ch to the discomfort of their readers, especially after
the lapse of centuries.

The introduction of printing removed the pressing necessity for the
extensive use of abbreviations, but the actual use continued much longer
than one would think. The early printed books were reproductions of
manuscripts. In some cases the earliest were almost forgeries, and were
probably intended to be sold as manuscripts. The types were cut in
imitation of the handwriting of some well-known scribe and all his
mannerisms and peculiarities were faithfully copied. An incidental result
was the expansion of fonts of type by the inclusion of a great number of
ligatures and of characters indicating the omission or combination of
letters. Habit dies hard, and even after the type founders had freed
themselves from the tyranny of manuscript printers continued to follow the
habits of the copyist. The saving of material and labor still continued to
be considered. The {2} methods of abbreviation in use in written matter
continued to be followed in print even down to the first quarter of the
last century.

The result of all this abbreviation was serious and well-founded complaint
about the difficulty of reading books thus printed. De Vinne gives the
following astonishing example, said to be taken practically at random from
a Latin copy of the Logic of Ockham printed at Paris in 1488.

"Sic his e fal sm qd ad simplr a e pducibile a Deo g a e silr hic a n e
g a n e pducibile a Deo."

These are the abbreviations for Sicut his est fallacia secundum quid ad
simpliciter. A est producibile a Deo. Ergo A est. Et similiter hic. A non
est. Ergo A non est producibile a Deo.

The best present usage is to use abbreviations very sparingly. Certain
recognized abbreviations are used under certain conditions, but generally
only under constraint of limited space.

* * * * *

{3}

RULES FOR THE USE OF ABBREVIATIONS

I. GENERAL RULES.

Use no contractions or abbreviations in any place where there is room to
print the words in full.

All legitimate words should be spelled out in full in text matter, but
abbreviations are often needed in book work for footnotes and tables and in
commercial work, where many brief forms and signs are used which are
commonly understood and are as intelligible as words.

Certain special forms of printing such as market and stock reports,
sporting news, price lists, directories, telephone d