I am informed that the legend of St. Vitus is given by Ribadeneira[132] in his lives of Saints, and that Baronius,[133] in { 63} his _Martyrologium Romanum_, refers to several authors who have written concerning him. There is an account in Mrs. Jameson's[134] _History of Sacred and Legendary Art_ (ed. of 1863, p. 544). But it seems that St. Vitus is the patron saint of _all_ dances; so that I was not so far wrong in making him the protector of the cyclometers. Why he is represented with a cock is a disputed point, which is now made clear: next after _gallus gallinaceus_[135] himself, there is no crower like the circle-squarer.
The following is an extract from the _English Cyclopædia_, Art. TABLES:
"1853. William Shanks,[136] _Contributions to Mathematics, comprising chiefly the Rectification of the Circle to 607 Places of Tables_, London, 1853. (QUADRATURE OF THE CIRCLE.) Here is a _table_, because it tabulates the results of the subordinate steps of this enormous calculation as far as 527 decimals: the remainder being added as results only during the printing. For instance, one step is the calculation of the reciprocal of 601.5^{ 601}; and the result is given. The number of pages required to describe these results is 87. Mr. Shanks has also thrown off, as chips or splinters, the values of the base of Napier's logarithms, and of its logarithms of 2, 3, 5, 10, to 137 decimals; and the value of the modulus .4342 ... to 136 decimals: with the 13th, 25th, 37th ... up to the 721st powers of 2. These tremendous stretches of calculation--at least we so call them in our day--are useful in several respects; they prove more than { 64} the capacity of this or that computer for labor and accuracy; they show that there is in the community an increase of skill and courage. We say in the community: we fully believe that the unequalled turnip which every now and then appears in the newspapers is a sufficient presumption that the average turnip is growing bigger, and the whole crop heavier. All who know the history of the quadrature are aware that the several increases of numbers of decimals to which [pi] has been carried have been indications of a general increase in the power to calculate, and in courage to face the labor. Here is a comparison of two different times. In the day of Cocker,[137] the pupil was directed to perform a common subtraction with a voice-accompaniment of this kind: '7 from 4 I cannot, but add 10, 7 from 14 remains 7, set down 7 and carry 1; 8 and 1 which I carry is 9, 9 from 2 I cannot, etc.' We have before us the announcement of the following _table_, undated, as open to inspection at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, in two diagrams of 7 ft. 2 in, by 6 ft. 6 in.: 'The figure 9 involved into the 912th power, and antecedent powers or involutions, containing upwards of 73,000 figures. Also, the proofs of the above, containing upwards of 146,000 figures. By Samuel Fancourt, of Mincing Lane, London, and completed by him in the year 1837, at the age of sixteen. N.B. The whole operation performed by simple arithmetic.' The young operator calculated by successive squaring the 2d, 4th, 8th, etc., powers up to the 512th, with proof by division. But 511 multiplications by 9, in the short (or 10-1) way, would have been much easier. The 2d, 32d, 64th, 128th, 256th, and 512th powers are given at the back of the announcement. The powers of 2 have been calculated for many purposes. In Vol. II of his _Magia Universalis Naturæ et Artis_, Herbipoli, 1658, 4to, the Jesuit Gaspar Schott[138] having discovered, on some grounds of theological { 65} magic, that the degrees of grace of the Virgin Mary were in number the 256th power of 2, calculated that number. Whether or no his number correctly represented the result he announced, he certainly calculated it rightly, as we find by comparison with Mr. Shanks."