ARITHMETICAL FIGURES.

The arithmetical or Arabic numerals are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Properly they should be styled Hindu or Indian numerals; for the Arabs

borrowed them, along with the decimal system of notation, from the

Hindus. They were probably first introduced from the East into Italy

about 1202; yet they did not come into general use before the invention

of printing. Accounts were kept in Roman numerals up to the sixteenth

century. Figures are usually made one en thick; but of late a broader

figure is cast for newspaper use, which is two-thirds or six-sevenths of

an em in width.