415 



subject of the Contact Theory of Electricity, as connected 

 with the views suggested in his paper " on the Direction and 

 mode of Propagation of the Electric Force, in media not un- 

 dergoing Electrolyzation." Mr. Knox referred, at some 

 length, to the recent experiments of M. Peclet on this sub- 

 ject, published in the Annates de Chimie. 



The Secretary read some memoranda of the native Indian 

 account of Tabasheer, communicated by William Farran, 

 Esq. 



The Secretary read the continuation of a paper by James 

 Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., &c. &c , on the 

 Boetian numerical Notation. 



I. 



An Inquiry into the Period of the first Use of the Zero 

 by those Writers who adopted the Notation of the Boetian nu- 

 merical Contractions. 



During the researches made by M. Chasles, of Chartres, 

 and myself, on the subject of the Boetian numerical contrac- 

 tions, — the former published in the Transactions of the Brus- 

 sels Academy, and the Comptes Rendus of the Academy of 

 Sciences, the latter in an Appendix to the Rara Mathematica, 

 — we came to no definite conclusion on the nature of the 

 change from the use of the abacus to that of local position 

 and the cipher. Some documents recently discovered by me 

 have strikingly elucidated this point of the inquiry, and as they 

 develop an entire new view of a system before only conjec- 

 tural, I have ventured to place the results before the notice 

 of the Royal Irish Academy, the more especially as the 

 general objects of that body render the subject more appro- 

 priate to their views than those of any society in England. 



Before I enter into this short discussion, to give the 

 reader an idea of the state the subject was left in, I will 

 quote my latest opinion : — 



