VOL. LXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TUANSACTIONS. 583 



of wine, and 8 of those gallons to make a London bushel, which is the 8th part 

 of a quarter. The definition of the penny-weight, in these statutes, agrees with 

 the determination of William the Conqueror, and shows that the legal weight 

 continued the same. What the weight of that pound was, so raised from a 

 penny-weight, equal to the weight of 32 grains of wheat, we may clearly learn 

 from that declaration in the 18th of Henry viii, when he abolished that old 

 pound, and established the Troy weight; which says, that the Troy pound ex- 

 ceedeth the old Tower pound by 4 of the ounce. As the Troy pound established 

 by Henry viii, is the same as is now in use, consisting of 5760 Troy grains, 

 and 480 grains to the ounce, and 12 ounces to the pound; so 360 grains is f of 

 the ounce, which, deducted from 5760, leaves 5400 Troy grains, equal to the 

 weight of that old Saxon pound which he abolished. But to trace out experi- 

 mentally the weight of that penny-weight, raised from 32 grains of wheat, I got 

 a small sample of dry wheat of last year 1773 (the weight of that year but ordi- 

 nary); and, from a little handful of it, I told out just 96 round plump grains, 

 dividing them into parcels of 32 grains each, and all 3 weighed exactly 22-j- Troy 

 grains; consequently, 240 such penny-weights, which the old pound consisted 

 of, were equal only to 5400 of our present Troy grains, conformable to the tle- 

 claration of Henry viii. Thus the weight of that old pound is clearly ascer- 

 tained to be lighter than the present Troy pound by 4 of an ounce; and it clearly 

 shows that they were 2 different weights. 



By those statutes of Henry iii, and Edward i, it is said, that 8 pounds were 

 to make a wine gallon, and 8 of those gallons to be a bushel, and 8 bushels a 

 quarter; consequently the wine and corn gallon were one and the same measure. 

 The statute of the 12th of Henry vii says, the gallon measure was to be 8 

 pounds of wheat, which ascertains what was to be understood by former statutes, 

 and is consonant to reason, to fix the measure of wheat by its own weight, not 

 by that of wine, as wheat was an article of greater importance to the community 

 to ascertain its measure, than wine; and a gallon measure to contain 8 pounds 

 of wheat, must be -fpart larger in cubical contents than a measure to contain 8 

 pounds of wine. As it appears by the charter of William the Conqueror, that 

 there were sealed standards made of weights and measures, we cannot doubt, 

 but they were preserved and kept in the king's exchequer, for legal standards; 

 and as several statutes direct their being made of metal, they were permanent 

 and certain, by which to make more: which Henry vii expressly tells us he 

 practised, by making new according to the old: so that there could be no need 

 to recur to 32 grains of wheat, much less to 7 680, every time new standards 

 were to be made, unless we suppose our ancestors defective in common sense. 

 Whenever, by new statutes, fresh standards were directed to be made, we may 

 observe that the assize of weight and measure continued uniformly fixed and de- 



