Taylor.] olO [Oct. 21, 



the unit ; for two, for two and a half, and for five ; and it is also true that 

 the fractional values thus introduced would not be directly referable to the 

 ordinary computations of decimal arithmetic — thus adding, somewhat, to 

 the complexity and trouble of otherwise very simple calculations ; but 

 this is a fault, not of the binary divisions themselves, but resulting from a 

 radical and incurable defect in the decimal system. So long as we con- 

 tinue to count, to add, subtract, multiply, and divide by tens, so long 

 must we submit to this inconvenience (undoubtedly a serious one) or we 

 must choose the greater evil of abandoning all attempts at uniformity and 

 consistency of system, and continue, as heretofore, to measure and to 

 weigh by heterogeneous tables, while we perform the necessary opera- 

 tions of comparing, compounding, and distributing these values, by a 

 method or ratio entirely dissimilar ; entailing upon ourselves the waste of 

 time, labor, and patience, consequent upon a petty scheme of eternal and 

 superfluous reductions.* 



This horn of the dilemma is that which has been accepted by the coin- 

 age commission of England, to which a reference has just been made. 

 The eleventh resolution of the Commissioners' Report is : "That the ad- 

 vantages in calculation and account keeping, anticipated from a decimal 

 coinage, may, to a great extent, be obtained without any disturbance of 

 our present coinage, by a more extensive adoption of the practice now in 

 use at the National Debt Ofiice, and in the principal assurance oflQces, viz., 

 of reducing money to decimals, performing the required calculations in 

 decimals, and then restoring the result to the present notation," With 

 our experience of a decimal coinage (notwithstanding its imperfections), 

 this is not the horn likely to be selected 1)y Americans in attempting a 

 reform in weights and measures. 



An expedient has been suggested by some, for facilitating division in 

 decimal notation, which is ingenious, and deserves a notice. The project 

 is to adopt a uniformly decimal system of weights and measures, but to 

 estimate entirely bj' "cents" — by simply suppressing every alternate 

 denomination ; thus, while reckoning decimally, we should traffic only 

 centesimally. Our practical application of this method in all our money 

 transactions, in which dimes are entirely suppressed in the market (though 

 still having their place in the columns of the ledger) and our estimates 

 made In dollars and cerits, familiarizes our minds to the process, and ena- 

 bles us to see how such a system might be indefinitely extended, by the 

 simple device of counting by double places of figures. The French table 

 of weights would stand thus : 



100 deci-milligrammes make 1 centigramme. 



*" Perhaps it may be found by more protracted and multiplied experience, that this is 

 the only ' uniformity ' attainable by a system of weights and measures for universal use ; 

 that the same material instruments shall be divisible decimally for calculations and 

 accounts ; but in any other manner suited to convenience in the shops and markets ; 

 that their appropriate legal denominations shall be used for comiiutation, and the trivial 

 names for actual weight or mensuration " (Adams's Report). 



