Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/602

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NOTATION 492 NOTTINGHAM up protests after receiving affidavits of mariners and masters of ships, and ad- minister oaths. Also called a notary public. Originally, among the ancient Romans, a person employed to take notes of trials, proceedings in courts, contracts, etc., a shorthand writer. This kind of work was at first usually performed by slaves, but the notarii, as they increased in ability and raised themselves above the servile ranks, gradually assumed the duties and functions of the tabelliones, writers who, under the Roman law, were employed in drawing up contracts, wills, and com- mercial documents. NOTATION, a marking. In architec- ture it is a system of signs, marks, or characters appended to figures, when used to denote dimensions on drawings, as ' for feet, " for inches, "' for parts; as 10' 6" = 10 feet, 6 inches. In arith- metic it is a system of figures or char- acters used to represent numbers. Two methods of so doing are at present in use, the Roman and the Arabic. In the Roman method seven characters are employed called numeral letters. These standing separately represent the following numbers: I. for 1, V. for 5, X. for 10, L. for 50, C. for 100, D, for 500, M. for 1,000. When a letter stands alone, it represents the number given above, as V. for 5; when a letter is re- peated the combination stands for the product of the number denoted by the letter by the number of times which it is taken: thus, III. stands for 3, XXX. for 30, etc.; when a letter precedes another, taken in the order given above, the combination stands for the num- ber denoted by the greater diminished by that denoted by the less: thus, IV. stands for 5 less 1, i. e., 4; XC. for 100 less 10, i. e., 90, etc.; when a letter, taken in the order given above, follows another, the combination stands for the sum of the numbers denoted by the letters taken separately; thus, XI. stands for 10 plus 1, etc. In the Arabic, or rather the Hindu, method, introduced by the Arabs into Eu- rope at the close of the 10th century, numbers are represented by the symbols, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and their com- binations according to conventional rules. The characters are called figures or digits and taken in their order, stand for naught, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine; the value of the unit depends on the place which the figure occupies in the scale adopted. The value of each figure or digit increases in a tenfold ratio from the right to the left. Notation in chemistry is the written language of that science. The system now in use belongs exclusively to modern times, but in all ages signs of some kind or other seem to have been employed to represent the various kinds of matter. In 1815 Berzelius proposed using the initial letter of the element and of co- efficients for the number of like atoms in a compound, as sulphate of soda=NA, SOi. In organic compounds, the con- stitution of which is known, the symbols are so arranged as to show the various CH groups of radicals rjolcH'iO ^^thylic acetate, but butyric acid, with the same number of atoms, is expressed by CH3(CHa) J. COHO In mathematics, the conventional method of representing mathematical quantities and operations by means of symbols. In music, the system or method of ex- pressing musical sounds in writing, by means of signs, characters, figures, or marks. NOTO, a city of Sicily. It has a number of beautiful churches and palaces. It contains a library and museum. There is a considerable trade in corn, oil, and vidne. Pop. about 33,000. NOTEE DAME, a title of the Virgin Mary, and the name of many churches in France, and particularly of the great cathedral at Paris, which was founded in the 12th century. The corner stone of Notre Dame de Paris was laid in 1163 by Pope Alexander III., but the building was not finally completed for 100 years. In 1845 the church was thor- oughly restored, and the edifice became one of the most imposing in all ecclesias- tical architecture. The interior is 132 yards long, 53 yards wide, 37 yards high, and contains 37 chapels. The great bell in the S. tower which weighs about 30,000 pounds, was cast in 1686; and the stained glass of the three fa- mous rose windows dates from the 13th century. NOTRE DAME, TTNIVERSITY OF, an educational institution in Notre Dame, Ind.; founded in 1842 under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church; reported at the close of 1919: Pro- fessors and instructors, 128; students, 1,200; president. Rev. John Cavanaugh, D. D. NOTTINGHAM, a town near the middle of England, capital of the county of same name, on the Leen, near its junction with the Trent, 110 miles N. W. of London. It occupies a pic-