"These properties of the indices of numbers were taken notice of by Stifelius, and even by Archimedes in his work on the numbering of the sands; but it is to Baron Napier, of Merchiston, in Scotland, that we are indebted for the happy idea of applying such numbers to the purposes of arithmetical and trigonometrical calculation, which first appeared in his "Mirisici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio," published at Edinburgh in 1614. This work was translated by Mr. Edward Wright, and published by his son in 1616. The method of constructing the table was reserved by the ingenious author till the sense of the learned, upon his invention, should be known; nevertheless Kepler, in his "Chilias Logarithmorum," &c. published in 1624; [John] Speidell, in his "New Logarithms," published in 1619; [Benjamin] Ursinius, in his "Table of Logarithms," 1625; and many other mathematicians constructed small tables conformably to the plan of Lord Napier. But of all those who assisted in the construction of logarithmic tables, Briggs is the most conspicuous; it was he who first suggested our present system, the advantages of which are incalculably greater than those first constructed by Napier, at the same time that he laboured more than anyone in the construction of them."