PSYCHOMETRIC FACTS. 771 



department is transacted and who are not in the public service, as well 

 as by those not in the public service who use the maps, charts, etc., of 

 the department. 



" In regard to the compulsory use of the metric standards in the 

 transactions of individuals, certain additional considerations present 

 themselves. It is to be borne in mind that there is nothing in the pro- 

 posed change which will in any way favorably affect the usual course 

 of private business in this country, and that the demand for a change 

 from the present system does not come from business men, but is made 

 in furtherance of a project designed for the general public good in in- 

 ternational intercourse. There is no pressing necessity for immediate 

 change, and it would undoubtedly be better, if the change should be 

 made, to make it by concerted, simultaneous action on the part of all 

 English-speaking people. 



" The relations of trade between this country and Great Britain are 

 such that the adoption of new standards of weight and measure by 

 the one without the concurrent action of the other is extremely unde- 

 sirable. 



" As to the general question whether it is- desirable to adopt a deci- 

 mal system of weights and measures, there will probably be but little 

 difference of opinion, since its adoption will to some extent simplify 

 existing tables, and tend to establish a uniformity of practice through- 

 out the world. As an actual practical fact, its adoption is a matter of 

 no immediate importance, and certainly should not be made obligatory 

 upon individuals before it has become generally understood by being 

 adopted in the government service and taught in all public schools. 



" The French decimal metric system has been adopted and made 

 compulsory in France, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portu- 

 gal, Germany, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Chili, and 

 the Argentine Confederation and Uruguay. 



" Great Britain and the United States have legalized the system, 

 but have not made it compulsory. Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and 

 Austria use partial decimal systems, but with different units of length 

 and of measure." 



■4 « » 



PSYCHOMETEIC FACTS. 



By FEANCIS GALTON, F. E. S. 



THERE lies before every man by day and by night, at home and 

 abroad, an immense field for curious investigations in the opera- 

 tions of his own mind. 



No one can have a just idea, before he has carefully experimented 

 upon himself, of the crowd of unheeded half-thoughts and faint imagery 

 that flits through his brain, and of the influence they exert upon his 



