18 



tendent of the Census, for Dec. 1, 1852; — to which is appended 



the Report for Dec. 1, 1851. Washington, 1853. 8vo,— From 



the Author. 

 The iMedical News and Library: Vol. XII. No. 135. March, 1854. 



Philadelphia. 8vo. — From Blanchard <Sif Lea. 

 Astronomical Journal: Vol. III. No. 19. Feb. 17, 1854. Cann- 



bridge, Mass. 8vo. — From Dr. B. A. Gould, jr. ^ Editor. 



The committee appointed at a former meeting, relative to 

 the equalization of coinage between this country and Great 

 Britain, reported the following Memorial to Congress, on this 

 subject, — which, on motion, was adopted by the Society, and 

 ordered to be signed by the proper officers and forwarded for 

 presentation to Congress. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 

 of America, in Congress assembled. 



The Memorial of the American Philosophical Society held at Phi- 

 ladelphia for promoting useful knowledge, respectfully shows: 



That, at the present moment, there is a favourable opportunity for 

 effecting a result of great public interest and convenience; by esta- 

 blishing a Coinage which shall be identical in weight, fineness and 

 value, for the two great Commercial Nations which use the same 

 English tongue. 



It is understood that the Government of Great Britain is about to 

 adopt, wholly or in part, a decimal correlation of the coins issued by 

 its authority, like that which has been for a long time used in the 

 United States; and it can be readily perceived that but slight modifi- 

 cations in the relative unitary weights and values are required, re- 

 spectively, to bring the coinage in the two countries to the identity 

 already mentioned. 



When this shall have been accomplished, inasmuch as the Weights 

 and Linear Measures are already and have ever been the same for 

 both nations, the Measures of Capacity will alone be discrepant, and 

 as the standards of this sort for the United States may be considered 

 as virtually the same with those accepted in Great Britain anterior to 

 1825 (the difference being only in the temperatures to which observa- 

 tions are reduced) there is reason to hope that a suitable occasion may 

 hereafter occur to remove the discrepancy in this respect also. 



The undoubted convenience of a decimal computation makes its 



