362
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL MAY 9, im
1827, Evans could not (in 1846) have been
one of its "earliest students." But as,
down to 1842. only two Dissenting preachers
had been admitted, and even that small
number had given rise to considerable
clamour about " proselytizing," Evans was
probably the third of that description ad-
mitted, and almost certainly he was the hrst
"biennial student" at Lampeter. Bishop
Burgess had laid down originally four years
and a half as the term of residence. I his
was, from the very start, reduced to tour
years, and subsequently to three years and
a term known as the "grace term.' The
admission of a student for a shorter period
was, in the forties, wholly irregular. Indeed,
in the next decade we find Rowland Williams
writing thus (' Life,' i. 187) : " The ' two-year
plan is only to be in very exceptional cases
here. Our visitor did not wish it to get
into print." In 1846, I believe, the Bishop
(Bethell) of Bangor asked the Principal
(Lewellin) of Lampeter to admit Evans as
a biennial. It is certain that Lewellin would
have done nothing of the sort unless it had
served some private object of his own. He
had at that time several y9ung relatives
approaching manhood. Granting the bishop's
request would therefore be a useful precedent.
But there was a more pressing reason. An
examination of the college calendar will show
that between the death of Rice Rees in 1839
and the appointment of David Williams in
1854, there is a gap in the list of Welsh
professors. As a matter of fact the calendar is
misleading. Thatgapshould be filled uppartly
by the name of " Prof. Jones," a relative of
Lewellin's, and partly by the names of certain
student lecturers. Jones had to resign his chair
because he could not teach Welsh, and Silvan
Evans, who was already known as a promis-
ing young Welsh writer, was admitted as a
biennial, the condition undoubtedly being that
he should do the work of the Welsh professor
without the professor s title or emoluments.
As Evans's name does not appear among those
who had passed the University Examiners
ordeal, the presumption is that he was not
examined at Lampeter at all. That he studied
other subjects than Welsh while there
may be taken for granted. Grotius's ' De
Veritate Rel. Christ.' was at the time the
alternative allowed those who did not take
up Hebrew, and as Evans subsequently trans
lated that work into Welsh, we may fairly
conclude that he attended lectures on it al
Lampeter. In a word, Silvan Evans owec
little or nothing to Lampeter, but, on the
contrary, may be described as the victim of a
very sordid bargain there. J. P. OWEN.
BILLION: TRILLION.
THERE is much confusion as to the signifi-
cation of billion. No one can be sure of what
s meant, unless it is denoted by figures. A
rillion in the United States generally stands
'or a thousand millions (nine ciphers), and in
,he United Kingdom for a million millions
twelve ciphers). Confusion is worse con-
Jounded when we come to trillion, which
may mean either a million millions (twelve
ciphers), a million billions (eighteen ciphers),
or a billion billions (twenty-four ciphers)
billion here having the English signification.
The French notation, adopted in the United
States, has the advantage of being in corre-
spondence with the universal punctuation of
the figures by threes. Its defects are (1) the
eye does not readily catch the number of
igures embraced when the row is a long one ;
^2) the notation in each step utilizes up to
iiuiidreds only, causing the inclusion and
waste of a large number of titles in naming
big numbers ; and (3) the punctuation is con-
fusing in a long row, as there are more groups
cut off (from the right) than the name of the
number implies thus, million (six ciphers)
has two groups, billion (nine ciphers) three
groups, trillion (twelve ciphers) four groups,
&c.
The English notation seems, at first sight, to be more logical. It appears to follow the natural course of numbers in exhausting the numeration obtained from the previous steps before reaching the next. Thus ten tens are a hundred, a thousand thousands are a million, a million millions are a billion. It fails, however, in two important links in the chain, for a hundred hundreds in that case should logically be a thousand, and a billion billions a trillion. It is also defective in two other respects. The usual punctuation is meaningless. To be appropriate, it should be in sixes instead of in threes. It is im- possible to name any high number by the English notation without a considerable in- spection of the figures embraced.
A method that would combine both the systems into one, not only ridding us of all doubt on the subject, but getting over the defects in each, is very desirable. 1 make the suggestion of the following one for that purpose. By it the significations of billion, trillion,* <fec., would become crystallized, and the better known and more commonly used terms of ten, hundred, thousand, and million left unchanged. The only alterations are the introduction into the terminology of the
- Etymologically, a billion is two millions, and a
trillion three millions.
