer it is easy, or in casual writing one of his 

 learning and sagacity might be able, by a long familiarity with the characters, 

 to determine the sense of what was written in them, yet it is evident that, to 

 common learners, a difficulty so perpetually occurring must appear insuperable. 



The postulatum, likewise, which this plan for short-hand is grounded on, is 

 taken up too expeditiously ; for there being in nature 4 rectilinear strokes, the 



