239. What was the origin of the terms “Whig” and “Tory”?
These designations of political parties in English, and more lately in American history, were originally applied as terms of reproach. There are three accounts for the origin of the term Whig.
1. That it is derived from whig, whey, which the Scottish Covenanters used to drink, and hence a name applied to them.
2. That it is a contraction of whiggam, a term used in Scotland in driving horses, or from whiggamore, a driver of horses. In 1648 a party of these people marched to Edinburgh to oppose the king and the Duke of Hamilton. “This,” says Burnet, “was called the Whiggamore’s inroad; and ever after all that opposed the court came in contempt to be called whiggs; and from Scotland the word was brought into England.”
3. That it is formed from the initials of the motto, “We hope in God,” the motto of the club from which the Whig party took its rise.
The term Tory is derived from an Irish term applied, says Roger North, to “the most despicable savages among the wild Irish”; and the name was first given to the followers of the Duke of York, in 1679, because he favored Irishmen.
Another account of its origin is that it is derived from toree, give me (sc. your money), a term used by the Irish robbers.
240. Who invented decimal fractions?
The inventor of decimal fractions was Simon Stevin, of Bruges, whose tract, published in 1585, was entitled the “Disme.” But the simple plan we now have was not then invented. He used circles to designate the numbers that showed the value of the figures; thus, he wrote 27.847 as 27 (0) 8 (1) 4 (2) 7 (3), and read it as 27 commencements, 8 primes, 4 seconds, 7 thirds. The (0) showed the zero point, the (1) showed tenths, and so on. These terms “primes,” “seconds,” “thirds,” etc., have disappeared. “Primes” were the first to the right of the whole numbers, “seconds” the second place, etc.
Dispute has arisen concerning the origin of the simpler notation by means of the decimal point, whether used before the fraction alone, or as separating it from the integer. Napier claimed the discovery, so also has De Morgan. But Mr. Glaisher, in a paper read before the mathematical section of the British Association, seems to establish Napier’s priority in introducing the decimal point into arithmetic. The full modern use of it was first exemplified in a posthumous work of Napier’s called “Mirifici Logarithmorum Canon’s Constructio,” edited by his son, in 1619, where the formal definition of the decimal separator is given and illustrated, and the point subsequently used in operation as we now use it. Briggs, who died in 1631, constantly used an underscored line to distinguish the decimal part of a number; and Oughtred, one of his followers, improved on this by using, together with the line, a vertical bar to mark the separation still more plainly.