1872.! The Decimal System. 297 
There is certainly very little uniformity or rule about this, 
but we might have chosen worse examples. 
The exception spoken of just now is a testimony borne to 
the worth of the decimal system by engineers, surveyors, &c. 
They used a chain of 22 yards or 66 feet, and this they 
divided into roo links for their own convenience. It will be 
seen that a link 1s no exact number of inches. Its length 
is 7°92 inches. Taking the chain as the unit of what may 
be called “‘ surveyors’ measure,” we have— 
too links make 1 chain. 
io chains ,, 1 furlong. 
And in square or superficial measure— 
Io square chains or 100,000 square links make I acre. 
It is a case of rebellion from the existing system to the most 
convenient system for working with, viz., the decimal 
system. There are other cases of rebellion. Thus, the inch 
is not unfrequently divided into tenths and hundredths ; and 
the metrical system has been adopted in some scientific 
works, notably in books on chemistry. 
But on the subject of the inconvenience of our present 
system of weights and measures there is no need for long 
argument. We have all been schoolboys; and who is 
there who does not remember either in his own person or in 
the person of the majority of his schoolfellows the immense 
amount of trouble caused by the ‘*‘ Tables?” How often 
does the schoolmaster (supposing that he does not allow 
reference to the tables) hear the excuse, “‘ Please, sir, I know 
how to do it, but I don’t know my tables.” Further, we 
very much suspect that it is scarcely necessary to go back 
to school-boy days. How many Englishmen are there who 
are perfect in all their tables? We appeal to every reader 
to judge for himself. It is to be feared that the proportion 
is very small indeed. If this state of things were inevitable 
there would be nothing to say against it: but it is far from 
being so. 
There is a system already in use, not only by the nation 
which first employed it, but since then more or less com- 
pletely adopted by several others. It is scarcely necessary 
to say that allusion is made to the Metric System introduced 
by the French. 
The first idea of the metric system was to obtain one 
standard, that of length, which could always be reproduced 
by calculation, and so to avoid any difficulty as to the 
necessity of having a material standard which would be 
liable to be destroyed. In order to get this the length of the 
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