THE METRIC SYSTEM. 5 



The gram is 15.432 Troy grains; or 0.564 avoirdupois drams ; or 0.035 

 avoirdupois ounces. The U. S. nickel five-cent piece weighs five grams, and 

 is, moreover, one fiftieth of a meter (2 cm.) in diameter. 



The other measures of length, capacity, and weight are decimal divisions 

 or multiples of the meter, the liter, and the gram, and their names are so 

 formed as to indicate their value in each case. 



8. As compared with the English or any other system of weights and 

 measures, the Metric System has the following desirable features : 



1. It has a single basis, and involves fewer separate terms ; hence it is 

 more easily learned. 



2. It is decimal ; hence it is more easily used. 



3. It is already practically international, and largely, if not chiefly, 

 employed in the hest kinds of scientific work. 



We do not feel called upon for a general discussion of the merits of the Metric 

 System. Its origin, nature, and advantages have been admirably set forth in the works of 

 F. A. P. Barnard, J. Pickering Putnam, Persifor Frazer, etc., and are periodically urged 

 by able writers in various Journals, medical, scientific, and sociological. Philosophical 

 treatises upon the general subject are published by " The American Metrological Society," 

 and "The American Metric Bureau " prints a " Bulletin " (A). The final issue of "The 

 Harvard Register" contains a compact and at the same time comprehensive plea "In 

 favor of the Metric System," the force of which is rather increased than diminished by the 

 article just following it upon the opposite side. 



Practically, out of the twenty-three or four names for measures of length, capacity, 

 and weight which may be employed, only about one-third are in common use by scientific 

 men. These are, the meter, liter, and gram; the centimeter and millimeter, being 

 respectively the hundredth and the thousandth of the meter ; the milligram, the thou- 

 sandth of the gram ; the kilogram or thousand grams ; and the cubic centimeter, which is 

 the same as milliliter, the thousandth part of the liter. 



9. The following Table includes all the regular metric denominations. 

 But only the eight or nine whose names are printed in capitals are in 

 general use. 



TABLE OF THE METRIC MEASURES. 



