228 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917, 
Seconp MEETING. 
At the meeting held in the afternoon of Thursday, July 5, it was decided to 
ask the Council to add the name of Dr. Bather, the Vice-President of the 
Conference, to the Corresponding Societies Committee. 
The Conference appointed Mr. Whitaker, Mr. Webb, and Mr. Mark Sykes 
to confer with others who might be interested in Kent’s Cavern. 
Mr. THomas Suepparp then read the following paper upon 
Money-Scales and Weights. 
Terrible as the present war is, there is no doubt that it has had, and will 
have, many good results. It has demonstrated that the British nation is more 
united than was ever dreamed of, and that the people, rich and poor alike, are 
prepared to give everything, to make the greatest sacrifice, for the common 
good. We do not hear much to-day of the ‘idle rich,’ nor of the Piccadilly 
‘nut.’ They have done, are doing, and will do their share for their country. 
The working classes are not pushed by the rich into the battle line, they are led 
by them. Men and women of all grades have come to understand each other in 
a way which would have been very difficult, it not impossible, without a war. 
The formation, training, equipment, and upkeep of one of the greatest armies 
on record is a feat of organisation and management which would have been 
unbelievable a few years ago. The manner in which those at home, both women 
and men, have helped the war by working, or by grappling with the food 
problem, is nothing short of miraculous. Many expensive luxuries which had 
almost become necessities with the wealthy are now cheerfully discarded. To 
the members of the British Association it must be more than gratifying to find 
that at last the value of science is recognised, albeit that armies of educated 
people are devoting their scientific work to inventing, perfecting, and manu- 
facturing various machines and materials for the destruction of humanity, or 
perhaps I should say for the destruction of ‘inhumanity.’ The co-operation and 
friendship of the Allies, now so thoroughly cemented, will be rigidly maintained 
after the war, and it is certain that many schemes which have been under dis- 
cussion for years will be shortly carried out. The war brought home to us the 
great economical advantages of the Daylight Saving Bill, against which the 
disadvantages have been proved to be practically nil. The necessity for a 
Channel Tunnel has been more than demonstrated, though we believe the scheme 
would have been carried out years ago had it not been for the opposition of a 
military expert. The present war would certainly have been considerably 
shortened, and thousands of precious lives and, what may appeal to many, 
enormous sums of money, would have been saved, had the Channel Tunnel been 
carried out when the idea was first mooted. 
In many minor ways the war will result in numerous needed reforms; among 
these (though possibly the word ‘minor’ is hardly accurate) is the general 
adoption of the metric system for weights and measures. The advantages of 
such a system are so obvious that it is hardly complimentary to an audience such 
as this to attempt to point them out. In our stubborn, what-was-good-enough- 
for-our-grandfathers-is-good-enough-for-us sort of way, we have adhered to a 
series of complicated systems of weights and measures, such as no other civilised 
country in the world would tolerate. We estimate aluminium by avoidupois 
weight, silver by troy, peas by the peck, potatoes by the pound, fowl and 
pheasant by the couple or brace, fish and flesh by the pound, oranges and 
whisky by the dozen, stockings by the pair, pears by the pound, and beer by 
the gallon. But these absurdities are as naught when compared with other 
measures and weights. A draper sells most of his things at 113d. or 2s. 113d. 
or 4s. 118d. Books are sold at two shillings or three shillings or seven shillings 
and sixpence. A car or a house realises so many pounds, but a picture or a 
horse realises guineas or half-guineas. Cotton is sold by the yard, wool by the 
pound, land by chain, rod, or perch, cloth by the ell, timber by the standard. 
