April 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



627 



comprehensive discussion of the proposed 

 change, preceded by a historical sketch of the 

 origin of the system, He quoted the predic- 

 tion made by the Hon. John A. Kasson in re- 

 posting the bill in 1866 to the House, that a 

 subsequent House would make, at a not-distant 

 date, exclusive and compulsory the measures 

 then simply legalized. He cited the strong in- 

 dorsements which the system has received from 

 the late Secretary Blaine, Postmaster-General 

 Wilson, Secretary Caslisle, The Director of the 

 Mint, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey, etc. , and dwelt at some length on 

 the letter of the Hon. J. S. Morton, Secretary of 

 Agriculture. He discussed also the magnitude 

 of ovir commercial relations with Metric-using 

 countries and showed the ease with which the 

 system had been adopted by different peoples. 

 He cited the British Consular reports, showing- 

 Great Britain's loss through retaining her old 

 and awkward systems, and explained the pres- 

 ent progress toward the Metric System by the 

 three remaining non-Metric countries, the 

 United States, Great Britain and Kussia. 



Mr. Stone's speech was very well received, and 

 it was first thought that a vote would be taken 

 without debate. Mr. Bartlett, of New York, 

 however, secured the floor and made a short 

 speech in opposition to the bill. He was followed 

 by Representative Otey, of Virginia, who made a 

 humorous speech against the Metric System, 

 dwelling chiefly upon the Metric terms. Mr. 

 Hurley, of Brooklyn, replied in a dignified 

 manner to Mr. Otey's effort and suggested that 

 in the hands of a humorist our present system 

 could be made very ridiculous. After more 

 discussion Mr. Stone called for a vote, and on 

 a division of the House there were 65 votes in 

 the affirmative and 80 in the negative. The 

 vote being less than a quornm, Mr. Stone suc- 

 ceeded in securing an adjournment, and the 

 fight went over until "Wednesday morning, 

 when the yeas and nays were ordered. After 

 the experience of the day before, Mr. Stone 

 was anxious to gain time, believing that it was 

 only necessary to acquaint the members further 

 in regard to the system under more favorable 

 conditions than those of a noisy debate in the 

 House, to secure the passage of the bill; but a 

 vote could not be avoided, and when the an- 



nouncement was made that the bill had passed 

 by a vote of 119 to 117 a shout of applause 

 went up from the floor and galleries. Those 

 who had opposed the bill, however, took cour- 

 age, because of the narrow majority in favor of 

 the bill, and promptly moved a reconsideration. 

 Upon this motion yeas and nays were ordered 

 and the opponents of the bill went vigorously 

 to work to change votes, with the bugaboo of 

 the angry farmer protesting against being- 

 tangled up with a new system of weights and 

 measures on the eve of a Congressional election. 

 The result of this work was soon apparent. 

 Mr. Hurley's motion to lay the motion to re- 

 consider on the table was lost by a vote of 136 

 to 111, and the motion to reconsider prevailed 

 by a vote of 141 to 99. Mr. Stone's only re- 

 maining chance was to ask to have the bill re- 

 committed to his Committee. This motion was 

 carried viva voce. 



After the battle in the House many members 

 who had voted against the bill expressed them- 

 selves as not being opposed to it for any reason 

 except that they did not understand it; while 

 others did not hesitate to say that it would be 

 a very easy thing to put through after election. 

 A Western member voiced the sentiment of 

 many of his colleagues in a paraphrase of one 

 of Mr. Otey's witticisms, saying : " If I should 

 talk to my farmers about kilograms thej- 

 would kill me next November." 



The campaign for the introduction of the only 

 enlightened system of weights and measures 

 known to the world will go on unchecked, and 

 sooner or later the United States will folloAV 

 the other nations of the earth in its adoption. 



THE NEW EDINBUBGH OBSERVATORY. 



The new Royal Observatory at Edinburgh was 

 opened on April 7th by an inaugural ceremony 

 in which Lord Balfour, Lord Crawford and Sir 

 Robert S. Ball took part. Edinburgh has long- 

 had a fairly well equipped observatory, but 

 several years ago the Earl of Crawford pre- 

 sented his fine collection of instruments to the 

 observatory, and as there was not room to use 

 these properly a government grant amounting 

 to £36,000 was secured for a new building. 

 The building and its equipment are said to be 

 much superior to any other in Great Britain, 



