i86 THE JOURNAIv OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



(4) In the Department of Surgeon -General of the Army and also that 

 of the Navy, all contracts for medical supplies embody the Metric System, 

 and all containers — boxes and bottles — are of metric dimensions. 



(5) Regulations for U. . Marine Hospital Service, 1897, made its use 

 compulsory. 



(6) In Cuba and Porto Rico the Government uses the system exclusively 

 in all official and domestic work. These countries adopted it years ago. 



The people want the example of Government before they will generally 

 make use of the system, and Congress must legislate before the Govern- 

 ment Departments will adopt. 



How can we aid the cause ? Is it worth while to try ? 



It is a conservative estimate that every child would save a year in edu- 

 cation if the International System were exclusively used in this country, and 

 some claim two or three years. Seventy million years lost during the life- 

 time of one generation of men is a fairly strong argument ; but this youth- 

 ful loss is little when compared to that in practical life. John Quincy 

 Adams, who studied the Metric System as few men have, said : " It is in 

 design the greatest invention of human ingenuity since that of printing." 

 President Mendenhall some years ago computed that there are in this 

 country every year from forty to fifty thousand million transactions re- 

 quiring measuring or weighing, and he says : Nothing else is so universal 

 as the use of weights and measures, and in nothing else would an improve- 

 ment be so universally felt." 



Now if this International System is such an enormous " time saver" — 

 as every man who has ever used it knows it is — what a tremendous waste 

 of time and energy the American people are undergoing because they are 

 behind the rest of the world. No legislative progress has been made in 

 the direction of weights and measures for thirty-four years, and in this re- 

 spect WE STAND TO DAY BELOW EVERY OTHER NATION IN CHRISTENDOM. 



National legislation is the thing most needed. How can men, individ- 

 ually or as a body, aid in promoting legislative action ? In two ways : 



(i) By taking favorable action as Associations, not merely by pass- 

 ing resolutions tha the given society favors the passage of the Metric 

 Bill — though that is essential — but by appointing a permanent committee, 

 whose members are vitally interested in Metric reform, and will corre- 

 spond with metrologists, Congressmen, and Metric committees similarly 

 appointed in other associations, so that all may work for the desired result. 

 There are thousands of clubs, societies and associations — scientific, educa- 

 tional, manufacturing, trade, social and popular — many of whose members 

 are more or less interested in this question. If every interested organiza- 

 tion would take that sort of action, the Bill which will probably be reported 

 in December, 1900, might easily become law, for no "politics" can be 

 urged against it. 



