Before hashes existed, it wasn't unusual for scientists in the 17th and 18th century to drop an anagram instead, to establish priority on a discovery before one

Before hashes existed, it wasn't unusual for scientists in the 17th and 18th century to drop an anagram instead, to establish priority on a discovery before one was ready to fully explain it. For example, in 1676 Hooke published an article containing the string of letters "ceiiinosssttuv", which two years later he revealed to stand for "ut tension, sic vis", meaning "as the extension, so the force".