Page:The Construction of the Wonderful Canon of Logarithms.djvu/113

Notes. 89

Simon Stevin, to whom Napier here refers, was born at Bruges in 1548, and died at The Hague in 1620, He published various mathematical works in Dutch. The Tract on Decimal Arithmetic, which introduced the idea of decimal fractions and a notation for them, was published in 1585 in Dutch, under the title of ‘De Thiende,’ and in the same year in French, under the title of ‘La Disme.’

We find Briggs, in his ‘Remarks on the Appendix,’ while sometimes employing the point, also using the notation 2 5118865 for $$\scriptstyle 2\frac{5118865}{10000000}$$, distinguishing the fractional part by retaining the line separating the numerator and denominator, but omitting the latter. The form 2| 5118865 has also been used. If we take any number such as $$\scriptstyle 94\frac{1305}{10000}$$, the following will give an idea of some of the different notations employed at various times :— 941&#8242; 3&#8243; 0&#8244; 5&#8279; ; 94 1305 ; 94| 1305 ; 94.1305.