186 SAVAGE SURVIVALS 



comingly, unless everybody else does so. If the 

 time ever comes when women develop a real sense 

 of art, they will refuse to dress like freaks merely 

 because others do. 



The word ^MecimaP' is an adjective derived 

 from the noun decern, a latin word meaning ten. 

 The Decimal S^^stem is the name of our system of 

 numbers, which is so arranged that ten of a lower 

 order make one of the next higher order — ten 

 units make one ten, ten tens a hundred, ten hun- 

 dreds a thousand, and so on. 



Why do we have a system of tensf Why not a 

 system of eights, or fives, or twelves! Do we have 

 the ten-system because it is the best system? Or 

 has it been fastened upon mankind by some cir- 

 cumstance somewhere in the past! We grow up 

 using the ten-system ; we never know of any other 

 system ; and the most of us are so mechanical that 

 it never occurs to us that there could possibly be 

 any other system. 



The decimal system of numbers is not the best 

 system. It was adopted by mankind as a result 

 of certain circumstances far back in the early 

 stages of human development. 



Before there was any science of mathematics — 

 before geometry, trigonometry, algebra, or even 

 arithmetic existed — men counted on their fingers. 

 They couldn't count in their minds, and they had 

 not yet invented figures and other mathematical 

 signs. The fact that mathematics had its begin- 

 nings on the fingers and that man has ten fingers 



