and decipherer, with which the decipherer could decipher the first cryptogram letter and so get a start on his, work. With this, he would get the first plaintext letter, then use this as the key to decipher the second cryptogram letter, use that plaintext as the key to decipher the third cryptogram letter, and so on. key DA UNO MD ELETERNE plain au nom de léternel cipher XI AHG UP TMLSHIXT The system works well and affords fair guarantees of security; it has been embodied in a number of modern cipher machines. In spite of Vigenere's clear exposition of his technique, it was entirely forgotten and only entered the stream of cryptology late in the 19th century after it had been reinvented. Writers on cryptology then added insult to injury by degrading Vigenere's system into one much more elementary.