106 REPORT 186.1. 



if the metric system were to take the place of the existing tables of weights 

 and measures in England. 



The English workmen engaged in building-trades, such as cai-penters, 

 masons, and bricklayers, Professor Donaldson considers to be generally very 

 intelligent ; and whatever would afford to them facility in calculation would 

 be acceptable as soon as it had been explained to them. 



In railway operations a civU engineer ascertains weight by computation 

 of measure : he cannot take scales and beams, and weigh pieces of ii'on 

 of twenty tons and upwards ; he knows the specific gravity of the iron, 

 and he ascertains by measurement the weight of a given quantity of 

 that metal. The metric system aids in aU calculations relating to specific 

 gravity. 



Mr. W. Crosley, C.E., stated to the Committee of the House of Commons 

 on Weights and Measures that he believes the decimal system is extending 

 itself very much, especially for scientific purposes and amongst professional 

 men. " It is extending itself among them very considerably, without any 

 law whatever." 



Chemists, pursuing important researches, employ generally metric weights 

 and measures. Thus, in the Eoyal Institution of Great Britain, in Albemarle 

 Street, the operations of the laboratoiy arc carried on with the aid of the 

 metric system ; and Dr. Frankland, one of the chemists of that Society, finds 

 the metric weights and measures particularly valuable in his experimental 

 investigations respecting gases. The gramme, with its multiples and minute 

 subdivisions, is a popular weight with chemists. 



In the practical business of a di-uggist the metric system of weights and 

 measures, if generally adopted, would, in the opinion of Mr. Squire, save a 

 great deal of labour to the rising generation. In the metric system, Mr. 

 Squire observes, as the divisions and multiplications are all bytcn, the 

 subject and the calculations would bo much simplified *. 



A meeting, held in June 1863, of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great 

 Britain, adopted a petition to the House of Commons, in which they recom- 

 mended an assimilation of the weights and measures of all nations, as likely 

 " to tend greatly to the convenience of pharmaceutists f and the safety of 

 the public." 



The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain felt assured that a " very few 

 years would famUiarize both prescribers and dispensers with the new 

 weights and measures, and that the easy multiplication or division of them 

 by the decimal system, universally applied, woiild afford such facilities of 

 computation as to recommend it strongly to the adoption of medical men 

 and chemists ; and they are strengthened in this opinion by the invariable 

 practice of English and all other analytical chemists already to state the 

 results of their investigations in decimals." 



Some metric measures and weights approach very nearly to corresponding 

 EngHsh quantities : thus, in liquid measure, five litres are nearly equal to 

 lyLj gallon, or 1 gallon 0-402 of a quart. 



A half-lvilogramme, or weight of 500 grammes, is equivalent to 1 lb. 1 oz. 

 10-191 drams avoirdupois. 



The following brief table, by Mr. Samuel Brown, condenses the systcou of 

 all tlie metric pleasures and weights into a small compass : — 



* Pliarmaccutical Joui'iial, July 1863, p. 8. f Ibid. p. 9. 



