February 14, 19 18] 



NATURE 



467 



An equal spirit of organised research and muni- 

 ficent endowment in this country should enable 

 us to raise here, on the basis of existing English 

 pioneer work, a similar monument of research 

 on the physiology and energetics of carbon 

 ;issimilation. F. F. B. 



THE ADOTTION OF THE METRIC 

 SYSTEM. 

 A N account of the position of the subject of the 

 'V. adoption of the metric system in this country 

 was given in Nature of August 30 last. That 

 the question is being very seriously considered by 

 the controllers of our larger industries is clearly 

 indicated by the two papers on the subject read 

 recently before the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers. In the paper, " A Case for the Adop- 

 tion of the Metric System (and Decimal Coinage) 

 by Great Britain," by Mr. A. J. Stubbs, the multi- 

 plicity of standards — and, worse still, variations 

 from these standards — is so clearly shown that 

 one is not surprised that the writer should arrive 

 at the conclusion that the change must come, and 

 that delay but increases the difficulties of the 

 change. The final conclusion, "Do it now," will 

 meet with unqualified approval from those who 

 feel that the change is urgently needed. 



\'ery different is the paper from Mr. Llewelyn 

 B. Atkinson on "The 'Pros and Cons ' of the 

 Metric System." Broadly speaking, it is a paper 

 "damning with faint praise." Starting from the 

 three possible systems, namely, (i) the British 

 system, (2) the metric system, (3) the C.G.S. or 

 absolute system, the writer proceeds to discuss 

 the questions of (a) decimalisation, {b) the actual 

 magnitudes involved, and (c) policy. The main 

 point made is that there is always so much to be 

 said for the other side that everything is question- 

 able. The further difficulty of the enormous 

 number of readjustments of tolls, rates, dock dues, 

 wage lists, etc., which would have to be made, is 

 emphasised. 



If our object were simply to criticise this paper 

 rather than most seriously to urge the adoption of 

 the metric system in the full light of all the diffi- 

 culties actually known to be involved, we should 

 simply ask Mr. Atkinson to produce his British 

 system — say, for the textile industries ; and in 

 reply to the difficulty raised respecting the re- 

 adjustment of tolls, rates, etc., we would suggest 

 that the sooner the whole of the agricultural and 

 commercial worlds of this country receive the 

 shaking up that such a change would give them 

 the better. But the paper is too good to be thus 

 summarily dismissed. 



The question of decimalisation admittedly re- 

 solves itself into a careful weighing up of the 

 pros and cons. That uniformity, accuracy, and 

 speed make a strong trio in favour of the decimal 

 system is, however, beyond question. If proof of 

 this be required it may be readily obtained from 

 those who have worked in both British and Con- 

 tinental mills and works. 



The question of the actual magnitudes involved 

 NO. 2520, VOL. 100] 



is complicated by reference to the varying weights 

 of the bushel of wheat, of barley, of oats, etc. 

 This is typical of the whole trend of the paper. 

 Whatever standards of measurement be adopted, 

 the same difficulty will be in evidence. This ap- 

 proximates any two systems to one another in 

 the sense that it involves them in a common diffi- 

 culty — but does it therefore leave them equally 

 useful for world service? If there were a chance 

 of either Japan or China adopting any such British 

 system as could be speedily designed, there might 

 be something in the argument. But is there? 



The question of policy is debated rather from 

 the point of view of Britain holding certain markets 

 by the imposition and retention of her peculiar 

 weights and measures — in other words, by the 

 methods employed by some of our machinists, who 

 purposely adopt their own peculiar standards in 

 order that they may absolutely bind to themselves 

 any firms once depending upon them for 

 machinery. Does not this savour far too much of 

 subterfuge? And where subterfuge comes in, in 

 the long run efficiency goes out. 



From this point of view international coinage 

 and rates of exchange form an interesting study. 

 If the time ever comes when the spirit of scientific 

 finance, rather than the spirit of "opportunism," 

 dominates industry, then will commerce have 

 made possibly the greatest step forward on record. 

 In the final paragraph of his paper Mr. Atkinson 

 asks for some indication of how the change can 

 in practice be effected in the case of the textile 

 industries. This change was definitely made and 

 the metric system employed in the textile indus- 

 tries department of the Bradford Technical Col- 

 lege for more than a year. The experiment re- 

 vealed the simplicity of the change, and has mate- 

 rially influenced the views of the writer of this 

 article on the possibilities of the metric system in 

 the textile industries. That the cotton section of 

 the textile industries will profit least from the 

 proposed change is certain, since it already pos- 

 sesses many of the advantages conferred by a 

 world-wide system ; but surely it will join hands 

 with its less fortunate associates in advocating a 

 change which to those with long vision seems 

 almost likely to be the factor deciding our fate in 

 the commercial warfare looming ahead. 



But perhaps the deficiencies of outlook in evi- 

 dence in Mr. Atkinson's paper may best be attri- 

 buted to an apparent lack of appreciation of the 

 questions of mentality (or psychology) involved. 

 Every mathematical problem solved — be it simple 

 or complex — serves in two ways. Directly, it gives 

 the particular answer required ; and indirectly, it 

 incorporates itself into the intuitive faculty of the 

 thinker. Thus each problem solved will naturally 

 tend either to strengthen or to weaken the 

 intuitive mathematical faculty. A multiplicity of 

 standards with many haphazard variations will in- 

 evitably tend, through confusion of precept, to 

 suppress, and ultimately entirely to eliminate, the 

 intuitive mathematical faculty ; whereas scientific 

 standardisation will tend to promote that type of 

 brain culture which ultimatelv resolves itself into 



