Notes and Queries, Number 57, November 30, 1850 | Page 4

namely, [Greek: tokos] in Greek and taka or tuka in the languages of Western India. [Greek: Tokoe epidekatoi] in Greek, and _dus tak��_ in Hindostanee, respectively denote ten per cent. At Athens, the rate of interest might be calculated either by the month or by the year--each being expressed by different terms (B?ckh. _Pub. Econ. of Athens_, i. 165.). Precisely the same system prevails here. _Pono taka_, that is, three quarters of a _taka_, denotes ? per cent. per month. _Nau tak��_, that is, nine _tak��_, denotes nine per cent. per annum. For the Greek mode of reckoning interest by the month, see Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, p. 524. At Athens, the year, in calculating interest, was reckoned at 360 days (B?ckh, i. 183.). Here also, in all native accounts-current, the year is reckoned at 360 days.
The word [Greek: tokos], as applied to interest, was understood by the Greeks themselves to be derived from [Greek: tikt?], "to produce," _i.e._ money begetting money; the offspring or produce of money lent out. Whether its identity may not be established with the word in current use for thousands of years in this country to express precisely the same meaning, is a question I should like to see discussed {436} by some of your correspondents. The word taka signifies any thing pressed or _stamped_, anything on which an impression is made hence _a coin_; and is derived from the Sanscrit root _tak_, to press, to stamp, to coin: whence, _tank_, a small coin; and _tank-sala_, a mint; and (query) the English word _token_, a piece of stamped metal given to communicants. Many of your readers will remember that it used to be a common practice in England for copper coins, representing a half-penny, penny, &c., stamped with the name of the issuer, and denominated "tokens," to be issued in large quantities by shopkeepers as a subsidiary currency, and received at their shop in payment of goods, &c. May not _ticket_, defined by Johnson, "a token of any right or debt upon the delivery of which admission is granted, or a claim acknowledged," and _tick_, score or trust, (to go on _tick_), proceed from the same root?
J.S.
Bombay.
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ON THE CULTIVATION OF GEOMETRY IN LANCASHIRE.
If our Queries on this subject be productive of no other result than that of eliciting the able and judicious analysis subsequently given by MR. WILKINSON (Vol. ii., p. 57.), they will have been of no ordinary utility. The silent early progress of any strong, moral, social, or intellectual phenomenon amongst a large mass of people, is always difficult to trace: for it is not thought worthy of record at the time, and before it becomes so distinctly marked as to attract attention, even tradition has for the most part died away. It then becomes a work of great difficulty, from the few scattered indications in print (the books themselves being often so rare[1] that "money will not purchase them"), with perhaps here and there a stray letter, or a metamorphosed tradition, to offer even a probable account of the circumstances. It requires not only an intimate knowledge of the subject-matter which forms the groundwork of the inquiry, both in its antecedent and cotemporary states, and likewise in its most improved state at the present time; it also requires an analytical mind of no ordinary powers, to separate the necessary from the probable; and these again from the irrelevant and merely collateral.
MR. WILKINSON has shown himself to possess so many of the qualities essential to the historian of mathematical science, that we trust he will continue his valuable researches in this direction still further.
It cannot be doubted that MR. WILKINSON has traced with singular acumen the manner in which the spirit of geometrical research was diffused amongst the operative classes, and the class immediately above them--the exciseman and the country schoolmaster. Still it is not to be inferred, that even these classes did not contain a considerable number of able geometers anterior to the period embraced in his discussion. The Mathematical Society of Spitalfields existed more than half a century before the Oldham Society was formed. The sameness of pursuit, combined with the sameness of employment, would rather lead us to infer that geometry was transplanted from Spitalfields to Manchester or Oldham. Simpson found his way from the country to London; and some other Simpson as great as Thomas (though less favourably looked upon by fortune in furnishing stimulus and opportunity) might have migrated from London to Oldham. Or, again, some Lancashire weaver might have adventured to London (a very common case with country artisans after the expiration of apprenticeship); and, there having acquired a taste for mathematics, as well as improvement in his mechanical skill, have returned into the country, and diffused the knowledge and