19<5 Kf-cv SyJJeni of Wtighti and Meafurts of France, 



which this fyftem is eftabliftierf. They are fo little arbitrary, that pofterity, even if our 

 books and monuments were loft, might eafily recover them ; whereas, for want of a clue 

 of this nature, the learned are not yet agreed concerning the true dimenfions of moil of 

 the Greek and Roman meafures. Magnitudes arbitrarily taken cannot be preferved but 

 by means of metallic itand;irds, which are altered by time or negligence, and in the revo- 

 lution of empires are totally loft. The French nation will have no variation to fear in its 

 meafures, becaufe it- has referred them not to the perilhable works of man, but to every 

 thing which is moll durable in nature. 



Names were to be alTiNtd to each of the meafures refulting from the fyftem we have 

 expofed. It was not enough to denote them by their relation to the fundamental unity, and 

 to fay, for example, the hundred thoufandth, the millionth, or the ten millionth part of the 

 quarter of the meridian. Thefe are definitions -, but the mind has need of particular figns» 

 to give, as it were, a body to each idea. 



The words primes, feconds, thirds, and the like, might have been ufed to denote each, 

 degree of the decimal divifion. And thefe words would have poflelTed the advantage of 

 always denoting the proportion of each of thefe inferior unities to the prototype which is 

 the bafis of the fyftem. 



It was thought proper to follow another method, perhaps lefs exa£l, but more conform- 

 able to the ordinary pra£lice. Having arrived, after feven fuccefTive divifions, to a mea- 

 fure of three feet eleven lines and forty-four hundredth parts, which is the ten millionth 

 part of the fundamental unity, a name was given to this ufual and portative meafure, 

 adapted to take place of the foot, the toife, and the ell. It was called metre. Proceed- 

 ing afterwards from this meafure as the common unity, its multiples have been named by 

 prefixing to the word metre, one of the Greek words deca, hecaron or he£lo, chilio or 

 kilo, and myria, which fignify ten, a hundred, a thoufand, and ten thoufand ; and its fub- 

 multiples by means of the Latin prefixes deci, centi, milli. 



Confequently a decametre is a meafure confifting of ten metres (30 feet nine inches), 

 proper to be fubftitutcd in place of the meafuring chain for land. 



The kilometre and the myriametre are itinerary meafures; the one of 1000, and the 

 other of 10,000 metres (513 and 5132 toifes), the firft being equal to a fmall quarter of a 

 league, and the fecond two medium leagues, or one poft. 



Ten myriametres make the looth part of the quarter of the meridian, which may, if 

 thought fit, be called the decimal degree. 



The decimetre, or icth part of a metre, anfvvers to three inches eight lines and four points. 



The centimetre, or locth part of a metre, is four lines and five points. 



And laftly, the millimetre is five points and a third. 



Every other kind of meafure is derived from the metre and its parts; fuch as the mea- 

 fures of land, of folids, of liquids, of grain, and even of weights and coin. The whole 

 is therefore derived from the fame origin, and the fyftem exhibits a complete whole. 



A portion of land of one fquare decametre, or one hundred metres fquare, has received 

 the name of arc. 



A fquare he£lometre, or ten thoufand fquare metres, conftitutes one hundred ares, or 

 an heftare. Thefe are the agrarian meafures, fubflituted in the place of the perch and the 

 acre (arpent). 



Tic 



