radically the same word, somewhat mutilated. The cardinal meaning of
the word (denuded of the conventional accretions of signification,
which peculiar applications of it adds to the cardinal meaning)
appears to be _emptiness_, _hollowness_, _nothingness_. It may be
further remarked, that in the fine Chartres MS. of Boetius, described
by Chasles, the 0 is called _sipos_:--the same name, he remarks,
that Graves found in use in the East. The modern Turks call the 0,
_tsifra_.

It is curious enough that in all languages, the term _ciphering_ is
popularly used to denote all arithmetical operations whatever.
Our schoolboys do their "ciphering," and write carefully in their
"ciphering-books." This all seems to point to the art of dispensing
with the use of the abacus or counting table.

T.S.D.

Shooter's Hill, March 5.

[1] The best account, because the most consistent and
intelligible, of the Greek arithmetic, is that by Delambre, affixed to
Peyraud's edition of Archimedes.

[2] At a period of leisure I may be tempted to send you a few
extracts, somewhat curious, from some of the papers of Mr. Strachey in
my possession.


_Arabic Numerals_.--I had replied to "E.V." (No. 15. p. 230.), when
I saw by your "Notice to Correspondents," that the question was