103 
Ordinary Meeting, March 22nd, 1881. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
Three electric kites used by the late Mr. sturgeon were 
presented to the Society by Mr. James Dancer, and the 
thanks of the Society were voted to the Donor. 
“On the Growth and Use of a Symbolical Language,” by 
Mr. Hugh McColl, B.A. Communicated by the Rev. 
Robert Harley, M.A., F.R.S. 
This paper discusses in a general way the cases in which 
symbols may be advantageously employed in logical and 
mathematical reasoning, and endeavours, from an examina- 
tion of our existing stock of symbols, to deduce some rules 
or guiding principles, first, as to when new symbols should 
be introduced, and secondly, as to what kinds of symbols 
should be selected. It also contains a brief account of the 
gradual development of the author’s own symbolic method, 
as explained and set forth in his papers published in the 
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society , the 
Educational Times, the Philosophical Magazine , and 
Mind. 
The President exhibited to the meeting four original 
letters of the late Mr. Thomas Carlyle, addressed by him to 
the late Mr. Samuel Bamford of Blackley, the Author of the 
“Passages in the Life of a Radical.” 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil, Soc. — Vol. XX, — No. 8— Session 1880-1. 
