6o Transactions oiF the Royal Canadian Institute 



a second (15), and there can surely be no room ultimately for a plurality 

 of systems of weights and measures on a tenth of a second world. It is 

 time that we all made a concerted effort to introduce the metric system 

 more generally. If we wait until legislation brings about this change, we 

 are likely to wait for an unnecessarily long time. If, however, without 

 waiting for state or government action*, we all proceed to employ the 

 metric system in our own work, the change will rapidly be accomplished. 

 It pays well in time and labour to carry on all college research work in 

 the metric system, converting the results into customary units when 

 needed. 



Thiis change to the metric system is actually taking place, as may be 

 seen by comparing the pages of modern text books and of general litera- 

 ture with those of a few decades ago. It is indeed remarkable how fast 

 +he change is coming about, considering the aggregate amount of mental 

 inertia to be overcome. It may be remembered that, according to Ball's 

 "Short History of Mathematics" (3), it took about 150 years for 

 Arabic numerals and arithmetic to replace Roman numerals and 

 arithmetic in the account-books of the mercantile and business world. 

 He says: 



"The new Airabian arithmetic w,as called algorism or the art of 

 Alkarismi, to distinguish it from the old or Boethian arithmetic. 

 The text books on algorism commenced with the Arabic system of 

 notation. ..." 



"Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, the rules of 

 arithmetic de algorismo were also added, and by the year 1400, 

 w;e may consider that they were generally know:n throughout 

 Europe, and were used in most scientific and astronomical works. 

 Most merchants continped, howjever, to keep their accounts in 

 Roman numerals until about 1550, and monasteries and colleges 

 till about 1650. ..." 

 Again, Brown's History of Accounting says (4), speaking of ledgers 

 and account books among merchants in the fifteenth century: 



" But a balancie he only made once, in 1482, when the book was 

 full. This practice of not making a general balance till the ledger 

 was completed continued to be widespread till the seventeenth 

 century. It is beyond all question that although about this time we 

 find a high development in the theory and principles of book-keepifig, 

 we fail to discover a recognition of. its many practical advantages. 

 To bring the position home to us, we must bear in mind that the 

 ledger was kept in Roman numerals." 

 A few of the mercantile account books of the early colonial days in 

 New England, about the year 1640, show that the entries were still 



