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learner by a falfe operation? why ufe the 
improper term borrow! It implies the ne- 
ceffity of reftoration. But, in fact, there is 
nothing borrowed, and confequently no- 
thing to be reftored. What is taken from 
the next figure, is taken abfolutely and ufed : 
it has already, prematurely, yielded its fub- 
traclive part, and therefore is not liable to 
a fecond diminution: The figure from which 
it was taken, if it ftand in the 2d place 
from the right, has loft ten of its value; if 
in the 3d it has loft a 100: fo that if the 
figure be a 7, I confider it as a 6, and aft 
accordingly. 
I now proceed to give you a general no- 
tion of {ubtra&mg fractional numbers from 
each other. If, for example, you were re- 
quired to take t from > it is very evident 
that the remainder will be -J-, or ~: fo that 
when the denominators are the fame, you 
have nothing to do, but to fubtraft the lefs 
numerator from the greater. 
If the denominators be not the fame, re- 
duce them to fraftions of the fame denomi- 
nation, by multiplying each numerator into 
the other's denominator for two new nume- 
rators, and the denominators by each other, 
for a common denominator 5 then proceed 
as 
