galton.org 83
Number-Forms
83
I give woodcuts of representative specimens of these Forms, and very
brief descriptions of them extracted from the letters of my correspondents.
Sixty-three other diagrams on a smaller scale will be found in Plates I., II.
and III., and two more which are coloured are given in Plate IV.
D. A. “From the very first I have seen numerals up to nearly 200,
range themselves always in a particular manner, and
in thinking of a number it always takes its place in the figure. The more
attention I give to the properties of numbers and their interpretations, the
less I am troubled with this clumsy framework for them, but it is indelible
in my mind’s eye even when for a long time less consciously so. The
higher numbers are to me quite abstract and unconnected with a shape.
This rough and untidy
[1]
production is the best I can do towards repre-
[1]
The engraver took much pains to interpret the meaning of the rather faint but carefully
made drawing, by strengthening some of the shades. The result was very very satisfactory,
judging from the author’s own view of it, which is as follows :—“ Certainly if the
engraver has been as successful with all the other representations as with that of my shape
and its accompaniments, your article must be entirely correct.”
