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

open window, surely indicates the decease of some
inmate. Is this belief local?
J.W.H.
* * * * *
MODE OF COMPUTING INTEREST.
The mode of computing interest among the ancient Greeks appears to
have been in many respects the same as that now prevailing in India,
which has probably undergone no change from a very remote period.
Precisely the same term, too, is used to denote the rate of interest,
namely, [Greek: tokos] in Greek and taka or tuka in the languages of
Western India. [Greek: Tokoe epidekatoi] in Greek, and _dus také_ 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 (Böckh. _Pub. Econ. of Athens_, i.
165.). Precisely the same system prevails here. _Pono taka_, that is,
three quarters of a _taka_, denotes ¾ per cent. per month. _Nau také_,
that is, nine _také_, 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 (Böckh, 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: tiktô], "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.
* * * * *
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