NUMERAL CHARACTERS

NUMERAL CHARACTERS of the Arabs, are those figures which are now used in all the operations of arithmetic in every nation of Europe. We have elsewhere shown that the Arabs derived the use of them most probably from

Numeral from India, (See ARITHMETIC, No 5.) This opinion, however, though very generally received, has been controverted with some ingenuity. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, at a period when that miscellany was in its highest reputation, thus endeavours to prove that the Arabs derived their notations from the Greeks. "I maintain (says he) that the Indians received their numeral characters from the Arabians, and the Arabians from the Greeks, as from them they derived all their learning, which in some things they improved, but for the most part have altered. The numerical figures which they received from the Greeks are proofs of this alteration; which is so great, that without particular attention one can scarce discover in them the vestiges of their origin. But when we compare them carefully and without prejudice, we find in them manifest traces of the Greek figures. The Greek numerical figures were no other than the letters of their alphabet. A small stroke was the mark of unity. The B, being abridged of its two extremities, produced the 2. If you incline the $\backslash gamma$ a little on its left side, and cut off its foot, and make the left horn round towards the left side, you will produce a 3; the $\backslash Delta$ makes the 4, by raising the right leg perpendicularly, and lengthening it a little below the base, and lengthening the base on the left side. The $\backslash iota$ forms the 5, by turning the lowest semicircle towards the right, which before was turned towards the left side. The number 5 forms the 6 by having its head taken off, and its body rounded. Z, by taking away the base, makes the 7. If we make the top and bottom of H round, we shall form an 8. The $\backslash theta$ is the 9 with very little alteration. The cypher o was only a point, to which one of the figures was added to make it stand for ten times as much. It was necessary to mark this point very strongly; and in order to form it better, a circle was made, which was filled up in the middle; but that circumstance was afterwards neglected. Theophanes, an historian of Constantinople, who lived in the ninth century, says expressly, that the Arabians retained the Greek figures, having no characters in their language to represent all the numbers. The Greeks observed in their numbers the decuple progression, which the Arabians have retained. Certain characters are found in the Greek alphabet, which are not used in reading, but only in calculation, and for this reason they are styled Episemes, that is to say, notes, marks, in order to distinguish them from letters. The number 6 derives its form from one of these episemes, which was called episema. This episeme forms the letter F among the Aelians and among the Latins. This was called the Digamma, so styled from its figure, which seems to have been one $\backslash Gamma$ placed upon another.

That this reasoning is plausible will hardly be questioned; but whether it be conclusive our readers must determine. It has not convinced ourselves; but through the whole of this work we wish to state candidly the different opinions held on every subject of curiosity and usefulness.