The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1902-05-09
MATHEMATICAL ORIGIN.

mind should have had it's budding, or
It's primary calculations in country
on the southern coast of Asia. 1t hangs
down into the Indian ocean, and three
of her sides are lashsd and washed by
bodies or water; and the Northern part
of her is Swallowed by the highest
mountains in the world. The Hindoos,
who inhabit this far off country, claim
the honor of it's origin; and the most
stringent investigations must award its
claim. In the earliest periods of soci-
ty, it is evident, from the nature of
the case, that some knowledge of num-
bers and the art of calculation was ne
cessary to man, since without this they
could not have performed the simplest
business transaction, even such as are
The Hindoo people do not claim the
honor without Divine aid; declaring
the fact that the fingers and thumbs
on both hands, were SO arranged by the
Creator of man and the Universe so as
to be utilized in calculating as we'll as
in mechanical art. The Hindoos in
vented the ten characters, viz: l. 2, 3. 4,
5, 6, I, 8, 9, 0, and after years trans
mitted it to the Arabians, and they
introduced it into England, and from
England it came to America. The
HindoOs had this plan of calculating a
long time before any other nation
knew anything about such thing in
existence. The Hindoos are of a brown
complexion belonging to the Caucasian
race. The common people are poor,
ignorant and superstitious. Only the
wealthier classes are educated, and
women are not educated at all. Their
prevailing religion is Brahamnism and
their sacred books of Brahmanic relig-
ion were written 800 years before the
Christian era.
This wonderful invention must have
emanated from the beneficence of the
Almighty, for certainly it is the great
est and most useful of inventions that
was ever achieved by man. Without
| it what and where is the great arena of
business? Stop! reflectt Business of
every kind, of every nature, of every
vocation demands and calls into want
the use Of that great and noble inven-
tion. 1 repeat once more, it. was the
greatest invention ever unfolded to
man, either in ancient or modern
times. The Hindoos communicated a
knowledge of it to the Arabians, not
until the beginning of the eighth cen
fury, when they invaded Spain, and
probably knowledge of it was COM
municated to the inhabitants of Spain,
and gradually to those other European
countries.
About the middle of the 18th cen.
fury it was introduced into England
by John, Archdeacon of Leicester, but
was not generally used by the Euro
peans until the 18th or 18th century.
The science of arithmetic, like other
sciences, was very limited and imper-
feet at the beginning; but step by step
it has reached its present extension
and perfection, under the study and
application of the mathematical mind
OF nearly all nations of'the:globe. The
Arabians discovered the method of
proof by casting out the 9s. The Ital-
ians discovered the method of separat-
ing numbers into periods of six figures,
for the purpose of enumeration. This
people 1.-THE Italians) also introduced
the multiplication table, which Pytha-
goras invented. The invention of
decimal fractions belong to John Null
Ter, who sought out this idea in the
year 1864. The decimal point was in
vented by DR. Peacock. Circulating
decimals received but little attention
till the time of DR. Wallis, who died at
Oxford in 17O3. Baron Napier, of
Scotland, about the 18th century in
vented Logarithms. Nichomachus, the
PythagOrean, was the first to make
distinctions and divisions of numbers
into classes, as plain, solid, triangular,
etc. This was about the Christian era.
Diphantus, a celebrated mathemati-
clan, invented algebra about the mid
die of the fourth century, but little in
tereSt was manifested and it was lain
aside, and did not revive again till af-
ter the invention of printing. Then
Lucas de Burgo brought it into Sc
he used p for plus and m for minus, in
this he was followed by many of his
successors. After this Steifel, Ger
man, in 1544 published a work entitled
Integar, added consider
ably to the use of signs, and was the
first who employed and - to denote
addition and subtraction. This mathe-