i8o THE JOURNAIv OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



need elucidation, and yet the strongest objection ever raised against the 

 use of the Metric System — and it even now occasionally rears its head — is 

 that duodecimal measures are better than decimal. There is no question 

 that with a duodecimaIv notation — the superiority of which in some re- 

 spects is granted — any measurement scale should also be duodecimal, but 

 there is not harmony with decimal notation and duodecimal measures. 

 Measurements and their computation must go hand in hand, or, briefly 

 put, LIKE NOTATION SCALE, LIKE MEASURE SCALE. 



The origin of this notation is lost in antiquity, and has not been defi- 

 nitely traced further back than the seventh century of our era, it being 

 known to have been used in India in 669 A. D., though probably much 

 older than this. It was introduced in Europe during the twelfth or early 

 thirteenth century, and by the end of the thirteenth century all scholars 

 had become acquainted with it. The decimal point did not come into gen- 

 eral use till the beginning of the eighteenth century, four hundred years 

 later. 



Leaving the middle ages and arithmetic, we proceed to speak briefly of 

 the history of Metric Weights and Measures. In the light of subsequent 

 events it seems singular that the United States should have been the first 

 country in the world to make a scale for its money to correspond with its 

 arithmetic, and should be one of the last to swing into line its other stand- 

 ards of measurement. But such is the fact. In 1786 our decimal system 

 of money was adopted. 



From time to time attempts were made to have Congress adopt a decimal 

 system of measurements. In 1817, John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of 

 State, was requested by the Senate to report on the Metric System. His 

 voluminous Report — some 235 pages, including appendices — was submit- 

 ted four years later. He strongly favored the ultimate use of the so-called 

 French system, but thought it unwise to adopt it at that time. 



France was the first nation to adopt such a system, which at the time of 

 Adams's Report had been in operation there for a quarter of a century. In 

 1790 Prince de Talleyrand proposed to the Constituent Assembly of France 

 that the many systems in use in that country be changed into one system, 

 and that that be a decimal one, founded on the pendulum. This was 

 adopted by the Assembly, and sanctioned by lyouis XVI. It was proposed 

 that the French Academy and the Royal Society of Great Britain appoint 

 a joint Commission. England declined, but Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, 

 Denmark and Switzerland were finally represented in the proceedings of 

 the Academy. 



Three plans for a lineal standard were proposed by the Commission — 

 which consisted of the ablest living mathematicians — (i) a pendulum beat- 

 ing seconds ; (2) a quadrant of the equator ; (3) a quadrant of the meridian. 

 The last was selected, and it was decided that the ten-millionth part of this 



