Hakding. — Certain Decimal and Metrical Fallacies. 103 



has humorously described the dismay of a small dinner-party 

 at the Azores when the landlord presented his bill, amount- 

 ing to " 21,700 reis," which amount was found after much 

 inquiry to equal 21 dollars 70 cents. But the small billion, 

 in conjunction with a dollar unit, is a boon to " yellow " jour- 

 nalists and others addicted to "tall talk." The "billions" 

 so glibly paraded, even if genuine, which is not always the 

 case, represent about two hundred millions sterling in British 

 currency, and it requires five times as much wealth to con- 

 stitute a millionaire in Britain as it does in the United States. 



Not the least instructive chapter in the history of the 

 French reformers is the record of their failures — failures 

 which shattered the boasted unity of their system even at the 

 outset, and which the metrists of to-day keep judiciously in 

 the background. But it is not quite forgotten that the scheme 

 of these same " reformers " included the consummation of the 

 Christian era, and the institution of the new order in which 

 mankind should recognise one object of adoration only — the 

 Goddess of Eeason. In October, 1793, the new calendar, 

 designed for all time, was promulgated. Books dated in the 

 year 1 are still extant. The week was abolished and the 

 decade substituted. The whole scheme of time was de- 

 cimalised, but the solar system persisted in pursuing its 

 incommensurable movements as before. Doubtless it was 

 this perverse conservatism on the part of bodies celestial and 

 terrestrial that caused a certain astronomer to wish that he 

 had been present at the creation to give the Almighty the 

 benefit of his counsel. The new era was inaugurated with 

 much ceremony and indecorum — for was it not to abide for 

 ever ? All books of chronology record the date of its institu- 

 tution, but few give the date of its disappearance. In a very 

 few years it had vanished like a wreath of mist — imperceptibly 

 but effectually. 



The geometric circle, like the arc of the meridian, was 

 regraded into 400 instead of 360 degrees. As under the re- 

 formed arrangement many of the most important angles could 

 no longer be expressed in degrees, this was one of the first 

 points in which the scheme broke down. In any case, the 

 preliminary quartering of the circle was in itself a silent but 

 none the less eloquent admission of the essential inadequacy 

 of decimalism. In fact, examination of the pretentious 

 scheme, no matter at what point that examination begins, 

 reveals fallacy piled upon fallacy. 



Even if our own ancient system had no particular scientific 

 value — if it were really as defective as its assailants assert — 

 we might well hesitate to exchange it for a substitute so- 

 ill-considered and so imperfect, quite apart from the incalcul- 

 able loss and inconvenience such a change would impose upoa 



