ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 
PHILADELPHIA, PA., MARCH, 1916. 
Discontinue the Fahrenheit Thermometric Scale. 
In the House of Representatives, on December 6, 1915, Mr. 
Albert Johnson, of Washington, introduced the following bill, 
which was referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights and 
Measures, and ordered to be printed. 
A Bill (H. R. 528) to discontinue the use of the Fahrenheit thermom- 
eter scale in Government publications. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the centigrade 
scale of temperature measurement shall be the standard in United 
States Government publications, the use of the Fahrenheit scale being 
discontinued, at the option of Heads of Departments or other inde- 
pendent branches of the Government, either immediately upon the sign- 
ing of this bill or at any time before January 1, 1920, except as pro- 
vided in Section 3. 
Sec. 2. During the period of transition, the Fahrenheit equivalent 
of centigrade degrees may be added in parentheses or as a footnote or 
in any other way, if in the opinion of Heads of Departments or inde- 
pendent officers it seems necessary. 
Sec. 3. The use of the Fahrenheit scale shall be permitted after 
January 1, 1920, in cases where it is required by State and municipal 
law, or in certificates of tests of instruments graduated in the Fahren- 
heit scale. 
On December 14, 1915, this bill being under consideration, 
Mr. Johnson spoke in its favor. His speech, followed by ex- 
tracts from letters of 200 scientific men whom he addressed on 
the subject, has been printed and furnishes a strong body of 
evidence in favor of this change. 
The subject is one which largely affects entomologists and 
their work. All of us have surely experienced the inconveni- 
ence of translating values from one thermometric scale to an- 
other. As long as the Fahrenheit scale is used by the United 
States Weather Bureau we shall have to take it into account, 
and yet the Centigrade scale is that in which temperatures are 
stated in the majority of scientific publications of the rest of the 
world. There can be no question as to the desirability of one 
international scale. Dr. S. W. Stratton, Director of the United 
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