July 30, 1891] 



NATURE 



295 



last discovery has important bearings in other directions. In the 

 vertebral column there appear to be a total of 76 vertebra: in the 

 case of H. horridum to but 63 or 65 in the spine of //. stispectum. 

 And, in conclusion, this distinguished herpetologist remarks that 

 " A short rib is present on the third cervical in H. horridum, 

 which is absent in H. suspectum ; the neural spines are more 

 elevated in the middle and posterior portion of the dorsal region 

 in //. horridum, specimens of the same sex, of course, being 

 compared. The neural spines are much more developed in the 

 male" (p. 116). Boulenger still thinks the place of the 

 HelodermatidcE between the Angttida and the VaranidcE, which 

 he assigned to them in 1884. 



In concluding this notice I am led to pass some observations 

 upon certain strictures Mr. Boulenger has made in his paper 

 upon my memoir on the anatomy of H. suspectum which 

 appeared in the Proc. of the Zool. Soc. of London lor 1890. His 

 criticism of my description of the atlas of H. suspectum is well 

 taken, as I have satisfied myself of by an examination of better 

 material since. That bone is found to be in three pieces, and 

 not \x\fivc as stated by me. He is also quite correct when he 

 comes to point out certain errors in my figures of manus and pes 

 of that reptile, and I thank him for having called my attention 

 to them. With respect, however, to the error he believes me to 

 be guilty of in my description of the teeth in the premaxillary 

 bones of //. suspectum, 1 can in no way agree with him. He 

 observes : " Eight or nine praemaxillary teeth are present in H. 

 horridum, and only six in H. suspectufii. Dr. Shufeldt, however, 

 represents eight teeth in the latter species ; but his figure, showing 

 all the teeth as of the same size, looks very diagrammatic." In 

 his figures illustrating these remarks Mr. Boulenger gives H. 

 horridum but six teeth, and PP. suspectum but four, and the 

 drawings of the bones look, indeed, very diagrammatic. I 

 cannot conceive of any lizard normally having but "nine" teeth 

 in its premaxillary bone ; it should at least be an even number. 

 Now the m )unted specimen of H. suspectum in the collections^ of 

 the U.S. National Museum, has eight teeth in its premaxillary, 

 and it was from that specimen that I drew my figure which 

 appeated in the Proceedings. Normally, that is the number, but 

 those teeth are often broken out in the Heloderms, and they 

 become irregular by subsequent growth. The outer ones are 

 always the longer, when the skull is perfect. In so far as the 

 formoi the premaxillary is concerned, as touched upon by Mr. 

 Boulenger, I believe no little allowance must be made for 

 individual variation, which is often quite considerable among 

 lizards as- it is among Vertebrates higher in the scale. Other 

 figures illustrating the work under consideration are ex- 

 cellent. 



It would appear that it is to be the fate of the Helodermatoidea 

 to have their morphology more thoroughly worked out than most, 

 or even any other, lizards up to the present time ; and I am 

 given to understand that Prof. Garman, of Harvard College, 

 has it in mind to review, in the near future, the entire structure 

 of // suspectum. R. W. Shufelut. 



Smithsonian Institution, July 8. 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE STANDARDS 

 OF 1738. 



THE discovery by the Clerk of the Journals of the 

 House of Commons, referred to in Nature last 

 week (p. 280), of the original standards of length, which 

 were in 1758 deposited in the custody of the Clerk of 

 the House, has attracted some attention to the history 

 of these Parliamentary standards. As some misappre- 

 hension as to the effect of such discovery appears to 

 have arisen, and as it is to eminent men of science that 

 we are mainly indebted for our standards of length, the 

 following explanatory notes may interest many of our 

 readers. 



The standards of length above referred to were made 

 under the directions of a Committee of the House of 

 Commons, of which Lord Carysfort was Chairman, 

 appointed on May 26, 1758, "to inquire into the original 

 standards of weights and measures in this kingdom." 

 The Committee reported that in 1742 several members of 

 the Royal Society were at great pains in taking an exact 

 measure of the ancient Exchequer standards of length (of 



NO. 1135, VOL. 44] 



Henry VII. and Queen Elizabeth), then condemned by the 

 Committee as being coarsely made and " bad standards " ; 

 that such measure was made by " very curious instruments 

 prepared by the late ingenious Mr. Graham" ; and that the 

 Royal Society had lent to the Committee a brass rod made 

 pursuant to these experiments, which rod had been com- 

 pared by Mr. Harris, of the Royal Mint, with the Exchequer 

 standards. Mr. Harris advised the Committee that the 

 Royal Society's standard was made so accurately, and by 

 persons so skilful and exact, that he did not think it easy 

 to obtain a better standard ; and accordingly the Com- 

 mittee then had two rods made by Mr. Bird, an optician, 

 according to Mr. Harris's proposal ; which " rods " were 

 laid before the House. The rod marked " Standard Yard, 

 1758," was to be taken as the proper standard ; it was 

 stated by the Committee to be made of brass, to be about 

 38 or 39 inches in length and about one inch thick ; near 

 to each end of the rod a fine point and line being drawn 

 on a gold stud, the distance between the points on the 

 gold studs being the " true standard length of a yard," or 

 36 inches. The second rod was made in the same manner 

 as the first rod, excepting that it had " two upright cheeks " 

 instead of points or lines ; so that any other yard rod might 

 be measured by being placed between the cheeks. Both 

 these rods (together with three standard troy pounds 



lb 

 marked " T ," with a crown and " G.2," and a set ot troy 



1758 

 standards from 2 pounds to 32 pounds, made and adjusted 

 by Mr. Harris "with very curious and exact scales of his 

 at the Mint ") were stated by the Committee to be then 

 deposited with the Clerk of the House of Commons. 



In 1838 the attention of the Government was directed 

 to the necessity of determining a new standard weight 

 and measure to replace the above standards of 1758, 

 which were stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer — in 

 a letter to Mr. G. Airy, the Astronomer- Royal — to have 

 been " destroyed by the burning of the Houses of Parlia- 

 ment," and a Commission was appointed to restore the 

 standards. The Commission included F. Baily, J. E. 

 D. Bethune, Davies Gilbert, J. S. Lefevre, J. W. Lubbock, 

 Geo. Peacock, R. Sheepshanks, J. Herschel, and G. B. 

 Airy. Their report of 1841 gives a precise description of 

 the condition of the standards at the Journal Office im- 

 mediately after the fire. The Committee reported that 

 the legal standard of one yard was " so far injured that it 

 was impossible to ascertain from it with the most moderate 

 accuracy the statutable length of one yard " ; and also 

 that the " legal standard of one troy pound was missing." 

 New Parliamentary standards of length and weight were 

 accordingly made under the directions of the Committee, 

 and were legalized by an Act of Parliament passed in 1855. 

 These new Imperial standards are now deposited with 

 the Board of Trade, but legal " Parliamentary copies " of 

 them are stated to have been immured, in 1853, in the 

 House of Commons, and further copies were then de- 

 posited at the Royal Mint, the Royal Observatory, and 

 with the Royal Society. These latter Parliamentary 

 copies are legally required to be compared with each 

 other once in every ten years, but those deposited at the 

 House of Commons are excepted from any such com- 

 parison. It would appear, however, that the House of 

 Commons standards are sometimes examined, as is shown 

 by some printed correspondence on this subject which 

 was laid before the House of Lords in 1872, in which 

 year the standards were examined, and after their ex- 

 amination were again immured in a wall near the lower 

 waiting hall of the House of Commons ; a certificate of 

 the deposit of the standards being given as follows : — 



" It is hereby certified that this day, in the presence of 

 the undersigned, the oaken box containing the Par- 

 liamentary Copy No. 4 of the Imperial Standard Yard, 

 and the Imperial Copy No. 4 of the Imperial Standard 

 Pound," . . . has been " deposited within the wall on. 



