November 28, 1895] 



NATURE 



85 



In various parts of the country. He explained that it was 

 <3ifficuh, under the present system, to prevent the use of these 

 irregular weights, but that if a new unit or system were adopted, 

 then it would be possible to put an end to the employment of 

 these ridiculous so-called customary weights. 



The Committee found it imi^x).'-.sible to obtain any evidence 

 either from manufacturers, from retail dealers, or, with the ex- 

 ception I have mentioned, from professional men, in opposition 

 to the recommendations which they have made ; and amongst 

 the members of the Committee the one opponent of their recom- 

 mendations was Mr. Stevenson, who added a report of his own, 

 which is printed with the evidence, but which did not find a 

 - conder. Reference was made to the fact that, in the Parlia- 

 lentary Report of a Committee which sat thirty-three years ago 

 11 this subject, two very distinguished men of science — i.e. the 

 late Astronomer Royal, Sir Ceorge Airy, and Sir John Herschel 

 — expressed strong opinions in opposition to the adoption of the 

 metrical system. One witness. Lord Kelvin, on being asked 

 by the Chairman how far in his opinion that evidence applies at 

 tlie present time, answered : " I believe these two great men 

 would see things very differently now ; their minds had not been 

 Dpened to the great advantages of the metrical system. Since 

 they gave that evidence every country in Europe has accepted 

 the metrical system except ourselves, and the general understand- 

 ing of these subjects has certainly advanced very much" ; and 

 he went on to say that he did not think that at the present 

 moment a Committee on the subject need consider the 

 objections thus raised thirty years ago as being of importance ; 

 on the contrary, he would like to see the metrical system made 

 compulsory after the lapse of a certain period, and would not be 

 satisfied without a thorough adoption of this as the only legal 

 system in the country. Moreover, he did not think decimalisa- 

 tion of the coinage was at all a necessary accompaniment for 

 the adoption of the metrical system of weights and measures. 



Further evidence went to show that in the United States 

 the metrical system was actually legal, was in use within 

 the State of Utah, and has been adopted as a compulsory system 

 for all phannaceutical and medical purposes ; that this latter 

 also is the case in Russia ; and quite recently the announcement 

 has been made that in the new edition of the " British Phar- 

 macopoeia," about to be issued, the metrical weights and measures 

 will be adopted. It appeared to be a general opinion amongst 

 witnesses consulted by the Committee that it only requires that 

 England should take the initiative, in order that both Russia and 

 the United States — the only civilised countries now not using 

 the system — should at once adopt it, and thus all nations would 

 have one and the same system, and that this would be an incal- 

 culable l)enefit to mankind. 



Mr. Balfour is reported by the Times to have replied as follows : 

 •' I have listened with very great interest to the powerful 

 speeches that have been made upon the important subject with 

 regard to which we are met here to-day. If I may express my 

 own opinion upon the merits of the case, there can be no doubt I 

 think whatever that the judgment of the whole civilised world, 

 not excluding the countries which still adhere to the antiquated 

 systems under which we suffer, has long decided that the metric 

 system is the only rational system. Scientific men in this 

 country have long been driven to use it in their writings, to use 

 it in their calculations, and, if I may so express it, to think in it, 

 to think out the problems in which they deal in the system 

 which we owe to the ingenuity of the French. What men of 

 science have long been obliged to do — not merely because the 

 international character of science makes it desirable, but also 

 because the calculations are so much more rapid, so much more 

 • convenient — what men of science for those reasons are obliged 

 to do, I believe that commercial firms in all parts of the country 

 are beginning to think they must do also. On that point I do 

 not think that argument is possible. The solitary argument 

 -which appears to have been alleged on the other side is that the 

 . existing English system is a good gymnastic for the mind. I dare 

 say it would be a very good gymnastic for the body if, instead of 

 having macadamised roads, we were obliged to make our way 

 over pathless heaths and plunge through ditches and over hedges ; 

 but though it would be an excellent gymnastic for the body it 

 would not be a convenient method of getting from place to 

 place, and I do not think any one is likely to recommend that 

 we should return to the primitive kinds of locomotion once used 

 by our forefathers. There appears, therefore, to be an absolute 

 agreement on the merits of the case. There is no such agree- 

 ment with regard to the practicability or the ease of carrying out 



NO. 136,1, VOL. 53] 



any great change. We in this country are rather in the 

 condition of an industrial concern which was using antiquated 

 plant, but which felt that it could not renew that plant accord- 

 mg to modern requirements without an immense expenditure 

 of capital which for some years would destroy all the profits, 

 or a large part of the profits, of the undertaking. In precisely 

 the same way, while everybody admits that the change when 

 once effected would be a change of almost universal beneficence, 

 I think we ought not to conceal from ourselves that there would 

 lie loss and inconvenience during the period of transition. I 

 think we have only got to consider our own personal experience 

 to see that that is so. Like the rest of the world, I have had to 

 read books in which the metric system was the one in use. As 

 I have been brought up on the English system, there has always 

 been a certain difficulty in representing to the imagination with- 

 out effort and immediately by an automatic process exactly what 

 was intended. To translate miles into kilometres is not a very 

 difificult process, but it is not automatic even to the person who 

 knows the exact length of the kilometre and mile. And what 

 is difficult to us who have been to a certain extent habituated 

 to both systems, would certainly be difficult to the great mass 

 of retail traders and the great body of the poor. They have 

 been accustomed to think in one kind of measure, and to require 

 them by law suddenly to think in another kind is to compel 

 them to go through an effort which I think every one will admit 

 would be an arduous effort in some cases, and an effort which 

 would not be unaccompanied by mistakes and difficulties on the 

 part of those who are unaccustomed to it. It is a matter, it 

 will be observed, largely of familiarity and imagination. We 

 all know what we mean by a yard. To translate that into a 

 metre requires a little effort. We all know what we mean by a 

 mile, to represent it in the imagination, but to translate it into a 

 kilometre requires an effort, and I do not think we should under- 

 rate the obstacles in carrying out the beneficent change. I was 

 struck by what fell from Sir Henry Roscoe and some other 

 members of the deputation with regard to the extraordinary 

 vitality in England of antiquated and illegal weights and 

 measures in different parts of the country. Although our exist- 

 ing measures are the only legal ones, it appears that other 

 measures are in habitual use by large portions of the popula- 

 tion. If old measures are so difficult to kill, as they clearly 

 are, we must not forget that we have a very heavy task 

 before us to bring about the great change of the existing 

 system to the decimal system. I have been informed that in 

 France, where the metric system has now long been in use, 

 where it is universally believed in as the only rational system, I 

 believe that even in France, in some parts, the population 

 prefer some of the old measures which their fathers were accus- 

 tomed to rather than the rational system which has now for 

 more than two generations been the only legal one in force. 

 Therefore we ought not to approach the solution of this problem 

 in too sanguine a spirit. I observe that there are three 

 recommendations which the Chambers of Commerce have 

 formulated and embodied in the memorial presented to me 

 to-day. The first is that the metrical system of weights and 

 measures should at once be legalised for all purposes. The 

 second is that it should be the only legal system allowed in this 

 country after two years. The third is that every effort should 

 be made to teach it in the elementary schools. With the first 

 and third of these I find myself in entire agreement. I am 

 told that there are legal obstacles to the use in all 

 trades, and I am quite unable to see why that obstacle 

 should be continued. I think it is our business to do 

 everything we can to smooth the transition from the old 

 to the new system, and certainly the first step towards 

 smoothing that transition would be to make legal that 

 which we think desirable and which we may ultimately 

 think necessary. I was stnick by an observation from Mr. 

 Arnold- Forster in regard to the standing orders of the House of 

 Commons, and to the exclusion of the metric system from our 

 national manufactures — that is, manufactures undertaken by the 

 Government. I think both of those are topics well worthy of 

 consideration, and I shall consult with my friend Mr. Ritchie and 

 the other departments of the Government concerned to see 

 whether from either of those points of view anything can be 

 done to meet the general wishes of the commercial classes as 

 represented by the Chambers of Commerce. With regard to the 

 teaching of the metric sysfem in elementary schools; I lielieve 

 something has been done already in that direction by the 

 Education Department, but on that topic also I shall consult 



