The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.127

c11.127

So, too, in Chaucer's explanation of the astrolabe,² written for his son Lewis, the number of degrees is expressed on the instrument in Hindu-Arabic numerals: "Over the whiche degrees ther ben noumbres of augrim, that devyden thilke same degrees fro fyve to fyve," and ". . . the nombres . . . ben writen in augrim," meaning in the way of the algorism. Thomas Usk about 1387 writes:³ "a sypher in augrim have no might in signification of it-selve, yet he yeveth power in signification to other." So slow and so painful is the assimilation of new ideas.