LXXVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
prominent men to give their consideration to the recognized want. As 
the fruit of much research and indefatigable labour the metric system 
was devised and in part introduced several years before the nineteenth 
century commenced. 
The metric system is recognized by very many to be simple in theory 
and of high scientific value. It has long been adopted by some of the 
nations. There is, however, a certain defect which has stood in the way 
of its adoption by other nations comprising the chief mercantile com- 
munities of the world. 
In the United Kingdom and in the United States of America, in 
Canada, and in other parts of the British Empire, attention has fre- 
quently been strongly drawn to such advantages as are justly claimed for 
the metric system, and repeated efforts have been made to secure its adop- 
tion in the countries mentioned. These efforts have always proved un- 
successful. The metric system is for obvious reasons favoured by 
chemists and physicians, but craftsmen and the great body of the people 
are generally averse to its use. 
It can scarcely be regarded as surprising that much hesitation has 
attended the adoption of the scheme precisely as originally projected, 
when it is considered that to bring it into every day use it would be 
necessary to discard the entire existing system of weights and measures 
and adopt another system having unfamiliar names with new meanings. 
The adoption of the system as presented would actually involve a com- 
plete revolution in confirmed habits of thought in respect to such 
matters, and notwithstanding a long period of probation, there are com- 
paratively few people yet fully ready for the change. 
An investigation and enquiry goes to show that it is not the metric 
system per se to which objection is taken, for the system has much to 
commend it. The serious objection to its ready adoption can be traced 
almost solely to the initial unit on which the whole system is based. 
The basis of the system is a unit of length which unfortunately is 
not an aliquot part of any measure of length in common use wherever 
the English language is spoken, and this one fact renders the whole 
metric system, as it has been presented to the mass of English speaking 
people as quite irreconcilable with preconceived ideas of weights and 
measures. 
It is not necessary to enter into the historical origin and develop- 
ment of the linear measure which originally came to be chosen as the 
fundamental unit. Suffice it to say that it approximates thirty-nine 
and thirty-seven hundredths of an inch, and that it is called a Metre. 
All other measures in the system are derived from this unit. The cube 
of the tenth part of the metre is the unit of capacity called a Litre, and 
