D. V. T. Qua

“ In whatever light it is viewed, the decimal notation must be regarded as one of the most striking monuments of human ingenuity, and its beneficial influence on the progress of science and the arts, on commerce and civilization, must win for its unknown author the everlasting admiration and gratitude of mankind. ”

“ From this last arrangement seems to have come the fundamental law of the decimal notation in which its superior utility consists, and upon which quite recently has been based the metric system of weights and measures. By placing any of the digits in the place of the zero to make the numbers between ten and twenty, we have the law established. The science of arithmetic, like all other sciences, was very limited and imperfect at the beginning, and the successive steps by which it has reached its present extension and perfection have been taken at long intervals, and among different nations. ”