300 KEPORT— 1871. 



oliject, your Committee have had a Conference at the Lecture Theatre of the 

 Kensington Museum in June last, when valaable testimony was given of the 

 . progress made in instructing children on the subject in the United States 

 by Prof. Nathaniel Allen, and in Bombay by Mr. T. B. Kirkham, both 

 gentlemen connected with the Education Departments of the respective 

 countries. Your Committee have forwarded copies of the resolutions passed 

 at the Conference, with copy of a little treatise on the Theory and Practice 

 of the Metric System, to the Head Master of every Public and Endowed 

 School, and they are preparing to do the same to all the principal Elemen- 

 tary Schools in the Kingdom. It is much to be desired that all the works 

 on arithmetic, and especially those which have acquired much reputation, 

 should contain the necessary information on the Metric System, and j'our 

 Committee are glad to report that this has already been done to a large ex- 

 tent. Your Committee have also represented to tlie London School Board 

 the desii-ableness of introducing the Metric System in the Schools established 

 or supported by the Board, and they have been informed that the subject 

 Avill shortly be considered by Prof. Huxley's Committee. Your Committee 

 will correspond in a similar manner with the other School Boards, and they 

 trust that % these means they will seciire the general teaching of the system. 

 Your Committee have forwarded a cop)' of the Mural Standard con- 

 structed bj- Casella to the Industrial Museum in Edinburgh, and they have 

 also sent one to Newcastle. Your Committee have not yet been able to 

 obtain the set of Metric Standards which they ordered, and they are glad to 

 find from the following communication that the same will prove most useful 

 for scientific researches : — 



Pilton, Barnstaple, 



July 27, 1871. 



Dear Sie, — I have been for some time conducting a series of observa- 

 tions on the specific gravity of minerals and rocks. As the greatest possible 

 accuracy is indispensable, it is of course a matter of some importance that I 

 shoiild employ the weights which afford the most exact results. I find that 

 calculations of this nature can be done Avith far more accuracy, and in about 

 a quarter of the time, by using the Metric System ; but although I have 

 made numerous inquiries, I have hitherto failed in my endeavour to XH'ocure 

 a verified set of Metric Weights. May I venture to suggest that it would 

 very much tend to promote the object which the Committee of the British 

 Association have in \iew if they would procure one or two sets of verified 

 weights for the purpose to such Members as may require the use of such 

 standards for scientific investigation, and thus afford them the means of 

 comparing and verifying theii' own weights with the recognized standards of 

 the Association. 



I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 



Frof. Leone Levi. Toavnshexd M. Hall. 



Your Committee are convinced of the' great utility of the suggestion ; but 

 they will require a larger grant, since, as will be seen in the Fifth Eeport 

 of the Standard Commissioners, .£50 was paid by that Commission for a set 

 of Metric Standards made of brass by Deleuil, of" Paris. 



Your Committee regret that the war in France has suspended the opera- 

 tion of the International Standard Commission at Paris for the construction 

 and verification of primary international Metric Standards. That movement 

 arose from resolutions, expressing such a want, passed by the International 

 Gcodesical Conference held at Berlin in 1867, the Academy of Sciences of 



