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to be changed. There was no difficulty in regard to commercial 
lengths—yards would be transferred to metres. There was a 
difficulty with engineers ; the Whitworth gauge had obtained such 
a strong hold on the universal world. These were three competing 
units and it was a question which would drive out the other. 
In the automobile the French had quite recently adopted the 
Whitworth guage, which is the standard for the automobile. It 
has been proposed to get over the difficulty by adopting a new 
inch—40 inch to 1 metre instead of 39°37, which would give 
25m.m. to 1 inch, whereas at present its actual value is 25-4. 
The inch had become a standard in the engineering world, hence 
the difficulty. The ‘‘ foot” is also a difficulty but not insuperable. 
The Russian standard is one of the most wonderful of all. All 
through Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Baltic coast of 
Germany, and part of England on the Humber, &c., mercantile 
transactions are done on the St. Petersberg standard—100—the 
most marvellous standard that man has ever conceived. ‘ 120 
pieces 12ft. long by 1lin. wide by 14in. deep.” Why did they 
choose llin. and not 12in.? The contents ‘of that timber 
was 165 cubic feet. There is no hope that this will ever be 
changed. All over Scandinavia, whether they were under the 
Metric system or not, they all used that standard. It was the 
one thing a Norweigan captain understands who brings wood 
from those regions. Referring to the grain trade, the Lecturer 
said that in every market town in England there must be great 
tribulation every time the market is held, because every town, 
more or less, has a different local weight for its ‘‘ Imperial 
quartern ’’ and the calculation had to be made every week by the 
‘Mark Lane Express”’ for the guidance of those engaged in the 
corn trade. Liverpool had done good service in establishing the 
Cental, = 100lbs., and the Germans had adopted the Centner, 
= 100lbs. Metric. 
There was no difficulty in pharmacy. British pharmacy has 
already adopted the new system. 
The only two countries which have not the decimal system are 
the United Kingdom and India—the British Empire and its great 
dependencies If all the rest of the world, excluding America and 
Russia, bad found it an advantage to have the decimal coinage, 
we may well ask ourselves how it is that we have been so long 
without it? There are only three countries of any mark besides 
our own, which have not the metric system :— 
Russ1a.—Present system worse than the British. Metric system 
contemplated. 
