2. On the Need, for Decimal Subdivisions in Astronomy and Navigation, and on Tables requisite therefor

Extract

The abstract question as to what number would have been most advantageously taken for the basis of an arithmetical system has been put aside by the universal preference shown for the number ten. All nations having any culture count in tens. In the English language, traces remain of the old numeration by dozens and scores; the French, still prefer to say “quatre-vingt seize,” rather than “nonante-six.” These vestiges serve to show that there has been change. But from the old Eastern languages all traces of any but the denary counting have disappeared.