ON THE UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 109 



similar arrangement with regard to measures of length and measures of 

 capacity. 



In HoUand the law requii-es the use of the metric system in aU things, 

 except weighing medicines. The old Dutch names, such as " elle " and 

 "palm," are preserved in the metric tables ; the "eUe" is the metre (3-2809 

 feet), and the "palm" the decimetre (or 3-937 inches). A "kan" in 

 Holland is the name for a litre, or 1-760 pint. In weights, the " ons " is 

 the Dutch name for a hectogramme*, or 3-527 ounces; and a "pond" 

 corresponds to the kilogramme (=2-205 lbs.). 



In Spain the government has purchased 600 sets of metric weights and 

 measures, and it intends to buy more, so that it may supply each important 

 town with standards for comparison. On the Spanish railways, distances are 

 measured by kilometres, and weights by kilogrammes. Tables are published 

 containing the equivalents of the old Spanish weights and measiu'es in metric 

 quantities, and calciilated in each case from 1 to 1000. 



Official tables are published in Portugal, containing Portuguese measure- 

 ments in metrical quantities, and vice versa. Inspectors of schools, appointed 

 by the general superintendents of weights and measures, have inspected 2720 

 pubhc and private schools, and schools are established under the same super- 

 intendence to explain the new system f. A great number of elementary works 

 have been published in Portugal on metrical weights and measures for the use 

 of schools, as well as for the public. 



In the United States of America a committee has been appointed by Con- 

 gress to consider the subject of metric weights and measures. The Confede- 

 rate States of North America have also expressed a wish to introduce into 

 tlieir republic the metric system of weights and measures ; and the same 

 system has been adopted in Mexico, ChiU, Pertf, New Granada, Bolivia, 

 Venezuela, and French and Dutch Guiana. 



Mr. Samuel Brown, in his evidence, in 1862, before the Committee of the 

 House of Commons on AVeights and Measui-es, states, that in 1859, of the total 

 trade of Great Britain, including 79,405 vessels, there were 47,393 vessels 

 going to or from countries using the kilogramme, or about 60 per cent, of 

 the total niunber of vessels; and of 19,332,174 tons, there were 7,726,148 

 tons carried to or from countries using the kilogramme, or about 40 per cent, 

 of the total tonnage. 



Postal arrangements between Great Britain and France are complicated by 

 the French weight for letters being somewhat heavier than the English foreign 

 weight. 



An English ounce weighs 28-349 grammes ; and the quarter of an ounce, 

 or English foreign weight, weighs 7-087 grammes. 



In France the postal weight for single letters from England is 7-5 

 grammes; so that the French allow an excess of weight of -413 of a 

 gramme, or more than -i-rd of a gramme more than the English. 



If a letter be prepaid by stamps, the advance is 4cZ. in England for every 

 quarter of an ounce, and 40 centimes in France for every weight of 7| grammes. 



The postal treaty between the two countries declares that " no letter, of 

 which the postage is paid by stamps, is to be treated as an insufficiently paid 

 letter, unless the value of the stamps be less than the amount required for its 

 payment, according to the weight allowed, not only by the English, but by 

 the French scale of weight, of which 7|- grammes is the unit." 



In practice the postal officials in London weigh letters going to France, and 



* Woolhouse's ' Weights and Measiu-es of all Nations,' j). 79. 



t The Marquis d'AvUa's Beport, quoted in Kuggles's ' Keports,' p. 64. 



