400 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, Xo. 1424 



is the process of senility in the animal can not 

 be unrepresented in the plant world. 



Haeeis M. Benedict 

 uxitersitt of cincinnati 



THE METRIC SYSTEM 



Referring to the article, "Progress in Metric 

 Standardization," by Professor Bingham in 

 youi' impression for March 3, it seems impos- 

 sible to make the metric party understand that 

 while, in some applications, the adoption of the 

 metric system is easy, in others it is supremely 

 difficult. It has been shown repeatedly that the 

 easiest of all units to change are those of 

 capacity and that the easiest of all places in 

 which to adopt the system is the scientific 

 laboratory, and the metric argument is that, 

 these changes being easy, therefore all others 

 are easy, when the fact is that others are so dif- 

 ficult that they have not been brought aljont in 

 any country in the world, the net result being 

 a dual or mixed system to which the arguments 

 advanced for the metric system have no ap- 

 plication. 



Your readers should obtain the recent Report 

 of the National Industrial Conference Board 

 on this subject, which is the result of an in- 

 vestigation that consumed a year and is the 

 most exhaustive that has ever been made and 

 which confirms all of our contentions. More- 

 over, the Report is signed, without reserva- 

 tion, by two members of the Council of the 

 American Jiietric Association who, the facts be- 

 ing established, signed it because they could 

 not do otherwise.- 



Within a year a committee of the Conjoint 

 Board of Scientific Societies of Great Britain, 

 representing forty-nine scientific societies, rep- 

 resenting, in turn, every conceivable phase of 

 scientific activity, have made a unanimous re- 

 port recommending that the metric system be 

 not adopted in Great Britain. 



Moreover, these are but examples. During 

 the past century seven investigations worthy of 

 that name have been made in this countr3r and 

 Great Britain, the result of every one being 

 adverse to the claims made for the system. The 

 plain fact is that the metric party always lose 

 when both sides are heard, the most recent ex- 

 ample being at the late convention of the 



Chamber of Commerce of the United States of 

 America. 



The weakness of the metric party today lies 

 in their refusal to read the anti metric case. 

 Because of this, their representatives went be- 

 fore the Senate Committee on Manufactures 

 during the past winter at Washington and re- 

 peated claims that were disproven tv.-enty years 

 ago. The case was thus made extremely easy 

 for the opposition, as we had only to point out 

 the facts in order to show not only that the 

 metric party had no ease, but also to discredit 

 their witnesses as incompetent. 



There is no better illustration of this fail- 

 ure to acquaint themselves with the facts than 

 Professor Bingham's naive assumption that the 

 opposition is composed of "a few gage manu- 

 facturers." 



It is interesting to note that, after we have 

 Ijeen assured for many years that the system is 

 "universal" in Chemistry, you are now inaug- 

 urating a campaign to bring about its use by 

 chemical manufacturers. 



Frederick A. Halset, 

 Commissioner of the American Institute 

 OF Weights and Measures 



This letter is suggested by Mr. Eugene C. 

 Bingham's article on "Progress of Metric 

 Standardization" in the March 3 number. 



I am an ardent advocate of the metric sys- 

 tem, and feel that one of the greatest difficul- 

 ties in bringing it into general use has been our 

 pi-olonged period of consideration, during 

 which many of us have been really working 

 with two systems, and have borne all the bur- 

 dens which that condition imposes. 



The Drug Trade and Pharmacy generally 

 has probably gone as far in the change as any 

 other commercial group, but if the system were 

 made compulsory there would be a large num- 

 ber of changes, some requiring an act of Con- 

 gress. For example, that requiring that certain 

 medicines bear the content of certain drugs — 

 Opium, in grains per fluid ounce. 



For the transition period certain comparative 

 tables will be necessary — a comparative table 

 showing prices in dollars and cents per Avoir- 

 dupois pound or ounce equals doUars and cents 

 per kilo or grams. 



