the move- 

 ment. 



DECIMAL COINAGE. 235 



shoulder in the socket, which the patient said had given 1856, 

 him no pain. His account would have amused me if it 

 had not frightened me so much. On hurrying to London I 

 found him reading comfortably in his arm-chair. Happily 

 he neither suffered from pain nor fever, and the weakness 

 in the arm caused by the accident did not last long. 



As early as the year 1824 Sir John Wrottesley, father Decimal 

 of the first Lord Wrottesley, had introduced the question of History 'of 

 Decimal Coinage in the House of Commons. 1 His pro- 

 posal was to retain the pound as the unit, dividing it by 

 tens until it reached 1,000 farthings. The motion was 

 not pressed to a division. 



In 1832 Mr. Babbage's work On the Economy of Manu- 

 factures was brought out. In this the plan of a decimal 

 system was advocated, and lesser attempts by other 

 writers followed. In 1833 the first number of the Penny 

 Cyclopaedia was published, and Mr. De Morgan in the 

 article Abacus gave a good summary of the advantages of 

 the proposed change. 



It [the abacus] never can be much used in this country 

 owing to our various divisions of money, weights, and measures. 



1 A very early suggestion on this subject is to be found in a little 

 book of my father's, long out of print. Speaking of the abacus, the 

 use of which he had described, he says, ' The Chinese use this toy 

 in the common concerns of life ; and they can do it with great ease, 

 since in their nation the decimal arithmetic is preserved in the 

 weights, measures, and money. The French and Americans have 

 returned to their ancient and best mode of counting ; but it will be 

 difficult to establish it in this country on two accounts : first, it 

 would be considered an innovation, and it is almost incredible how 

 great is the number of persons who prefer their father's mumpsimus 

 to a modern sumpsimus. Secondly, it is a question of mere public 

 benefit, without reference to party politics ; and it must be a fortunate 

 concurrence of circumstances to produce an individual resolute enough 

 to bring forward a motion that would get rid of our troublesome 

 modes of numbering, and introduce that which is the simplest, the 

 best, and the most ancient.' (Tangible Arithmetic, by W. Frend, 

 1806.) 



