Taylor.] -^96 [Oct. 21, 



Octonary Numeration, and its Application to a System of Weights and 

 Measures. By Alfred B Taylor, A.M., Ph.M. 



{Read before tlie American Philosopliical Society, October 21, 1S87.) 



For many years strong and persistent efforts have been made by tbe 

 advocates of tbe French metrical or decimal system, to have its use made 

 obligatory in the United States, to the exclusion of the heterogeneous 

 tables of weights and measures now existing. Its use has been legalized 

 in Great Britain since 1864, and in the United States since 1866. 



" On the first of January, 1879, a new Act went into force," (in Eng- 

 land) " by which it is made unlawful to buy or sell by other than impe- 

 rial measures, and no provision is made for the adoption of the metric 

 system."* 



Its progress in either country has been very slow. 



At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence in 1887, Mr. Ravenstein, of the Geographical section, while strongly 

 advocating the metric system, stated that "while the English foot is used 

 by 471 millions of people, the metre is used by only 347 millions of peo- 

 ple." But the selection of a system evidently should not be made be- 

 cause a greater number of people use the one or the other, nor on account 

 of the cost of the change in money or in temporary inconvenience, but it 

 should be made on the intrinsic merits of the system. 



The zealous votary of the metric S3^stem can acknowledge no defects ; 

 the offspring of the world's best science, it must be as perfect as it is beau- 

 tiful, and only prejudice, ignorance and stolidity can stumble on obstruc- 

 tions, or refuse entire allegiance to its beneficent sway. The real difficul- 

 ties in the way of its success are fully realized alone by those who have 

 given a careful and unbiassed attention, not merely to the various schemes 

 proposed for simplifying or harmonizing national weights and measures, 

 but to the practical operation of such reforms when actually applied to the 

 daily life of human masses. And thus it occurs that what to the enthu- 

 siast is the foremost virtue of the French system, is, in the view of the 

 thoughtful student of facts, its most insuperable disadvantage. 



The objections to it have been suflicient up to the present time to pre- 

 vent its adoption, and it is the opinion of very many persons that it can 

 ■ never be satisfactorily adopted. 



Many different projects in remedy of the existing and acknowledged 

 evils have been suggested ; some more practicable, others more systematic ; 

 and unfortunately these two classes appear to bear an inverse ratio to each 

 othei". 



The substitution of decimal multiples aud divisions, conformably to our 

 established arithmetical notation, has been advocated ; and various stand- 

 ards or units have been proposed, such as the inch, the foot, the grain, the 

 * " New Remedies," Vol. viii, p. 192. New York, 1879. 



