The Elements of a Short Hand, by Samuel Jeake Esq;

XIII. An Abstract of the Bills of Mortality in Bridge-Town in Barbados for the Years 1737 ——— 1744. communicated by the Rev. Mr. John Clark. Read May 26. Bridge-Town, Barbadoes. 1748. | An. Dom. | Born | Males | Females | Baptiz'd | Buried | |----------|------|-------|---------|----------|--------| | 1737 | 52 | 26 | 26 | 77 | 208 | | 1738 | 81 | 41 | 40 | 106 | 250 | | 1739 | 91 | 54 | 37 | 119 | 244 | | 1740 | 91 | 49 | 42 | 123 | 242 | | 1741 | 68 | 33 | 35 | 95 | 261 | | 1742 | 87 | 42 | 45 | 130 | 296 | | 1743 | 92 | 43 | 49 | 126 | 252 | | 1744 | 89 | 46 | 43 | 120 | 166 | | | 651 | 334 | 317 | 896 | 1919 | XIV. The Elements of a Short Hand, by Samuel Jeake Esq;. Read May 26. A Succession of new Short-Hands published without the Reason of their Construction, having put me on forming a Method founded on Nature, the only Guide to Perfection, I settled an Alphabet in the following Manner. Having Having taken in a Book that lay by me a Paragraph as clear of the principal Idea of the Book as any I could find, consisting of near a thousand Letters, I enumerated the Repetitions of each of them, and wrote them down; and thereby made the following Table of the Number of Times each Letter was repeated in 1000. 'Tis true, it cannot be said the Repetitions will be exactly the same in every thousand Letters that may be taken either in the same Book or another; but whoever will enumerate them will not find Difference enough to be of Consequence. The Table. | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | k | l | m | n | o | p | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 81 | 20 | 23 | 45 | 99 | 18 | 18 | 54 | 78 | 3 | 36 | 15 | 66 | 83 | 12 | | q | r | s | t | u | w | x | y | z. | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 0 | 50 | 61 | 95 | 50 | 25 | 0 | 23 | 1. | After having made this Table, I consider'd with myself, that there were in Nature no more than eight simple Characters; four whereof are right, and the other four are crooked Lines. The four right Lines are first the perpendicular Line l, and secondly the Line of Level —; which make the two Sides of a Square. Secondly the oblique Line / ascending from the left to right, and the oblique Line \ descending from left to right, making the two Sides of the Rhomb; which is the Figure of the Diamonds on the Cards. The four crooked Lines are only the Semicircle when the Diameter is either above or below it, or on the right or left Hand of it as, O O C O. All Characters whatever must be made up of these, and from their Composition, which introduces Ambiguity of Signification, arises the Difficulty of reading a Short Hand, which uses the simple Characters for some Letters, and compound Characters for other Letters; or, which is as bad, for Words. This Difficulty, being unavoidable in a Short Hand of more than eight Letters, making it appear that 8 was the Number of Letters a Short Hand ought not to exceed, I considered it in the following Light. 1. If \(a, e, i, o\), and the Aspirate \(h\), be suppress'd, there will be 19 Letters only remaining to be represented by 8 Marks. 2. If \(csxz\), which have a Sound much alike, be represented by one Character, there will remain 15 Letters to be represented by the other 7 Marks. 3. If \(cgkq\), which have a Sound not very different, be represented by one Character, there will remain 12 Letters to be represented by 6 Marks. 4. If \(bpf\) be represented by one Mark, there will remain 9 Letters to be represented by 5 Marks. 5. If \(dt\) be represented by one Mark, only 7 Letters remain to be represented by 4 Marks. 6. If \(lr\) be represented by one Mark, only 5 Letters remain to be represented by 3 Marks. 7. If \(m, n\), are represented by one Mark, only 3 Letters remain to be represented by 2 Marks. 8. If \(u, w\), are represented by one Mark, there will remain one Mark to represent \(y\) the only Letter hitherto unmentioned. Writing Writing with Suppression of the Vowels hath been always admitted into short Hands of all sorts, because the Consonants are look'd upon as radical Letters, which indeed they ought to be. I shall suppress \( b \), as being not radical. All short Hands are subject to Ambiguity; for there being but 8 Marks to represent 24 Letters; and those 8 being used for 8 of them in the Short Hand Alphabets, the other Letters must be described by Characters compounded of these 8. The ranging of the Letters into Classes, as is done here, will hardly introduce a greater Ambiguity than all short Hands are subject to. So that this Method cannot be reckoned more puzzling to a Reader than any of the rest. 1. The Repetitions of \( d \) being 45, and of \( t \) 95, amount to 140, for the Repetition of this Class. 2. The Repetitions of \( l \), being 36, and \( r \) 50, amount to 86, for the Repetition of this Class. 3. The Repetitions of \( m \), being 15, and \( n \) 66, amount to 86, for the Repetition of the third Class. 4. The Repetitions of \( u \), being 50, and of \( w \) 25, give 75, for the Repetition of the fourth Class. 5. The Repetitions of \( c \), when of the Nature of \( s \), being about half its Number in the Table, may be reckoned 10, those of \( s \) 61, those of \( x \) 0, and those of \( z \) 1, give 72, for the Repetitions of the fifth. 6. The Repetitions of \( b \), being 20, of \( f \) 18, and of \( p \) 12, give 50, for the Repetitions of the sixth Class. 7. The Repetitions of \( c \) before \( a, o, u \), being about 13, of \( g \) 18, of \( k \) 3, and of \( q \) 0, give 34, for the Repetition of the 7th Class. 8. The Repetition of \( y \), being 23, gives 23 for the Repetition of the 8th Class. By a little Reflection it will appear, that the Marks applicable to these Classes are in some measure determin'd. For a right Line taking up less Time than a crooked Line in its Description, it is plain the four first Classes must be referred to the four right Lines; and the four circular Parts to the remaining four last Classes. But the right Lines are indifferent to all the first four Classes, and the circular Parts to the four last Classes, for the Reason just mentioned. So that so much as relates to the fixing the particular right Line to represent the particular Class, is at the Liberty of the Inventor of a Short-Hand, to adjust agreeable to his own Fancy: And the same is true of the circular Parts. Thus any one may perceive how far the Fancy of a Short-Hand Maker is properly bounded or at Liberty. I shall take notice of one shortening Rule; which is that of increasing the Dimensions of a Line, when the Letter must be repeated successively; as in Man, rare, and the like Cases. This is a good Rule of Mr. Weston. An Alphabet according to the Classes. \[ \begin{array}{cccccc} dt. & lr. & mn. & uw. & csxz. & bfp. \\ \text{A} & \text{I} & \text{M} & \text{U} & \text{C} & \text{B} \end{array} \] A Practice on the Lord's Prayer. Which being expressed in Letters of the common Alphabet, will certainly convince the Reader how easily a Language may be read, tho' the Vowels are omitted. e.g. As to the Introduction of Marks for representing Words in a Short-Hand, I shall not now say anything more about it, than that all Short-Hands, this as well as any other, is equally susceptible of them. The Advantages of this Short-Hand in the State exhibited, when perfectly learned, so as to be wrote readily, will appear to be, 1. That, by Suppression of aeioh, or $\frac{4}{10}$, only $\frac{6}{10}$ of the Time of writing ordinary Long-Hand is necessary to write this. 2. That the simple Strokes representing the Consonants, not taking up above half the Time of writing the Consonants, only half of $\frac{6}{10}$, or $\frac{3}{10}$ of the Time of any thing wrote in Long-Hand is necessary for writing this. 3. Right Lines not taking up more than $\frac{1}{3}$ of the Time of Description of crooked Lines, as the Diameter is $\frac{2}{3}$ of the Semiperiphery, it appears, if only right Lines were used, these $\frac{1}{10}$ would be reduced to $\frac{2}{10}$, by the Subtraction of $\frac{1}{3}$ of $\frac{3}{10}$. But, because the Number of right Lines, all things consider'd, should not be reckon'd but about double the Number of crooked ones, only $\frac{2}{3}$ of $\frac{1}{10}$ can be taken from the $\frac{1}{10}$; that is to say, the Time taken up in writing this Hand will be $\frac{9}{30} - \frac{2}{30} = \frac{7}{30}$ of the Time taken up in writing of the common Long-Hand, or less than the $\frac{1}{4}$ of the Time. As I have shewn all the Principles on which Short-Hands can be constructed to Advantage, I have no need to compare this with any other; because I have enabled every Reader to judge of them, by shewing within what Limits all Improvements are bounded. XV. An Account of a Treatise by Wm. Brownrigg M.D. F.R.S. intituled, "The Art of making common Salt, as now practised in most Parts of the World; with several Improvements proposed in that Art, for the Use of the British Dominions;" abstracted by W. Watson F.R.S. Gentlemen, Read June 15, 1748. I RECEIVED your Commands to lay before you an Extract of our worthy Brother Dr. Brownrigg's Book; which, though at all