February 25, 1909J 



NA TURE 



501 



POSITION OF THE METRIC SYSTEM. 

 T T may now be said that the metric system of weights 

 ■*■ and measures is preferred by every Government in 

 the world outside the British Empire, and that in this 

 advance there has been no retreat. 



Its opponents say that though foreign Governments may 

 prefer the reform, it is fairly practised only in a few 

 countries. The truth about this alleged discrepancy 

 between law and popular usage is to be found in two 

 parliamentary papers (Cd. 258 of 1900 and Cd. 435 of 

 1901), also partly in the records (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 

 1907) of the last International Metric Conference, where 

 England had two representatives. 



Let us consider, first, the nations which have made least 

 progress. The United States of America have not gone 

 far — far enough, nevertheless, to decide their future, for 

 there is no record of a reverse either in public opinion or 

 practice, except, perhaps, in Turkey, where the Govern- 

 ment applied violent coercion to an ignorant populace. 

 Many public .'\cts of the United States show that their 

 method of progress is to accustom, first their officers and 

 then the public, to the new system before applying it to 

 commerce. Accordingly, it has been introduced with great 

 ease and success into the medical services of the army, navy 

 and public health. There was no trouble, even in the 

 difficulties of war with Spain, when civilian physicians, 

 accustomed only to the old system, were enrolled for service. 

 In some .American cities medical prescriptions are by choice 

 almost all metric. Electrical quantities, and to some 

 extent electrical machinery, arc metrically described, and 

 metric standards, furnished by the International Bureau 

 at Paris, are alone legal as the ultimate tests of .American 

 units. The United States have maintained the metric 

 system in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. Russia 

 established it with complete success for all purposes in 

 Finland sixteen years ago, and for the medical services of 

 the Imperial .Army and Navy last year. In 1907 it was 

 reported at the International Conference to be spreading 

 " rapidly and without opposition " throughout the Empire 

 under the special direction of Privy Councillor M. Egoroff. 



The Chinese Empire may be quoted, like other Govern- 

 ments, as co.nmitted to the metric system. After con- 

 sideration, it has during the past year decided to alter the 

 chief lino.Tr unit (chill) to 32 centimetres, as a step towards 

 metric reform, and this was done in face of a petition 

 from 100 British merchants in favour of a British unit. 



Japan, also, has recently given effective approval to 

 the metric system by legalising it, teaching it in the 

 primary schools, and using it for the medical services of 

 the army and navy, also for scientific work. At the Paris 

 conference of 1907 *' legislation for its definite adoption 

 was announced to be in preparation. Meanwhile, tens of 

 thousands of metric standards were being issued by the 

 Government. British units are also used for engineering 

 and for imported machinery. 



On and after .April i of next year taxes and customs 

 dues in Denmark will be based on the metric system. The 

 system will become general and obligatory on .April i, 

 1912. 



It is thus seen that these five Powers, the slowest to 

 move, have approved, but do not yet largely practise, the 

 metric system. The rest of the world, outside the British 

 Empire, both approves and practises, excepting Turkey, 

 Greece, some of the smaller South American republics, and 

 various savage regions. 



Notwithstanding what has been said above, some anti- 

 metricists declare that even in France the system is largely 

 discarded. The answer to this is that old names are some- 

 times applied to metric units, e.g. the half-kilo, is some- 

 times called the livre, just as we call twenty-one shillings 

 a guinea, and, secondly, textile goods of English sizes and 

 marks go largely into foreign countries, and are even 

 made there, just as motor-cars and electric machinery of 

 metric size are found in England. There is no sign of 

 metric failure in this, because in a metric country every- 

 thing is sold metrically. 



Even within the British Empire the self-governing 

 colonies are eager for the reform. .Australasia and New 

 Zealand have twice urged it upon England, and New- 

 Zealand has recently legislated for the purpose. South 



NO. 2052, VOL. 79] 



.Africa has suggested it, and the Canadian Government has 

 employed a lecturer to popularise it. 



In presence of the above-stated facts, there is obvious 

 danger that England may soon be isolated even from her 

 English-speaking kinsfolk in the matter of weights and 

 measures, notwithstanding the vain suggestion of an 

 Anglo-Saxon conference to improve the British system and 

 retain it in concert with America. There is India, of 

 course, on w;hich we could force any system, wise or 

 foolish, for chaos rules there, and the situation is tolerated 

 partly because full-weight silver coins serve as standard, 

 weights, and liquids are generally weighed. The kilogram 

 was legalised for oificial use and railways on the advice 

 of General Sir R. Strachey in 1871, and the death of Lord 

 Mayo alone prevented its introduction. India deserves 

 better treatment, for it is to her that we owe, through the 

 Arabs, not only the ten numeral figures, but probably 

 also the device whereby both the form and position of each 

 fix its meaning. 



The cost and trouble of change are the chief real objec- 

 tions, so it is of the highest importance to remember that 

 metricists do not propose to force the reform into factories, 

 industries, or private life, but only into buying and sell- 

 ing. Cloth, yarn, ironwork, and everything could be 

 made of any size or weight, but in the market such size 

 or weight, if stated, would have to bo in metric figures. 

 There would be no alteration of count, number, pattern, 

 or marli under which cloth, yarn, screws, &c., are often 

 sold. In private life the glass of beer, the teaspoonful of 

 medicine, &c.. would remain. 



Shopkeepers and merchants, probably also railways, 

 would be compelled to use new weights and yard sticks, 

 and their example would quickly educate the whole 

 country. No more than this limited compulsion was pro- 

 posed to Parliament in 1907, but objectors presented 

 estimates of cost based on universal compulsion, and the 

 result was an adverse vote of 150 against 118. The House 

 of Commons had not then before it the evidence after- 

 wards given at the Paris International Conference, that 

 commerce can be metric without impeding industry. 



There is, however, a considerable class of people who- 

 can never be converted except perhaps by fear of inter- 

 national isolation. Therefore, pending another attempt at 

 legislation, the converted should practise their faith rather 

 than preach it to the deaf. Scientific societies and scientific 

 departments of State could favour metric usage, as the 

 British Medical Association is now doing, and as the 

 Government might do in the medical services of its army, 

 navy, and public health, unless it distrusts the .Americai> 

 experience above stated. 



In meteorology, geology, and cartography there is much 

 room for advance, excepting the excellent maps with scales 

 of I, .'2500 and 1/5000. 



There is not space here for the long array of great 

 names which support this reform, and it ought to be need- 

 less to state that the system does not embrace angles, 

 time, navigation, thermometry, money, or anything but 

 measures of length, surface, volume, and weight. Never- 

 theless, it may be mentioned that one of its principles, the 

 counting by tens, which abolishes compound arithmetic, 

 would save here, as in all foreign countries, a vast total 

 of human energy, especially in application to money. _ It 

 is estimated that in the Custom House alone decimalised 

 money would save 20,000/. a year. 



BIRD-LIFE. 

 T^HE feeding-habits of the dunlin form the subject of 

 -*- u paper — based on close personal observation — con- 

 tributed by Mr. J. M. Dewar to the January number of 

 the Zoologist. In surface-feeding these attractive birds 

 search for small organisms floating in the wash of the- 

 sea or carried seawards by the shore-streams, as well as 

 for minute insects and spiders on the sand or mud, although 

 the main objects of their quest are tiny univalve molluscs, 

 with the shells of which their gizzards are always 

 crammed. Dead shells, which form a large proportion of 

 those on most shores, are left alone. Dunlins also probe 

 the sand or mud for bivalve molluscs and worms. Both- 

 in the act of tapping and probing the two halves of the 



