xxxvin 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



FRENCH WEIGHTS. 



Before the Revolution there was only one pile of weights in common 

 use : in endeavouring to introduce one upon philosophical principles, 

 there are now no less than four. 



The old French Poids de Marc, established hy Charlemagne. 



The academicians complain much that the great government depart- 

 ments of the navy and artillery have never adopted this weight, not 

 considering the great expense that it would occasion to recast all the 

 artillery and bails. 



The faculty of medicine at Paris, in translating their Codex Medica- 

 mentorum, or Pharmacopoeia, into this new system of weights, did 

 not esteem it necessary to use the exact reduction, but adopted a 

 system of round numbers, and in some parts quoted both the old and 



