of measurement, so it is with certain modes of reckoning. The digits, I, II, III, IIII (Latin _digitus_, "a finger") are unquestionably pictures of fingers, and Grotefend contends with good reason that V is a picture of the four fingers closed and the thumb extended, while X would represent the two hands, IV the subtraction and VI the addition of a finger. The use of a primitive decimal notation is widespread among barbaric peoples. In chess problems the several pieces are pictorially represented; in the planetary signs, [Symbol] is the caduceus or wand of Mercury; ♀ is the mirror of Venus, while the entomologist, in cataloguing his specimens, uses these symbols for the male and female respectively. In ♂ we have the shield and spear of Mars; in [Symbol], the sign for Jupiter, the arm wields a thunderbolt; and the mower's scythe [Symbol] is the symbol of Saturn (connected with Latin _sero_, _satum_, "to sow"), the god of agriculture. The signs of the Zodiac, which were mapped out by the old Chaldeans, supply a still more cogent example. In the form in which they are depicted on the ancient temple of Denderah, in Egypt, there may be traced evidence of their primitive pictorial character, a character still recognised in the headings of the months in our almanacks (cf. _Whitaker's_), and to be detected in current symbols. For example, the curved horns of the ram survive in [Symbol], the sign for Aries; the head and horns of the bull in [Symbol], the sign for Taurus; the arrow and a portion of the bow in [Symbol], the sign for Sagittarius; while, as Dr. Taylor points out, "the curious symbol [Symbol] is found to preserve the whole outline of Capricornus, the small circle being the head of the goat, with the forelegs below, and the body and tail extending to the left." Then in such entries in the almanack as "[Symbol] rises 4h. 25m.," "[Symbol] 11h. 54m.," "[Symbol] 10th 9.32 morn.," "[Symbol] 3420" in tables of the configuration of Jupiter's satellites, as also in the symbols for money, weights, measures, and so forth, the not wholly dispensed with picture-writing may be detected. The well-nigh vanished trade signs doubtless served a useful purpose as pictographs in guiding the illiterate to the shops of which they were in quest; and here and there the barber's pole with its spiral bandages reminds us of the phlebotomy of the past; the golden balls of the great financiers of Florence hang out from pawnbrokers' shops their delusive signal to the thriftless; while the "grasshopper" of Messrs. Martin, the "leather bottell" of Messrs. Hoare, and other remnants of goldsmiths' trade signs, remind us how many of these swung before the shops of Cheape and Lombard Street in olden time.