Swot

I have often heard military men talk of *swot*, meaning thereby mathematics; and persons eminent in that science are termed "*good swots*." As I never heard the word except amongst the military, but there almost universally in "free and easy," conversation, I am led to think it a cant term. At any rate, I shall be glad to be informed of its origin, —if it be not lost in the mists of soldierly antiquity.