614 GLOSSARY, WHITE CORPUSCLES WHITE SUBSTANCE. 



millimetres. A millimetre is nearly the 25th part of an Eng- 

 lish inch, or nearly half an English line ; a centimetre is nearly 

 2-5ths of an English inch. A thousand metres is called a kilo- 

 metre, better in English a chilometre, though the first form of the 

 word is still the most common. A chilometre is nearly 2-3ds of 

 an English mile. 



A cubic decimetre is the basis of the French measures of capa- 

 city. The decimetre is equal to 3.937 English inches ; and here it 

 may be remarked how easily the French system admits of division 

 by decimal points. Thus a metre is 39.37. This number expresses 

 the decimetre in English inches, by moving the decimal point to the 

 left, thus, from 39.37 to 3.937 ; and the decimetre, 3.937, in Eng- 

 lish inches, becomes the centimetre in English inches by moving 

 the decimal point still farther to the left : thus, the decimetre, 

 3.937 in English inches, becomes .3937 the centimetre; and the 

 millimetre is got out of the centimetre by another like movement 

 of the decimal point ; thus, 0.03937. But to return from this 

 digression, the cubic decimetre is termed a litre, and contains 

 rather more than one and three-quarters of an imperial pint. The 

 litre is subdivided into tenths or decilitres, hundredths or centi- 

 litres. A cubic decimetre or litre of distilled water weighs a gramme, 

 and this gramme is the basis of the French weights. The defini- 

 tion of a gramme, then, is the weight of a cubic decimetre of dis- 

 tilled water. It weighs 15.432 English grains ; that is, it is nearly 

 the fourth part of a drachm in troy and apothecaries' weight. 

 The gramme is subdivided into tenths or decigrammes, hundredths 

 or centigrammes, and thousandths or milligrammes. In the 

 ascending scale a thousand grammes is called a kilogramme or chilo- 

 gramme. The chilogramme is something less than 2^ Ib. im- 

 perial, or consists of 15432.3 English grains. The chilogramme 

 is the commercial unit of weight in France, as the gramme is the 

 basis of scientific weights. The gramme now begins to be written 

 gram in English, to which there seems to be no reasonable objec- 

 tion, and even kilogramme is written chilogram. 



WHITE CORPUSCLES or LYMPH-CORPUSCLES. The white corpuscles 

 of the blood are held to be the same as the lymph-corpuscles of the 

 lymphatic vessels and the chyle-corpuscles of the higher lacteal 

 trunks, being produced in the conglobate glands and forming the 

 germ of the future red corpuscles. 



WHITE SUBSTANCE OF NERVE FIBRE. The medullary or white sub- 

 stance of Schwann, the outer white part of the nerve tubule with- 

 in which is contained the axis cylinder, the same as the primitive 

 band of Kemak. 



