May 29, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



795 



ciation, the Association of Trade Protection 

 Societies, the Liverpool Cotton Association, 

 Corn Trade Association, etc. ; 29 School 

 Boards, including those of London, Man- 

 chester and Birmingham ; 39 Chambers of 

 Commerce, including those of London, Edin- 

 burgh, Liverpool, Birmingham and Belfast; 

 and 15 other influential bodies not easily 

 classified, such as the K"ational Union of 

 Teachers, the Scottish Chamber of Agricul- 

 ture, the Institution of Engineers and Shiji- 

 builders, etc. Approval of the compulsory 

 adoption of the metric system was carried 

 at the Congress of Chambers of Commerce 

 of the Empire, and at the recent annual 

 meeting of the Association of Chambers of 

 Commerce (March 25, 1896), when the 

 Earl of Dudley assured the meeting that 

 the London Board of Trade, of which he is 

 Parliamentary Secretary, " realized the im- 

 portance of the question and was deter- 

 mined to press it to an issue as soon as 

 possible." 



Apart from the inconvenience involved 

 in change of any kind, the only really seri- 

 ous objection to the general adoption of the 

 metric system is found in the great expense 

 that is brought into large manufacturing- 

 establishments by a change of standards. 

 The English are beginning to appreciate the 

 loss they are suffering by lack of harmony 

 with most other European nations, and loss 

 of trade soon teaches what expense may 

 be afforded in changing standards. The 

 facts brought out in Mr. Dowson's circular 

 seem to show that in England at present 

 the popular demand for the metric system 

 is greater than it is in America, although 

 as a people we are less conservative than 

 the English. Despite the temporary dis- 

 couragement lately suffered by the advo- 

 cates of progress in metrology, the outlook 

 among English-speaking peoples is, on the 

 whole, far better than it has ever been in 

 previous years ; and without being unreas- 

 onably sanguine there is yet good ground 



for the expectation that in both England 

 and America the metric system will have 

 been adopted by popular demand with the 

 opeiaing of the twentieth century. 



Lord Kelvin's letter to the London Times, 

 quoted in the last issue of Science, deals 

 with this subject in a spirit eminently char- 

 acteristic of its author and worthy of special 

 commendation to American legislators. It 

 thoroughly disposes of Mr. Balfour's con- 

 sideration that the introduction of the met- 

 ric system would bring hardship upon the 

 poorer classes, " who have no great power 

 to make their voices heard, at least in such 

 discussions as these. ' ' Any argument based 

 on the interests of these classes in England 

 is equally applicable in America or in Ger- 

 many. Those of us who have dwelt some 

 time in Germany have noticed how thor- 

 oughly the poorer classes have adapted 

 themselves to the metric system. There is 

 certainly no record of their having suffered 

 any unreasonable hardship. Indeed this is 

 the old argument against the introduction 

 of all labor-saving devices. If it had pre- 

 vailed we should not to-day be using the 

 power loom, the cotton gta, the steam en- 

 gine or the printing press, because each of 

 these threw some of the poorer classes out 

 of employment, or necessitated inconveni- 

 ent change of employment for them. 



In the present case, moreover, there is no 

 special need that the poorer classes should 

 ' make their voices heard.' To form any 

 opinion upon the merits of the metric sys- 

 tem it is necessary to have some knowledge 

 of it practically. Any one who has such 

 knowledge, if he belongs to the poorer 

 classes, should be accorded the opportunity 

 to be heard. In America every one, how- 

 ever poor he may be, has access to the pub- 

 lic ear through the daily press if he has the 

 ability to write intelligibly. But the poor 

 and the uneducated cannot be expected to 

 take any active part in discussions of this 

 kind, any more than in the founding of 



