ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. V 



while we actually possess a system of short-hand by which words can 

 be recorded as rapidly as they can be spoken, we should persist in 

 writing a slow and laborious long-hand. It is intelligible that grown-up 

 persons who have acquired the present conventional art of writing 

 should be reluctant to incur the labor of mastering a better system ; 

 but there can be no reason why the rising generation should not be in- 

 structed in a method of writing more in accordance with the activity 

 of mind which now prevails. Even without going so far as to adopt 

 for ordinary use a complete system of stenography, which it is not easy 

 to acquire, we might greatly abridge the time and labor of writing by 

 the recognition of a few simple signs to express the syllables which are 

 of most frequent occurrence in our language. Our words are in a 

 great measure made up of such syllables as com, con, lion, ing, able-, 

 ain, ent, est, ance, etc. These we are now obliged to write out over 

 and over again, as if time and labor expended in what may be termed 

 visual speech were of no importance. Neither has our written charac- 

 ter the advantage of distinctness to recommend it it is only necessary 

 to write such a word as minimum or ammunition to become aware 

 of the want of sufficient difference between the letters we employ." 



National Uniformity of Weights and Measures. " Another subject 

 of a social character which demands our consideration is the much-de- 

 bated question of weights and measures. Whatever difference of 

 opinion there may be as to the comparative merits of decimal and duo- 

 decimal division, there can, at all events, be none as to the importance 

 of assimilating the systems of measurement in different countries. 

 Science suffers by the want of uniformity, because valuable observations 

 made in one country are in a great measure los to another from the 

 labor required to convert a series of quantities into new denominations. 

 International commerce is also impeded by the same cause, which is 

 productive of constant inconvenience and frequent mistake. It is 

 much to be regretted that two standards of measure so nearly alike as 

 the English yard and the French metre should not be made absolutely 

 identical. The metric system has already been adopted by other na- 

 tions besides France, and is the only one which has any chance of be- 

 coming universal. We in England, therefore, have no alternative but 

 to conform with France, if we desire general uniformity. The change 

 might easily be introduced in scientific literature, and in that case it 

 would probably extend itself by degrees amongst the commercial classes 

 without much legislative pressure. Besides the advantage which would 

 thus be gained in regard to uniformity, I am convinced that the adop- 

 tion of the decimal division of the French scale would be attended with 



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