River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-08-13
History in Numbers.

numbers represented by the ssdigits"
imply. And right in the start this
word "digits" is significant. The
word, as all know, means "fngers,"
a practical demonstration of the fact
that men in the early stages of de-
velopment represented the number
of things they wished to express to
their neighbors by holding up as
many of their fingers as there were
units in the number. in contempla-
ton. But there is further proof
of this fact in the use of the cipher,
o. AS we said in a former article,
each character used to represent
number had in it as many lines as
there were units in the number
giving a philosophical occasion for
the form of the character, so in the
use of the cipher there is not SIM
pie chance, the character is not arbi-
trary but there is reason for its selec-
ton. In counting on the fingers
one reads thus: /, 2, 8, 4, s, 6, 7, s,
o-and now he has got once around
and he expresses lin fgures) the
conclusion of this action significant
ly by Io-1 and the circle, the ci->
pher, o, once round.
Now let us look at the words,
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight nine, ten, that express numbers
up to the number of fingers. (By
the way, The nine digits are called
SIGNIFICANT figures, because each
one expresses an actual number of
things, implying that the cipher
does not express number, and
there is no figure tor ten.) In look
ing at these words it will be seen
that they are all primitive words
and each is simplest in form-short
words. No one has any resemblance
to any of the others. They were
among the first words of the lam
guage. Let us take one step further
in "eleven;" then another in
"twelve;" still another in othirteen."
And here we are looking into the
history of the dim past. These
words suggest an evolution that it
took generations, perhaps many
centuries, to attain. The people.
could represent for long time no
larger number than they had fingers.
This was the limit of their attain
ment. After a while the mind APP
pretended larger number than
correspondent with the fingers there
was one more than ten. "There
is one left" after tallying the objects
in view with the fingers. Then in
the course Of time there were two
more that could be grasped by the
mind than the man had fingers. To
express this he would say: "There
are two left-twelve." Any one
can see the Estwo left in the word
estwelve." Eleven is not quite so
plainly cone left" although the
''left'' is visibly there. In regard to
the 'se'' we need only say-''ein",
s'en', "el", ''e'' was developed from
a word that meant single thing.
When we strike thirteen we can see
from the uniformity of designating
the added numbers that the progress
in apprehension of numbers is more
rapid. Here the number is added
to ten, the expression plainly indi-
eating the aggregate-so many and
ten. In twenty, thirty, etc., SINH
lar method is made use of, only that
in these a specific number of tens,
added to each other is expressed, in
other words the ''ty" added to the
word for the digit number expresses
that number of times ten.
It seems to US that these words,
sseleven," stwelve," s'thirteen," etc.,
are suggestive of the low estate and
slow progress of our remote ances-
tors in the apprehension of numbers
and their ability to express them.
These words are monuments COM
memorative of their degradation and
their advancement. In these words
are crystallized the evidences of their
ignorance, as they are the stepping
stones of their progress to higher ap-
prehension.
The fact that we have decimal
notation is evidence of the perma-
nent effect of this fundamental habit
of enumerating by the fingers, which
are limited to ten.
Perhaps there is no special signifi-
canoe in that our forefathers selected
the expression zone left" or "two
1 L