PKEFACE 



IT would seem anomalous that an advanced and enlight- 

 ened country, such as Great Britain, should be the only 

 civilised nation in the world that has not yet decimalised 

 its currency. But so it is. That the decimal or all- 

 ten system of calculation is the most natural one 

 is demonstrated to us by nature in the number of our 

 fingers, which may be said to be nature's calculat- 

 ing machine ; and that it is the most rational one is 

 proved by the numerous advantages which it possesses. 

 Most of us are aware of the inconvenience of the present 

 irregular system of money, weights, and measures, 

 and of the difficulty with which the business of inter- 

 national commerce is carried on. The waste of valuable 

 time, and the costliness of clerical labour involved in the 

 conversion of the above into the decimal systems of other 

 countries, are simply enormous ; and, if neglected, means 

 to the British merchant loss of foreign contracts, and there- 

 fore loss of money. In our schools, too, the time wasted 

 in teaching the complicated system of arithmetic rendered 

 necessary by the existing state of chaos might be much 

 more usefully employed in teaching English grammar 

 and modern languages, now so glaringly neglected. 



Although the use of the Metric System has been legal- 

 ised, its use is, and will continue to be, limited in extent, 

 until the coinage is decimalised, when both can work 

 harmoniously together. It is at present chiefly confined 

 to the medical profession, engineers, manufacturers of 

 chemicals and drugs, and dealers in precious stones. 



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