Numerals

For the old Indian forms, see Prinsep's *Journal Asiatic Soc. Bengal*, 1838, p. 348. The prospectus of *Brugsh, Numerorum apud Egyptios Demoticorum Doctrina*, Berlin, promises to give from papyri and inscriptions not only the figures, but the forms of operation. Probably the system assumed its present form by the meeting of the Indian and Egyptian traders at some emporium near the mouth of the Indus. Peacock seems to give undue weight to the fact, that the Tibetans have a copious nomenclature for high numbers: their arithmetic, doubtless, came with their alphabet, and the Buddhist legends from…