C 22 3 
VII. An Account of a new invented arith- 
metical Infrument called a Sh wan -pan, or 
Chinefe Accompt-Table \ by Gamaliel 
Smethurft. 
Read Jan. 29. '“M "'HE Chinefe have for many Ages 
i^s. picqu'd themfelves on being the 
rnoft wife of any Nation in the World ; but late Ex- 
perience and clofer Converfe with them hath found 
this Pride to be ill-grounded. One Particular, in which 
they think they excel all Mankind, is, their Manner 
of accompting, which they do with an lnftrumcnt 
compofed of a Number of Wires with Beads upon 
them, which they move backwards and forwards. 
Thislnftrument they call a Shwan-pan. 
Now I truft 1 have form'd one on the Plan of 
our 9 Digits, that in no cafe falls Ihort of the Chi- 
nefe Shwan pan, but in many excels theirs. 
The Chinefe , according to the Accounts of Tra- 
vellers, are fo happy as to have their Parrs of an In- 
teger in their Coins, &c. decimated, fo can multi- 
ply or divide their Integers and Parts as if they were 
only Integers. This gives them the Advantage over 
Europeans in reckoning their Money, &c. But then, 
as they have no particular Place let apart for the 
lelfer Denominations of Coins, Weights, Meafures, 
&c. their Inllrument can't be iifcd in Europe , nor 
can it be fo univerfally applied to Arithmetic as 
mine, for I have provided for the different Divifions 
of an Integer into Parts. 
This 
