Metre, 



Decametre, Hectometre, Kilometre. 



Capacity. 



Unit— The Litre: The volume of a cubic 



decimetre, a little less than tho English. 



quart. 



Decilitre, Centilitre, Millilitre, 



Litre, 

 Decalitre, Hectolitre, Kilolitre. 

 Weight. 

 Unit — The Gramme: Weight of a centi- 

 metre of water at cent,, IS^ graine Troy. 

 Deciligram'me, Centigramme, 

 Gramme, 

 Decagramme, Hectogramme, Kilogramme. 



For square and cubic measures, the 

 metre and its parts or multiples may be 

 squared or cubed, aa in the case of English 

 feet, yards, miles, etc. These beauti- 

 fully inter-related tables almost explain 

 themselves at a glance. I would merely 

 draw your attention to a few of their 

 principal features and merits. Note, in 

 the first place, that the fundamental unit 

 Xs the metre, which, like our yard, is now 

 an arbitrary -measure. It is employed to 

 define both the litre and the gramme. 

 There are only two other termis used; pre- 

 fixes do the rest. In each table the pre- 

 fixes are alike, and represent the same 

 fractional parts or multiples of the unit 

 involved. Those above the unit represent 

 successively the tenths, hundredths, and 

 thousandths of the unit. Those below re- 

 present successively the unit multiplied 

 by ten, a hundred, and a thousand. The 

 former set of prefixes followa Latin 

 models, the latter Greek models; the two 

 sets are thus sufficiently distinguished 

 from one another, and are thus adapted 

 for international use. We cannot wonder 

 that this metric system has met with 

 such wide recognition, not only for scien- 

 tific and technical purposes, but as the 

 working standards in the business life of 

 well-nigh the whole of Europe. 



The French coinage is also based on 

 decimals. Taking the franc as a unit for 

 purposes of calculation, the gold coins re- 

 present the value of 100, 50, 20, 10, or .5 

 francs. Among the silver coins, there are 

 5 and 2 franc pieces, the franc itself, and 

 coins of the value of ^ and 1-5 of a franc. 

 These are supplemented by bronze coins, 

 which represent the division of the franc, 

 the franc itself containing 100 centimes. 

 The most usual of these coins are the 10, 

 the 5, the 2, and the 1 centime piecee. We 

 can perhaps best understand the system 

 if we suppose our English sovereign to be 

 divided into 10 florins, and the florin again 

 to be divided into 100 centimes, the cen- 

 time being thus nearly the equivalent of 

 our present farthing. This supposition 

 has also the interest of being one of the 

 actual proposals for an English decimal 

 coinage. 



British Measures. 



How terrible the contrast when we 

 turn to our English tables. How we 

 have to lower our heads with shaone. Here 

 are we, the greatest and most advanced of 

 trading communities, saddled witi sys- 

 tems of weighits and mea-sures which are 

 the accidental outcome o-f centuries of 

 casual developments, vrith no reason in 

 them, no order, no method, no meaning. 

 As children we struggle to leairii them by 

 heart. As soon as we leave school we be- 

 gin to forget them. Most of us, except in 

 the case oi those tables Avhich we happen 

 to use in work or business, have to refer 

 to printed authorities, or to skilled ao- 

 quaintances, when we are called upon to 

 calculate under their cap'ricious rule. Do 

 we want to measure a length? We toil 

 painfully among leagues, miles (geo- 

 graphical, nautical, and ordinary), fur- 

 longs, poles, rods or perches, fathoms, 

 chains, links, knots, yards, hands, feet, 

 nails, ells, inches, till we are weao-y. Do 

 we want to measure capacity.'^ We must 

 determine whether it is liquid or solid. If 

 liquid, then we wade in a flood of tuns, 

 pipes, hogsheads, barrels,, kilderkins, fir- 

 kins, gallons, quarts, pints (imperial and 

 otherwise), gills, noggins, drachms, 

 ounces, as they float past in tumbling con- 

 fusion. If we want dry measure Ave jostle 

 in the cirowd o<f pecks, dry gallons and 

 quarts, and the endless, but highly re- 

 spectable, family of the bushels. For 

 bushels trench also upon the province of 

 the weights. And the learned tell U6 

 that a bushel of barlev is 471b. to 491b., 

 of coal is 801b., of flour is 561b., of malt 

 is 401b., of oats is 381b. to 401b., of rye is 

 551b., and of wheat is 571b. to 601b. Do 

 we want to weigh something.^ Then we 

 wrestle, like intellectual Sandows, with 

 tons, hundredweights (which are really 

 hundred-and-twelve weights), quarters, 

 pounds, ounces, drachms, pennyweights, 

 grains, in motley array. There axe 

 further complications. A load may be 

 1,2961b. or 2,0161b., according to the kind 

 of coal; the pound may be 16oz. or 12oz.; 

 a stone may be 81b. or 141b., but in cheese 

 161b., in glass 15lb., in hemp even 321b. In 

 dealing with wool the elastic stone is 141b. 

 ioT the grower, but 151b. for the wool 

 stapler. And so on. and so on. I da not 

 know if Tasmanian apples have yet 

 achieved the distinction of having a pecu- 

 liar measure of their own. Even if this is 

 not as yet the ''case,'" the meaningless 

 jumble of terms makes us pause to take 

 breath. They are the belated outcome of 

 British "common-sense"; they tyrannise 

 throughout the greatest Empire the world 

 has ever seen. In spite of the space re- 

 quired, I cannot refrain from giving a few 

 typical instances, because an appeal to 

 the eye so ponverfully reinforces the ap- 

 peal to the ear. As a' neat specimen oi 



