April 1, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



535 



satisfy all the demands of international 

 commeree. 



It should be remembered that by act of 

 congress, April 5, 1893, the international 

 standard meter and kilogram were adopted 

 as the standards of length and mass, re- 

 spectively, for the United States. The yard 

 and the pound are now legally defined as 

 merely definite fractions of the meter and 

 the kilogram. The following outline of an 

 American system of metrology has occurred 

 to me as perhaps capable of adoption. 

 Some, if not all, of its features must have 

 occurred to many of the advocates of 

 metric reform. 



1. Let the length of the yard be changed 

 by legal enactment so as to coincide with 

 that of the standard meter. 



2. Let the foot be defined as the fourth 

 part, instead of the third, of a yard. Let it 

 be divided into ten instead of twelve inches. 

 The length of the inch will thus be changed 

 by less than two per cent. 



3. Let the pound be defined legally as 

 one half of a kilogram. 



4. Let the quart be defined legally as the 

 volume of a kilogram of water under the 

 usual standard conditions. The quart and 

 the liter become thus identified. 



5. Let the ton be defined as 1,000 kilo- 

 grams. The American and metric tons are 

 thus identified. 



6. Let the pint, gallon, peck and bushel 

 be retained as secondary units, each being 

 defined in terms of the quart. 



The latter part of this scheme, it will be 

 observed, is identical with a part of that 

 proposed by Mr. Lane, but the first part 

 differs quite radically from his. The fol- 

 lowing tabulation constitutes a summary 

 for measures of length, mass and capacity, 

 respectively. 



UNITS OF LENGTH. 



1 meter = 1 yard = 100 centimeters = 1,000 millimeters, 

 linoh =1/40 yard = 2.5 " = 25 " 



1 foot =10 inches = 25 



UNITS OF MASS. 



1 kilogram = 1,000 grams. 



1 pound = '/2 ijilogram = 500 grams. 



Iton =1,900 kilograms = 2,000 pounds. 



UNITS OF CAPACITY. 



1 liter = 1 quart =volumeof 1 kilogram of water. 

 1 pint .= % " = " " 1 pound " " 

 1 gallon = 4quarts= " " 8 pounds " " 



Ipeck = 8 " = " " 16 



lbusliel = 32 " = " " 64 " " " 



This table includes about all of the units 

 needed for most of our measurement. 

 Units of area and volume need no defini- 

 tion. For land measure the mile as unit 

 of length and the acre as unit of area will 

 probably last many years yet. They have 

 no place in international commerce, the 

 needs of which constitute the most impor- 

 tant ground for changing the units hitherto 

 in use. No mere theoretic consideration 

 will be apt to influence legislation. 



The scheme just outlined presents the 

 advantages of both the decimal and the 

 binary systems of siibdivision. In prac- 

 tise halves and quarters are much the most 

 important of the binary subdivisions. In 

 our decimal system of American money the 

 only sudivisions of the dollar that now sur- 

 vive are the half, quarter, tenth, twentieth 

 and hundredth; though eighths and six- 

 teenths seem to have been once coined, and 

 were found more confusing than useful. 

 The division of the foot into tenths rather 

 than twelfths is in accordance with custom 

 now well established among engineers and 

 surveyors. The binary subdivision of the 

 inch may be retained as long as found use- 

 ful, while the centimeter will be divided 

 into both halves and tenths. 



It will be noticed that while some of the 

 secondary British units are retained, espe- 

 cially those with binary relation to the 

 primary unit, the ounce, dram, penny- 

 weight, scruple and grain are all discarded. 

 There has been but little use for these out- 

 side of the pharmacy and the mint. The 

 retail dealer uses halves and quarters of a 

 pound. All educated pharmacists to-day 



