"This book gives in compact form a readable and carefully prepared account of the numerous researches... made in the endeavor to trace the origin and development of the Hindu-Arabic numerals. Teachers of mathematics will welcome it, while students specializing in the history of mathematics will derive great help... Like the arithmetician Tonstall the authors read everything in every language and spent much time in licking what they found into shape ad ursi exemplum, as the bear does her cubs."