38 TRANSACTIONS. I9OI-2 



tip to the middle joint of the longest finger ; the palm, as 

 measured across the middle joints of the four fingers ; the 

 hand, clasped with the thumb uppermost ; the span, thumb 

 and little finger extended to the utmost ; the cubit, a length 

 from the elbow to the extended finger ; the step ; the pace, 

 or two steps, 'and the fathom, or length of extended arms 

 from the tips of the fingers. There was a generally recogniz- 

 ed scale of proportion between the above measures. 



It appears that the earliest systems of Chaldaea, Egpyt 

 and Phoenicia were all based upon the cubit, as the standard 

 unit measure of length. 



The Greek foot, equal to two-thirds of the earliest Egypt- 

 ian cubit, was introduced from Greece into Italy, and was 

 there divided into twelve parts or unciae, according to the 

 Roman duodecimal system. Our words inch and ounce are 

 thus derived from the Latin uncia. The modern measure of 

 the foot in the different countries of Europe, with its duode- 

 cimal divisions of 12 inches, has been generally derived from 

 the Greek foot and the Roman foot, although the French foot, 

 or pied du roi, is traditionally said to have been the length of 

 Charlemagne's foot, as the English yard is said to have been 

 the length of Henry the First's arm. 



The modern standard unit of weight, the pound, is de- 

 rived from and is supposedly identical with the ancient mina, 

 which was the ancient unit of weight in Egypt, and also 

 as the unit of measure of capacity by the weight of liquid 

 contents of vessels. 



One of the earlie'^t English statutes (51 Henry 3, 1266) 

 provided that the English penny, called the "sterling," 

 should weigh " thirty-two grains of wheat, well dried, and 

 gathered out of the middle of the ear," that twenty pence to 

 make an ounce, and twelve ounces a pound. The statute of 

 Edward I. (1305) provided that an inch contained "three 

 barley corns laid end to end." Although the grain of wheat 

 and the barley corn were the legal units, yet for the aff.iirs of 

 life, metallic weights, multiples of the former, were used. 



